Critical Evaluation of Positive Psychology Principles

Maanya Vij, Roll No. 80

Department of Psychology, SNDT Women’s University

210701: Positive Psychology

Prof. Anita Sanu

May 28th, 2021

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Positive psychology as an area of exploration has been gaining traction over the last few years
with the notion that this was the ‘missing’ element from psychological research for all these years.
Where time spent on researching the negative aspects of life including disorders, lack of well being
and distress has been of good use, what positive psychology implies is that an even better use of our
time would be studying the opposite- well being and happiness. The basic tenets of positive
psychology as a field of academia span across 11 themes, which will be discussed and critiqued
ahead.
The first of them being - The Good Life, which in its essence means that the fundamental goal
of any human being is to live a fulfilled life full of meaningful relationships, connections, and value
(Compton & Hoffman, 2019). The idea is that a good life encompasses the ‘summum bonum’, a
Latin phrase that signifies the ultimate good a human can achieve through their virtues and
priorities.
The picture in mind when the phrase ‘the good life’ is presented is of bright sunshine, a place
where the grass never browns, and the people are never unhappy- essentially, a manifestation of
‘Pollyanna’, excessive optimism. It is easy to say that one of the biggest criticisms of positive
psychology lies within its name itself - ‘positive’. Perpetrating the idea that to lead a ‘good’ life, one
must always convince themselves that they are happy and positive, pushing forward the
Westernised notions of positivity.
However, it would be inaccurate to assume that this field only ever discusses the benefits of
‘being happy all the time’, when in actuality it does have much deeper roots in understanding the
ways we can make our own lives fulfilling and in its essence, good. It opens up the area of research
in psychology, where now a spotlight can be held on understanding not only how to deal with
problems and making mistakes, but understanding that there is a way to ‘struggle well’ (Yates
Sellar, 2017).
On similar lines, is the second theme of positive psychology- Positive emotions are
important. It can be understood as the belief that the kind of impact negative emotions can have on
our health, well-being, mindset, success and numerous other areas of life, positive emotions can
have the same, if not more of, an impact on us. This theme has been highlighted strongly, especially
through clinical research where studies have found that the benefits of exploring positive clinical
psychology include having a more balanced field of research with the recognition of the impacts of
the positive as well the negative aspects of life. Several instances of this imbalance are present in
the way psychological research has been conducted over the years, for instance, the focus on the
effects of post-traumatic stress is widely studied, however less attention has been provided to the
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possible benefits and resilience obtained by individuals who have overcome their trauma (Joseph &
Linley, 2006). Similarly, it will be easy to find numerous studies investigating the impacts of anger
and negative moods, however one would be hard pressed to locate researches investigating the
clinical aspect of say, forgiveness. Thus, this theme emphasises on the importance of the inclusion
of positive emotions in research, as it also leads to an improved prediction of disorders, leads to
buffering of negative life events, and these research findings open a new avenue for the
development of psychological interventions that focus on the development of positive emotions as
opposed to the reduction of negative emotions (Wood & Tarrier, 2010).
However, despite Seligman’s incessant research on the good and the positive, there are several
researchers out there with opposing beliefs and data. Steptoe and Wardle (2011) may have found in
their sample of 11,000 adults that - ‘the risk of dying in the next 5 years was 35% lower for the
happiest people’, suggesting that a positive affect may be correlated to a longer life. However, Liu
et al. (2015) provided an explanation for the same which suggests a strong case of circular
reasoning, a common problem in this field. They found that the lower mortality rates which are
presumed to be related to the lack of positive affect, could really just be due to the fact poor health
makes people unhappy (Liu et al., 2015). Thus, leading to a circular explanation that negative affect
is what is leading to the higher mortality rates, when it is entirely possible that sickness could be
causing the negative affect as well as the mortality rates. After adjusting for any possible
confounders and taking this explanation into account, they reached the conclusion that happiness
and well-being have no direct effect on mortality (Liu et al., 2015).
