Books in the Positive Psychology News series
We interviewed Alex Goldfayn on our most recent PPND Webinar on May 23, 2018. We discussed how to utilize the idea of positive psychology in sales from Alex’s most recent book, Selling Boldly: Applying the New Science of Positive Psychology to Dramatically Increase Your Confidence, Happiness, and Sales. Here is the webinar in case you missed it or want to see it again!
You can register once and attend any of our PPND Webinar Series HERE
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The World Health Organization (WHO)
Forgiveness is sorely misunderstood and complex.
Forgiveness is a process of replacing the negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors one might hold toward the transgressor with more positive, prosocial responses while still holding the transgressor accountable.
Forgiveness, according to Gandhi
Click to read words.
Unforgiveness involves the nurturing of anger, hostility, resentment, and fear.
The practice of forgiveness has been found to improve health outcomes because it helps to reduce physiological responses to stress. Other factors that affect the forgiveness-health connection are the presence of social support, relationship quality, and religious inferences. Let’s review the research that explores the effects of forgiveness on the autonomic nervous system, cardiovascular disease, the immune system, chronic pain, autoimmune disorders, anxiety and depression, HIV, and longevity.
This article is about why to forgive, not how to forgive. For ideas about ways to forgive, consult articles on that topic on this site.
Stress Hormones and Immune Function
Impact of chronic flight or flight
Stress is unavoidable. How we manage this state makes a difference in physical health and psychological well-being. Stress changes one’s physiology, behaviors, and genetics. Chronic unremitting stress is lethal like a gun or knife. Left unchecked, stress may even begin to change one’s genetic components that leads to pathology at the same time the disease becomes irreversible and inheritable by one’s offspring.
Chronic activation of the stress response is maladaptive because it increases the risk for certain diseases by suppressing functions such as tissue repair, sleep, bone strength maintenance, and immunity. Sustained levels of cortisol can cause the hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for integration of memory) to shrink. Accurately perceiving stressors and sources of coping is important to reduce this physiological response, and individual differences in temperament and personality are factors in understanding the stress response in humans.
Forgiveness has been found, when practiced, to calm down the stress response. The consequence of being forgiving is that one experiences less stress, depression, anxiety, and hostility as well as more satisfaction with life.
Anxiety and Depression
Forgiveness therapy helps to reduce anger, anxiety, and depression. Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental disorders in the United States. As many as one half of those diagnosed with depression have an associated diagnosis of anxiety. Rumination, or repetitive unhealthy contemplation, is linked to depression, anxiety, mixed anxiety/depression disorders, behavior disorders, and substance abuse. Rumination has been found to keep the transgressed in the loop of unforgiveness. For those who achieve forgiveness, restorative hope and self-esteem improve anxiety and depression.
Forgiveness is currently being assessed with growing interest as an essential tool in coping with chronic pain. Current research in forgiveness therapy involved with chronic pain involves affective, behavioral, motivational, and cognitive components. With interpersonal and social stressors having a unique and powerful contribution to chronic pain, forgiveness has been found to be a useful and productive response.
If fibromyalgia (FM) symptoms could be associated with anger, resentment, and stress related to childhood abuse and neglect, then reducing anger and stress and forgiving a perpetrator might result in diminishing the influence on the neurophysiological process of FM. Forgiveness practice in women with FM and childhood abuse or neglect improved overall FM health and decreased anger.
Not a great blood pressure reading
Forgiveness can produce valuable effects directly by reducing the allostatic load (the amount of energy for recovery of wear and tear on the body) associated with betrayal and conflict, and indirectly through lowering perceived stress. Lower blood pressure and high blood pressure recovery were found to be associated with higher levels of forgiveness.
Sustained stress over long periods can cause damage to the heart and blood vessels through the elevation of blood pressure. If unforgiveness is prolonged, wear and tear to the heart and blood vessels can lead to permanent damage and disability. Loss of vision, kidney failure, and heart failure are downstream results of chronic untreated hypertension.
Coronary Artery Disease
Perfusion, or the distribution of blood to the heart muscle, is reduced when recalling anger. This increases the risk of coronary heart disease with the likelihood of a poorer prognosis for those with heart disease. Failure to forgive unconditionally has an influence on one’s mortality. One possible antidote to attenuate the cardiotoxic effects of anger is through cultivating forgiveness. Forgiveness has been found to be associated with lower total cholesterol and higher HDL-to-LDL ratios, both indicators of cardiac health.
