The Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology is the definitive resource for understanding this exciting new field in its entirety. The Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology provides a comprehensive and accessible summary of this growing field of science and practice.”.
List of Contributors
Sue Carter, University of Illinois at Chicago
Cutuli, Institute of Child Development, University of
Day, Singapore Management University
Evans, University of Houston
Paul Heppner, University of Missouri – Columbia
Tory Higgins, Columbia University
Pargament, Bowling Green State University
Bruce Walsh, Ohio State University
Joel Wong, Indiana University Bloomington
Positive psychology asserts that mental health is something beyond the absence of mental illness. Seligman, PhD Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Positive Psychology Network Preface xix.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abnormal Psychology
Bizarre behavior was seen as the work of the devil and witches, and drastic measures such as exorcism were taken against those considered possessed. The role of these factors also varies between individuals and between life stages.
Academic Achievement
Both hope and goal orientation research suggest that the quality and type of goals influence academic performance. Legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) defines academic achievement in terms of progress on standardized tests.
Actualizing Tendency
Within contemporary research psychology, the tendency towards actualization is probably best reflected in Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory (SDT). Actualizing Tendency 9 Another contemporary perspective relevant to the actualizing tendency is that of motivational interviewing (MI).
Adaptability
Adaptability allows them to be flexible and respond to the demands of the moment, even if they differ from plans for the future. They are extraordinarily flexible people who can remain productive when the demands of life pull them in many different directions at once.
Career Adaptability
Resilience is often referred to as the maintenance of successful positive adaptation despite experiences of significant adversity. Buckingham and Clifton identified adaptability as one of the 34 talent themes measured by the Clifton StrengthsFinder.
Interpersonal/Social Adaptability
Evolutionary Psychology
An example of evolutionary adaptation to solve the problem of survival is infant attachment to the caregiver and early female interest in infants. In addition to the examples of infant attachment to caregiver, early female interest in infants, and infant avoidance of strangers, humans share with other primates many age-specific behavioral and psychological adaptations for survival and reproduction.
Admiration
Thus, as a positive moral emotion, the experience of admiration should expand one's thought-action repertoire by recognizing goodness in other people. The primary virtue of transcendence involves a strength of character that includes aspects of admiration: that is, appreciation of beauty and excellence or awe, wonder, and exaltation.
Adult Attachment Security
Attachment Security: Basic Concepts and Assumptions
The Conceptualization and Assessment of Adult Attachment Security
Key Findings
Directions for Future Research
Aerobic Activity
Aerobic Activity and Positive Affect
Aerobic Activity 19 has shown that single bouts of aerobic exercise can evoke feelings of high-intensity pleasure, such as energy, vigor, excitement, and revitalization. Indeed, low-intensity chronic exercise, such as walking, has also been shown to increase feelings of energy and reduce feelings of fatigue.
Aerobic Activity and Self-Esteem
In today's society, there are numerous passive but immediately pleasurable activities (e.g. watching television) that directly compete with aerobic activity when it comes to allocating valuable time and resources. However, such passive activities do not allow for positive changes in the biological and psychosocial domains and so it seems important to capitalize on all elements of the aerobic activity experience in promoting its potential to achieve satisfaction.
Aesthetic Appreciation
Appreciation of beauty and excellence is a character strength, in part because the related emotional experiences such as awe, wonder, and exaltation are uplifting. Peterson and Seligman further suggest that people who are open to experiencing beauty and excellence find more joy and more meaning in their lives as well as a way to connect with others.
Historical Perspectives on Aesthetic Appreciation
However, the uplifting feeling associated with aesthetic appreciation does not suppress us, but connects us to something greater than ourselves. Aesthetic Appreciation 23 The Nobel Prize, which is an award given in recognition of excellence in a particular field that benefits society.
Development of Appreciating Beauty and Excellence
Measures
Affective Forecasting
Overview of Affective Forecasting
Affective Forecasting Literature
Furthermore, high-optimism individuals may be more prone to exhibit a particular type of inaccuracy, namely overestimation of agreeableness.