This brings us to another theme of positive psychology - People can flourish and thrive.
Essentially, this proposes the idea that despite all the research that points to humans being servants
of their unconscious desires, past traumas and their genetics, humans still do have a tendency to
adapt and deal well with life’s difficulties, ie. they struggle well (Compton & Hoffman, 2019). One
of the most influential models that arose out of this revelation is that of Keyes and Lopez’ (2002)
Mental Health Continuum. Categorising the different aspects of mental health into 4 dimensions-
flourishing, languishing, struggling and floundering. An impactful explanation of ‘languishing’ by
Keyes (2002) is that ‘the absence of a mental disorder does not necessarily equate to mental health
and well-being’. Reminiscent of the manner in which psychological interventions now make an
effort to develop positive affect, instead of simply expecting it to develop on its own just by
working on preventing negative affect.
Although these terminologies and concepts have been around for a long time, this model has
received increased interest over the last 1 year as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. To
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the extent that ‘languishing’ has even been described as the dominant emotion of the year 2021
(Grant, 2021). Accepting and identifying the feelings that seem to be common across the globe right
now; feelings that include a sense of gloom and tiredness but not due to the lack of energy, or
feelings of sadness and hopelessness, but not as a result of depression. It isn’t certain why, but
humans do have a tendency to portray their external selves as always being content, happy or fine,
and the introduction of ‘languishing’ in the vocabulary of a lay-person might be the refreshing take
we need from toxic positivity.
All throughout, positive psychology has advocated for the fact that achieving well-being and
‘happiness’ is not a single person’s job, it takes a village. A strong and supportive social
environment leads to personal and communal empowerment (Compton & Hoffman, 2019), bringing
us to another theme of positive psychology - People need positive social relationships. Within this
theme, the cultural differences that exist in the definitions of happiness are discussed, and these
differences influence the manner in which positive psychology principles and interventions can be
applied in different cultures and societies.
It is no secret that the major difference that exists amongst cultures is that of how the people
view themselves- as individuals (individualistic culture) or as a collective unit (collectivistic
culture). It is also a drawback of positive psychology that a major chunk of the research done which
has been used to lay the foundations of the field, have been on western populations, primarily in the
United States- an individualistic culture. Ford et al. (2015) found that culture plays a very impactful
role in determining whether the pursuit of happiness leads to lower or higher well being, not a
surprising result. However, what was interesting about their results was their paradoxical nature
such that the conscious pursuit of happiness (a goal very strongly perpetuated in positive
psychology) amongst Americans eventually led to lower well-being, accompanied with feelings of
disappointment and loneliness (Ford et al., 2015). Their study also showed that in different cultures
(Russia and East Asia), this pursuit did do as promised and led to higher reports of well-being. Their
explanation for the same was that a culture’s level of collectivism plays a large role in determining
the correlates of happiness, for instance, achieving happiness through more socially engaged ways.
This revelation connects to another theme of this field - All positive emotions are not the
same. Positive psychologists emphasise the importance of happiness and the different benefits it can
have on individuals including recovery from psychological problems (Huta & Hawley, 2010),
increased satisfaction at home and at work (Lyubomirsky, Diener, & King, 2005) amongst others.
However, there is also a distinction created that not everything that is enjoyed by an individual leads
to psychological growth or to the journey to a good life. Pleasure and enjoyment, although used
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interchangeably in daily life, do have a fundamentally different explanation, where pleasure is the
feeling of contentment felt when an individual achieves a certain expectation (Csikszentmihalyi,
1990). These expectations may be ones defined by social or biological norms. Pleasure may leave a
person feeling ‘good’, but that’s all it does, it does not lead to any personal, social or psychological
growth. On the other hand, enjoyment occurs when individuals really reflect and think deeply about
what makes their life rewarding. This takes place through meaningful experiences,
accomplishments and genuine progress (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
An example of ‘pleasure’ that is very commonly cited by positive psychologists is that of
sexual intercourse, and based on their explanations of pleasure, having sexual intercourse should
not result in any kind of genuine growth. However, at the same time, self-esteem, stress, intimacy
and positive relationships are considered aspects of a good life, all of which are developed upon by
engaging in sexual encounters. There have been researches which have found that having healthy
sexual intercourse can lead to boosting one’s self esteem, and it can also lead to personal revelations
regarding one’s sexual preferences and identity. Self awareness is a key component of social and
emotional learning models, which have been adapted from the principles of positive psychology and
well-being. Thus, something that would be considered an integral part of self awareness such as
one’s sexual identity can be explored through sexual encounters, a quintessential ‘pleasure’ activity.