HIV
HIV/AIDS is a communicable disease that affects the autoimmune system, compromising health and many aspects of life for the person afflicted. HIV research aims at improving quality of life and managing chronic illness. The practice of forgiveness may be one way to improve quality of life in HIV positive persons. Research and theory on psychoneuroimmunology and HIV suggests that biological, psychological, and behavioral aspects interact in complex ways to influence quantifiable disease progression. HIV research demonstrates that a slower rate of disease progression, measured as preserved CD 4 count (a type of white blood cell that moves through the blood to find and destroy bacteria, viruses, and other invading germs) and lower viral load (the measurement of amount of virus in a system) in those with a positive view of God as benevolent and forgiving.
Self-administered Salve
Personal differences, daily frustrations, hurts, and injustices we experience throughout our lives can impose deep wounds in our bodies and minds. Forgiveness can serve as a powerful, self-administered salve. If one does not forgive, it is like handing the transgressor the skeleton key to the door of one’s life. Forgiveness might not prevent the pain of the past, but it can reduce suffering in the future.
Norman, K. (2017). Forgiveness: How it manifests in our health, well-being and longevity. MAPP capstone, University of Pennsylvania.
Friedberg, J. P., Suchday, S., & Shelov, D. V. (2007). The impact of forgiveness on cardiovascular reactivity and recovery. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 65, 87-94.
Greening, S. G., & Mitchell, D. G. (2015, September 10). A network of amygdala connections predict individual differences in trait anxiety. Human Brain Mapping, 36, 4819-4830. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22952
Ironson, G., Stuetzle, R., Ironson, D., Balbin, E., Kremer, H., George, A., … Fletcher, M. A. (2011). View of God as benevolent and forgiving or punishing and judgement predicts HIV disease progression. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 34, 414-425. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10865-011-9314-z
Lee, Y., & Enright, R. D. (2014). A forgiveness intervention for women with fibromyalgia who were abused in childhood: A pilot study. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 3, 203-217. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000025
Martin, L. A., Vosvick, M., & Riggs, S. A. (2011). Attachment, forgiveness, and physical health quality of life in HIV + adults. AIDS Care, 24, 1333-1340. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540121.2011.648598
May, R. W., Sanchez-Gonzalez, M. A., Hawkins, K. A., Batchelor, W. B., & Fincham, F. D. (2014). Effect of anger and trait forgiveness on cardiovascular risk in young adult females. The American Journal of Cardiology, 114, 47-52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2014.04.007
McCullough, M. E., Orsulak, P., Brandon, A., & Akers, L. (2007). Rumination, fear, and cortisol: An in vivo study of interpersonal transgressions. Health Psychology, 26, 126-132. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.26.1.126
Offenbacher, M., Dezutter, J., Vallejo, M. A., & Toussaint, L. L. (2015). The role of forgiveness in chronic pain and fibromyalgia. In L. L. Toussaint, E. L. Worthington, Jr, & D. R. Williams (Eds.), Forgiveness and Health: Scientific Evidence and Theories Relating Forgiveness to Better Health (pp. 123-138). New York, NY: Springer Science.
Randall, M. (2013). The physiology of stress: Cortisol and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science.
Reed, G. L., & Enright, R. D. (2006). The effects of forgiveness therapy on depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress for women after spousal emotional abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 920-929. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.74.5.920
Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). The physiology and pathophysiology of unhappiness. In E. L. Worthington Jr. (Ed.), Handbook of Forgiveness (pp. 273-303). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group.
Shapiro, J. (2005). Visual thinking strategies: A new role for art in medical education. Family Medicine, 37, 250-252.
Temoshok, L. R., & Wald, R. L. (2005). Forgiveness and health in persons living with HIV/AIDS. In E. L. Worthington, Jr (Ed.), Handbook of Forgiveness (pp. 335-348). New York, NY: Routledge.
Waltman, M. A., Rusell, D. C., Coyle, C. T., Enright, R. D., Holter, A. C., & Swoboda, C. M. (2008). The effects of a forgiveness intervention on patients with coronary artery disease. Psychology & Health, 24, 11-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08870440801975127
Photo Credit: Flickr via Compfight with Creative Commons licenses
Forgivess according to Gandhi courtesy of symphony of love
Chronic stress courtesy of Duncan Rawlinson – Duncan.co – @thelastminute
Pain collage courtesy of sbpoet
Blood pressure reading courtesy of stevendepolo
Heart disease courtesy of gandhiji40
Salve courtesy of Vaping360
The Positive Psychology News Movie Award series is now in its 9th year of providing the best of the best positive psychology movies. I comb through popular, independent, and obscure films from the previous year in order to share with you these awards across positive psychology themes.