Future Directions in Affective Forecasting
Agency
The origins of the agency concept can be found in the pioneering ideas of many of the early theorists in psychology, such as Heider, Lewin, and Piaget. These have led to extensive construct validation, characterization of the developmental course of agency in different populations, and provided provocative underpinnings for new directions in applied settings such as education and youth programming.
Agreeableness
A number of basic elements in Piaget's theories are central to the study of agent action. In addition, Piaget's claim that cognitive capacities are part of a structure d'ensemble (structure of the whole) is also influential in considering agency.
Measures of Agreeableness
Also, perhaps surprisingly, results from “round robin” studies (in which participants rate multiple interaction partners as well as themselves) suggest that self-report measures of agreeableness show rather little contamination by self-enhancement or social desirability concerns.
Implications of Agreeableness
Future Directions
Allport, Gordon W
Evans University of Houston
Among his significant contributions were his delineation of personality traits (e.g., common and cardinal), the completion of a still widely read text in the psychology of personality, his classic works on the nature of prejudice and discrimination, his widely used measure (with Vernon) of human values and his examination of the profound existential anguish suffered by those interned in Nazi concentration camps (many of whom he personally interviewed). Allport's positive psychology was reflected in his interactions with students and colleagues and, of course, in his many publications and lectures.
Altruism
Allport also refuted some of the cynicism expressed in certain aspects of psychoanalysis through his refreshing optimism and belief in individual self-determination reflected in his many articles and books. If so, what is the origin of altruism and what implications does altruism have for our understanding of the human condition?
Defining Altruism
First, psychological altruism can occur regardless of whether the consequences of helping are beneficial or costly to the helper. Second, psychological altruism may co-occur with other non-altruistic motives (eg, psychological egoism) and these motives may together guide behavior.
Does Psychological Altruism Exist?
To date, more than 25 experiments have tested these different classes of egoistic explanations against the empathy-altruism hypothesis. With few exceptions, these experiments supported the empathy-altruism hypothesis across each class of egoistic explanations.
The Origins of Altruism
Both kin selection and mutual benefit involve natural selection at the individual level (and possibly at the gene level). However, much of the evidence for psychological altruism comes from tests of the empathy-altruism hypothesis, which posits that empathic feelings are a source of psychological altruism.
Implications of Psychological Altruism and Directions for Future Research
One implication of this claim is that natural selection has not given humans the capacity for psychological altruism towards adult close others and strangers. For example, research suggests that psychological altruism sometimes leads to less helping if helping is seen as undermining the individual's long-term well-being.
Amae
In the past decade, amae has been of increasing interest to Western emotion researchers studying emotions in intimate relationships. The role of oxytocin in the amae state experience is still unknown; however, oxytocin can be released in response to pleasant social touch, and oxytocin has been proposed as the mechanism by which social support facilitates physical health in the face of stress.
American Psychological Association
Membership
Divisions
42 American Psychological Association 1 Society for General Psychology 2 Society for the Teaching of Psychology 3 Eksperimentel psykologi. 9 Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) 10 Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 11 Der er ingen afdeling 11.
Organizational Structure
The President of the American Psychology Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) serves as a voting member of the Council and a non-voting member of the Board of Directors. The Council of Representatives has broad authority to develop the policies of the Association, within the framework of the statute and bylaws.
Governance, Boards, and Committees
The members of the board of directors, recorder and treasurer are appointed and elected by the previous council. The APA president-elect is nominated and elected by APA associates, members and associate members.
Central Office
The Central Programs Directorate consists of offices whose work applies to all areas of the Association, and includes the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students, Research, Ethics, International Affairs, Convention and Meeting Services, Public Policy, and the Library and Archives of the APA. Likewise, the APA also has boards of directors that help with the business, governance, and public outreach aspects of the association.