Two of the competing perspectives to achieving a good life are the hedonic and eudaimonic
approaches to well-being, bringing us to another theme in positive psychology - Hedonism and
Eudaemonia. Similar to the discussion concerning the different ways to achieve happiness, some
leading to psychological and emotional growth, and some resulting only in momentary sensory
happiness, the latter deals with hedonic well-being. Eudaemonia on the other hand, is associated
with attempting to live one’s life to the fullest good by aligning one’s life with the highest good and
most admirable and fulfilling values (Compton & Hoffman, 2019).
Another theme of positive psychology is - Strengths and virtues are important. Essentially
meaning that a fulfilled person’s life will be led by certain values and virtues that may be described
as admirable. A few examples of these might be courage, honesty, patience, and fidelity (Compton
& Hoffman, 2019). This is where the line between science and philosophy begins to blur, as
positive psychologists cannot simply choose which virtues and values should be adhered and
adopted based on their liking. Instead, empirical research and evidence needs to exist to justify why
certain strengths and virtues are important, and how they may benefit human development.
Circling back to the aspect of positive psychology that borrows liberally from the Western
perception of human development, Seligman and Peterson (2004) discussed what they believed are
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the core idealistic values an individual should possess in their book, Character Strengths and
Virtues. The propositions in this book have been highly critiqued by Banicki (2014), he states that
despite their attempts to standardise and normalise their ideas in a neutral manner, their book is
riddled with Westernised individualism and instrumentalism (Banicki, 2014).
As one would expect, one major theme of positive psychology is that - Compassion and
empathy are important. This theme goes against the longstanding principles suggested by pioneers
in their fields of psychology, Freud and Watson. They believed that humans congregated in groups
as early as the hunter-gatherer days, simply as a form of self gain and protection, and not out of a
need to connect or develop relationships (Compton & Hoffman, 2019). However, an interesting
historical example to prove that humans aren’t as black and white as psychology sometimes makes
them out to be, is of the first sign of civilization. Margaret Mead, an archaeologist, said in a lecture
that in the animal kingdom, a broken bone is as good as being dead. As with a broken bone you
cannot run or hide from predators, nor can you catch prey for food, essentially being cut off from all
our basic necessities. However, she believes the first signs of ‘civilisation’ were found in fossilised
remains, where signs of a healed fractured femur bone were found, which suggests that someone
took care of this individual when they were hurt, they helped them heal and carried them to safety
(Blumenfled, 2020). Thus, helping someone else through their difficulty, sounds a lot like the
standard definition of compassion and empathy.
As put forward by Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University, empathy is ‘the act of
stepping into someone’s mind to experience their feelings’. However, despite all reason and logic
pointing towards the fact that being empathetic is a good thing, there are some surprising downfalls
of being empathetic. The identifiable victim effect is a negative side effect of empathy which is
commonly utilized by charities and donation programs when they use an empathy provoking story
of one individual to raise money for their cause, as people are more likely to donate to the story of
one victim, as opposed to genuine statistics of say, a 1000 people. The reason this could be a cause
of concern is because this concept may be leading to the apparent desensitisation to the humongous
number of deaths as a result of COVID-19. As these deaths are of strangers, the identifiable victim
in this scenario would be the individual themselves who is facing a minor loss in their personal
freedom, a backfire of feeling empathetic to their own situation (Fisher, 2020).