How might you use these awards? Here are a few ways:
This edition features the usual awards that I give each year, for example, the best for positive relationships, mindfulness, resilience, and signature strengths use. I have also done something new this year: I’ve given awards for each of the 6 virtues outlined in the VIA Classification of character strengths and virtues.
General Awards
For the first time, my selection for Best Positive Psychology Film is aligned with the Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards. In what is described as “an adult fairytale” is a story with themes of love, sacrifice, tolerance, teamwork, and understanding amidst corruption, secrecy, and suspense.
Following an untimely death, the viewer sees the protagonist for the entire film as a white sheet, with two holes cut out for the eyes. Desperate to be around his loved one and in their home, he wanders aimlessly and cannot be seen or heard. He is stuck, unable to communicate or connect. Loneliness is captured. Desperation. Isolation. Helplessness. But the viewer can discover resilience. It is the resilient and tumultuous journey of letting go.
Loving Vincent: Award for Mindfulness
Coco: Award for Meaning
This Oscar winning film (Best Animated Feature) is stocked with profound and inspirational meaning – especially around themes of family and human connection.
If relationships are about connecting and supporting another person in reaching their ideal self or full potential, then this story of a young girl locked in her home with a rare immune disorder and her connection with her new neighbor, has much to teach us.
A middle-aged woman creatively pursues justice for her raped and murdered daughter by bringing forth her signature strengths of bravery, perseverance, fairness, and honesty to fuel her actions.
The Virtue Awards
In addition to brute strength and multiple intelligence (to play off the talent themes of Howard Gardner’s work), the character of Wonder Woman displays many wisdom-oriented strengths, certainly perspective/wisdom to do what is best for the world, critical thinking in seeing the details and exceptions in people’s arguments, curiosity and learning in her exploration of the world, and creativity in her fighting.
Unique story merging fantasy and reality about a self-loathing, alcohol abusing woman, who is dumped by her boyfriend, reconnects with an old friend, and suddenly begins to see a strange connection between her life in the United States and a monster that is destroying Seoul, Korea. The allegory involving her courage to face the monster represents her facing interior monsters relating to her alcohol dependence and her troubled past.
True story about a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing and his real-life struggles with his family, relationship partner, and physical recovery. Look for a short scene, involving a gratitude exchange, that serves as a turning point for him appreciating the depth of the human condition.
Okja: Award for Justice
A young girl forges a special bond with a creature that’s a cross between a pig and a gentle hippo, and stands up against a corrupt corporation. Her focus is a moral one: do what is right. She displays an unbending intolerance for what’s wrong (e.g., mistreatment of animals) and a persistent resistance to superficial agendas (e.g., a person trying to present to the public with “the right optics”).
Detroit: Award for Temperance
On Body and Soul: Award for Transcendence
Fascinating and beautiful story of transcendence, love, and connection between two awkward people working in a slaughterhouse. The woman, a quality inspector with autism, and the man, a manager, discover they are connected transcendently through their dreams at night. Through synchronicities they learn about their connection, form a relationship, and save one another’s lives. Runner-up for Best Positive Psychology Film of 2017.
Films about Specific Aspects of Positive Psychology
After 41 years, the classic hero’s journey of Luke Skywalker comes to a meaningful conclusion in nothing short of stunning, multi-layered, heroic fashion. The film features plenty of other heroic exemplars in the new trilogy stars of Rea, Finn, and Poe.
A 90-year-old man living alone embodies a steady routine of going to a diner, doing crosswords, taking one phone call, getting items at the local store, doing yoga, and going to a bar. His choices are not always healthy, but he’s consistently around people and trying to learn (e.g., learning to self-disclose, to challenge himself, and to face his loneliness). Look for positive aging metaphors in the film such as a turtle and a large, imperfect cactus.
Short film about a man traveling for work to Japan who continues to run into a fellow American. The viewer learns of a shared tragedy of this couple and their creative ways to cope, find moments of joy, and search for ways to find happiness following the unimaginable.
Mudbound: Award for Friendship
Two WWII veterans return to their respective homes in a delta farming community of Mississippi where racism and discrimination pervade. Despite differences in race, status, and familial background, they form a friendship. This friendship helps each overcome trauma and despicable discrimination, and eventually seek love and freedom.
