A Practical Guide to Positive Psychology: Achieve Lasting Happiness (Practical Guide Series)

by Bridget Grenville-Cleave

A positive psychology model of well-being In his most recent book, Flourish, Martin Seligman, one of the founding fathers of the positive psychology movement, describes his new theory of well-being. His model (PERMA), which consists of five separate elements, draws on aspects of both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being:

the experience of positive emotions enables individuals to create additional resources in four main categories: Intellectual e.g. developing our problem-solving skills Physical e.g. developing our physical strength and cardiovascular health Social e.g. facilitating the quality and quantity of our friendships and other relationships and connections Psychological e.g. developing our resilience and optimism.

there is growing evidence that in many areas, happiness and positive emotions may lead to successful outcomes rather than just following from them.

One feature which marks out very happy people (i.e. the top 10 per cent) from everyone else is not their money, success or possessions but the fact that they have a good social life, they have friends and a current romantic partner.

According to Relate, the UK’s most well-known couples counselling service, a breakdown in communication is one of the main reasons why couples seek support.

How you respond to your partner’s good news is as important as how you support them in the bad times.

Keeping in touch with your partner’s likes and dislikes is essential in building a strong relationship, so make time to find out what they are (and keep asking the questions)!

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a process for implementing and achieving change

In short, AI is a strength-based approach to managing change.

The beauty of AI is not just that it uses a simple four-stage process but that it approaches change at a systemic level, that is, it works on the relationships and routines that enable the system to work as it currently does.

the Clifton StrengthsFinder™ which, despite its name, actually measures the talents that act as the foundations for strengths development, rather than the strengths themselves.

Some psychologists believe not, and have shown in research that increased choice makes us unable to make decisions and reduces our well-being.

He theorized that faced with too much choice – which he called ‘overchoice’ – in too short a period of time, decisions would be harder and take longer to make as we’d have to process much more information. This would lead to slower reactions and decisions, and ultimately to psychological issues such as depression, distress and neurosis.

Although studies show that people who maximize tend to get better, higher-paying jobs than satisficers, at the same time they take longer to settle in and they’re more stressed, anxious and frustrated! Maximizers are also more prone than satisficers to be affected by social comparisons and have doubts about their ability compared to others.

In short, emotionally intelligent people are self-aware, self-managed, socially-aware and socially-skilled. On

The original concept of emotional intelligence, which is widely attributed to American psychologists John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey, dates from the late 1980s, and was popularized by Daniel Goleman in the 90s.

The reason gratitude has such a powerful and lasting effect on your well-being is that it helps you reframe your experiences in a positive way.