Change

As a consultant introducing positive psychology to organizations I have found that one of the easiest places to start is by using a strengths instrument. Here are some suggestions that I have found useful for debriefing the results from strengths assessments.

The film, Inception, explores the phenomenon of ideas. Where do they start? How are they influenced? Can we extract ideas from each other, and when we do, to whom do they belong? Can we cause others to incept (take in) ideas by influencing them to think what we want them to think? The film shows how these powers can be used for good as well as evil.

Research shows we are more likely to sustain positive change by changing actions and patterns than by improving external circumstances. But that assumes we do them. Stephen Schueller is the first researcher to develop a structure for recommending positive interventions based on a person’s preferences for prior interventions.

Aristotle claimed that a virtue or strength is developed through action: “Brave people became brave by doing brave things.” He said there were six states of character development: brutishness, self-indulgence, weakness of will or caving into temptation, strength of will or mastering temptation, character excellence, and heroic excellence.

Positive psychology is a science, and scientists count and measure. In thinking about how to improve personal well-being or the well-being of a relationship or group, it helps to ask what you can count and how counting might help. Here are some areas to consider.

In yesterday’s article, I described how clinical psychologists could expand the “what’s wrong?” model to include “what’s strong?”  Today, I give the specific ten strategies recommended by Tayyab Rashid of…

Introductory classes in positive psychology often differentiate it from “psychology as usual” by arguing that the latter operates in the disease or deficit model whereas positive psychology operates in the…

540 words.  Reading time: less than 90 seconds. Do you feel powerless when it comes to implementing healthier food habits? A lot of people spend energy trying to resist the…

“Nobody ever changes anyway.” I suspect that many of us had at least a flicker of agreement with these words. And yet we are all changing all the time. Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey present a model that shows why people have resistance to change in their book, Immunity to Change. hey also offer ways to melt the resistance in yourself and in groups.