Two other prominent themes are that there is independence of positive and negative
emotions, and that negative emotions are still important. The first of these themes has been
mentioned earlier as it resonates with the idea that simply dissipating negative emotions will not
magically allow for positive emotions to take over, different and specialised methods and
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interventions need to be introduced, especially in clinical practice, to sustain and develop positive
emotions amongst individuals (Compton & Hoffman, 2019). This independence of positive and
negative emotions has been studied extensively and has resulted in findings which state that the
causes of these emotions and the way they are expressed can be very distinct (Schimmack, 2008).
The underlying motive of this theme is to put forth the point that at the end of the day,
negative emotions should be given less space in one’s life as compared to positive emotions. And to
this logic, there is a very compelling argument showcasing the concept of defensive pessimism. It
doesn’t come as a shock to realise that the goals and themes of positive psychology would be most
beneficial and easy to achieve for an individual who fits the personality traits of an optimistic, goal
oriented, outgoing extravert (Miller, 2008). However, there are a few benefits to not expecting the
ideal scenario all the time, ie. being a pessimist. As worded eloquently by Sirois (2018), ‘Seeing the
glass as half empty may inspire some people to fill it up’. Defensive pessimists use their thought
process of expecting negative outcomes as a way to harness their full potential and reach their
goals. Seery et al. (2008) found in their study that when prompted to be in a good mood, defensive
pessimists found it harder to perform well on word puzzles. Whereas, when a negative mood was
initiated, their performance improved significantly as they were asked to imagine negative outcome
scenarios. Thus, suggesting that their negative moods can be harnessed to improve focus and goal
orientation (Seery, 2008). Bringing to mind the question - ‘Are negative emotions really all that
bad?’.
This question does seem to be answered by the latter theme- negative emotions are still
important. Multiple researchers in this field have reached the conclusion that simply having
positive emotions in one's life isn’t enough to lead them to a good life, there needs to be a balance
between the two in order to truly appreciate them (Compton & Hoffman, 2019). As stated by Diener
et al. (2003), happiness may be “necessary” to the good life but not “sufficient”.
Finally, the penultimate theme of positive psychology rests on the science of well-being.
According to established positive psychology sources, this theme reflects the importance of
obtaining empirical and scientific evidence for basing the claims of this field. A large chunk of
positive psychology can be construed as the idealistic writings of a privileged male in a dominantly
white society, thus, in order to negate these presuppositions, data and research needs to be collected
to verify these claims. Now, the area where this theme needs to be critiqued is right at its roots,
where the claims that have been made, for which research will be conducted, are still biased
towards an upper-middle class, thus already showing certain levels of confirmation bias.
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To further elucidate this point, the following information is sourced from the reflections of
Heidi Barr, a wellness coach, after attending a lecture titled ‘Positive psychology is for rich white
people’. Her reflections mirror mine where up to this point there have been several mentions of a
Westernised notion of positivity, which result in the ‘positivity culture of America’. Positive
psychology advocates finding happiness within oneself and our own actions, leaving very little of
our happiness accountable to our external environments. One popular research commonly cited to
embellish this point is that winning a lottery won't make you happier (Brickman et al., 1978),
however, is this still applicable to the working class, to say, a single mother working 3 jobs,
struggling to pay the insurance of her only house? Gratitude, positivity and affect are taken largely
for granted while conducting research, thus, in Barr’s words, calling out the good and the positive
will always be beneficial, however ignoring the bad by overpowered positive thinking will lead to
nowhere (Barr, 2017).
All in all, positive psychology as a field is a breath of fresh air when one is always
surrounded by distressing research findings constantly pointing out the different ways human lives
can go awry. However, in my opinion, this notion that being positive can make your life turn around
is overpowered and has been misunderstood by the general public, making it less of a science and
more of a social media and money making campaign. I do believe that extensive research needs to
be conducted in order to genuinely critique the foundations of this field, and by this I mean research
in underprivileged, disempowered, and discriminated sections of society. It will be fascinating to
see how this field evolves and turns into an all empowering area of psychology.
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