Two well-constructed animated films bring clever humor and engaging plots to a variety of themes such as the father-son relationship, appreciation for mother, environmental friendliness, creating peace, and the “superpower” of making others better. Both films embody the idea that without teamwork, there will not be success.
The Circle: Award for Integrity
In an environment of technology and paranoia, secrets sustain an organization. A new employee challenges the system in a film where The Truman Show meets the Netflix series Dark Mirror. This film triumphs around the importance of transparency, bravery, leadership, and ultimately integrity.
Minimalist Icelandic film about a young couple vacationing for 5 days in Iceland who suddenly realize they are alone in what might be the apocalypse. They awaken with no people around them, dead or alive. Electronic access is gone. With no future, no information, no clues to go by, and existing in a stark environment, one of the two protagonists is still able to find optimism. To uphold optimism amidst various existential issues (aloneness, isolation, freedom, meaninglessness, loss) is significant.
In what might be the most stunning, unforgettable, and challenging film of the year, and coming from one of the greatest filmmakers alive, Darren Aronovsky, is this highly allegorical film about a couple that moves into a dilapidated mansion. A variety of problems and selfish people come into their lives, none of whom seem to know anything about character strengths use!
Honorable Mention
Battle of the Sexes: Positive Sport
The Bad Batch: Character Strengths Underuse
Sleight: Creativity
Get Out: Strengths Use
Editor’s Note: This is the ninth year that Ryan has provided positive psychology movie awards. Check the reference list below for links to his previous movie award articles as well as his book on positive psychology at the movies.
We provide Amazon for most movies. We know there are many ways to gain access to these movies, but the Amazon reviews may be helpful even so.
References:
Niemiec, R. M. (2017, June release). Character Strengths Interventions: A Field Guide for Practitioners. Hogrefe Publishers.
Niemiec, R. M. (2007). What is a positive psychology film? [Review of The pursuit of happyness]. PsycCRITIQUES, 52(38). DOI:10.1037/a0008960. Available for download from ResearchGate.
Niemiec, R. M., & Wedding, D. (2013). Positive Psychology at the Movies: Using Films to Build Character Strengths and Well-Being Gottingen, Germany: Hogrefe.
Smithikrai, C. (2016). Effectiveness of teaching with movies to promote positive characteristics and behaviors. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 217, 522-530.
Earlier Positive Psychology Movie Awards by Ryan Niemiec:
Photo Credit: Flickr via Compfight with Creative Commons license
Psychedelic film cannister courtesy of Carbon Arc
Thanks to the unpredictable nature of pro sports, I’m often reminded of how little I know relative to what I should know given the work that I do and who I work with. A prime example is the story of what I thought I knew versus what I actually discovered with my MAPP capstone project.
Studying Grit and Optimism in Professional Athletes
I was drawn to positive psychology as a former professional athlete and then coach because I was convinced that positive emotion buffered performers at the elite level from the stress in their jobs. I thought that this was the secret ingredient that allowed them to transcend pressure and perform at the highest level. Remove bad feelings, then watch them fly, right?
Football in Australia
We were lucky enough to also have a control group in the same team (n=13) who didn’t receive any psych training at all, thus setting up a perfect experiment. I expected that the more optimistic players would perform better, and the more gritty players would be more consistent. I also had my fingers crossed that with some luck the modified resilience training would increase either consistency or performance or perhaps both.
American Football
While all of those turned out to be correct according to the data, the most striking finding was something I hadn’t expected: combining grit and one element of optimism was a better predictor than any other single predictor alone. That optimism element was stability: the belief that bad events won’t last forever, but good events will recur.
Working under Angela’s guidance, I began pursuing this combined predictor, which I called the Performer’s Realistic Optimism score, or PRO Score. Also thanks to Angela, I discovered the work of Gabrielle Oettingen, who wrote the brilliantly counter-intuitive book, Rethinking Positive Thinking. Most importantly from a practical sense, this introduced me to her WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan) goal setting framework.
Putting PRO and WOOP in Practice
With some degree of uncertainty, I tried it with a handful of National Football League players, and it amazingly worked. So I used it with college athletes, and it worked again. I now use it almost daily with Major League Baseball players, and the results continue to amaze me: when armed with these skills, players perform better, regardless of how many fans are watching, how much pressure they’re under, or how important the play is.This discovery was a total epiphany for me. Both my data analysis and my newfound weapon in WOOP highlighted that positive psychology can help all of us with an inescapable reality: Bad situations happen. Those that can rise above it are able to perform not by getting rid of bad feelings, but by doing what they do in the presence of negative thoughts and feelings without letting them get in the way.
Editor’s note: Dr. Gabrielle Oettingen is giving a talk, Thinking about the Future and Behavior Change at noon Eastern time on April 30. The event is part of the Penn MAPP alumni webinar series and is open to the public for $25. Members of the public can also get an annual subscription to the MAPP webinars for $90. There are usually about 10 webinars per year, and subscribers have access to the 40 recorded webinars that have occurred since 2013.
Steinfort, P. J. (2015). Tough teammates: Training grit and optimism together improves performance in professional footballers. MAPP capstone, University of Pennsylvania.
Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Scribner.
Oettingen, G. (2014). Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation. Current Hardcover.
Photo Credit: Flickr via Compfight with Creative Commons licenses
Australian Football Goal posts courtesy of Dannow
American Football courtesy of Keith Allison
Major League Baseball in action courtesy of Jason Swaby
“Boys don’t play with dolls!”
“Girls shouldn’t be loud and boisterous!”
“Don’t be a sissy!”
“No boy is going to like you if you always beat them!”
Playing with a Barbie house
So what do strongly enforced gender norms have to do with psychological well-being. A lot it seems.
Adultery of the Brain
Strongly enforced gender norms are damaging to both boys and girls, both men and women.
Gender norms are enforced earlier in boys than girls. According to Carol Gilligan, “Among boys between the ages of five and seven, the age when boys who cross gender boundaries are called girls or gay or sissies or mama’s boys, there is a high incidence of learning and speech disorders, attention problems, and out-of-touch and out-of-control behavior. Boys show more signs of depression than girls until adolescence, the time when the division between good and bad girls sets in, enforced by often vicious practices of inclusion and exclusion.”
Anne Frank Statue
Gilligan relates an anecdote about Anne Frank, the 13- year-old girl who kept a diary of her time in hiding from the Nazis. Early in 1944, she learned that the Dutch government was going to build a museum to the resistance efforts after the war. Dreaming of becoming a famous writer, she edited 324 pages of her diary for publication because the raw version was too honest. Both versions were found. For the most part, her father published the edited version.
As Gilligan noticed, “Girl’s resilience is compromised when they find that they must silence their voices in order to be accepted and loved. What is socially adaptive is psychologically costly and ultimately politically costly as well.”
I did a TEDx talk entitled Adultery of the Brain: Why Women Commit It and How to Stop.
(Click here to view in Youtube.)
From adolescence through the end of life, girls and women suffer twice the rate of depression as men, according to Nolen-Hoeksema. Strongly enforced gender norms require both men and women to deny parts of themselves. The effects are damaging
Interaction between Gender Orientation and Well-being
An interesting study conducted by September and colleagues measured the relationship between gender orientation and well-being. They labeled personality traits that are associated with the stereotypic feminine gender role as expressive and those associated with the stereotypic masculine gender role as instrumental. Using these labels, they described the following four groups:
Building a house of cards
They had the participants complete three measures: Ryff’s Scales of Psychological WellBeing (PWB); the Clance Imposter Phenomenon Scale (IP Scale); and the Extended Personal Attributes Questionnaire (EPAQ, see article by Spence, Helmreich, and Holahan).
What Did They Find?
Boys and girls together
It makes sense. When we have to deny parts of ourselves in order to be accepted in society, the effect is disorienting and energy draining. Imagine a world where men and women can embrace and exhibit all their qualities. It’s worth striving for.
Hernandez, P. A. (2014). The right reflection: Improving women’s self-acceptance. Capstone for the MAPP program, University of Pennsylvania.
Gilligan, C. (2011). Joining the Resistance. Polity Press.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Jackson, B. (2001). Mediators of the gender difference in rumination. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25(1), 37-47.
September, A. N., McCarrey, M., Baranowsky, A., Parent, C., & Schindler, D. (2001). The relation between well-being, imposter feelings, and gender role orientation among Canadian university students. The Journal of Social Psychology, 141(2), 218-232. Abstract.
Spence, J. T., Helmreich, R. L., & Holahan, C. K. (1979). Negative and positive components of psychological masculinity and femininity and their relationships to self-reports of neurotic and acting out behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(10), 1673-1682.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.37.10.1673
Photo Credit: Flickr via Compfight with Creative Commons licenses
Playing with a Barbie house courtesy of Scott Ableman
Statue of Anne Frank courtesy of Jason Pier in DC
Boy building a house of cards courtesy of Chris Kealy
Boys and girls playing together courtesy of evilpeacock