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
This perspective, often called the social or social ecological model of disability, has received considerable attention since the advent of the disability rights movement in the 1970s. Therefore, the purpose of the ADA was to provide standards to eliminate such discriminatory practices.
Private-Sector Employment
Public Services
In addition, all government facilities, services and communications must be made accessible to people with disabilities. Standards for making public transportation services accessible to people with disabilities are specifically addressed in this section of the law.
Public Accommodations
The term qualified individual with a disability in this context means an individual with a disability who meets the essential eligibility requirements for services, programs, or activities provided by the state or local government.
Telecommunications
Current and Future Issues
Amusement
Humor theories and neuroscience findings suggest that the perception of humor also involves mental flexibility. Although few studies currently provide evidence on this topic, their findings are consistent with the cognitive theories of humor discussed above.
Anticipatory Enthusiasm
Anticipatory enthusiasm is typically experienced as pleasurable, and it is not unusual for people to enjoy looking forward to some pleasurable event as much as or more than the event itself. However, anticipatory enthusiasm can also be experienced as an unpleasant urge, and even when a reward is expected, one does not necessarily experience sensory pleasure from consumption.
Appetitive Motivational Systems
Sensitivity to one system is not thought to be directly related to or predictive of an individual's sensitivity to the other system. BAS activity is thought to result in movement toward goals and to be associated with positive emotions such as happiness, hope, and excitement.
Applied Positive Psychology
In addition, use of social goals predicted less loneliness, greater satisfaction with social relationships, and more frequent positive social events compared to those using avoidant social goals. Friendship approach goals also predicted less loneliness, greater relationship satisfaction, and more frequent positive relationship events.
Increasing Happiness
This is not to say that there is no place in the science of applied positive psychology for more complex interventions. One possible avenue for research in this area is through life coaches – some of whom implement these exercises in the context of their standard practice – although there is little research in this area to date.
Enhancing Clinical Practice
Applied Positive Psychology 59 baseline level of happiness to which they are likely to return as they adjust to changes in their lives—there is also evidence that individuals can achieve lasting increases in happiness by changing their volitional behavior. In the positive psychology literature, mindfulness has been well established as a source of well-being.
Promoting Work Productivity and Satisfaction
While the overall focus of ACT remains on the negative aspects of the client's behavior and circumstances, it is distinguished by the integration of mindfulness and the ultimate concern for well-being as an outcome of standard cognitive and behavioral approaches. Finally, positive psychotherapy (PPT) – originating from the work of Martin Seligman, Tayyab Rashid and Acacia Parks-Sheiner at the University of Pennsylvania – is a standalone intervention for mood disorders, which aims to identify and treat the positive aspects of mood disorders. promote. clients' lives.
Education
Promising Directions
This raises the question of whether persistence and self-discipline can be taught and whether this would lead to greater academic success. If it is indeed possible to influence outcomes of this magnitude by increasing happiness, the development of cost-effective interventions to increase happiness—along with accurate methods of assessing happiness at the national level (following the work of Ed Diener and his colleagues in developing national indicators of well-being)—may change the picture. public policy.
The Future of Applied Positive Psychology
Finally, a recent meta-analysis by Sonja Lyubomirsky, Laura King, and Ed Diener suggests that happy people are healthier, live longer, have better social networks, and are more successful in their careers.
Aristotle
Attachment Theory
The latter three attachment styles (anxious/ambivalent, avoidant, disorganized) were called insecure styles to indicate that security was not inherent in the parent-child relationship. While self-report measures are strong in assessing conscious attachment-related attitudes and behaviors, the AAI may use more subconscious attachment working models.
Attribution Theory
What matters is that the person takes his or her causal attributions to be true and then acts accordingly. The attempt to explain the role played by causal attributions in social behavior is called attribution theory, of which there are several versions.
Attribution Theories
Conversely, when they fail, they look outside themselves and explain it with external factors. One widespread phenomenon in the United States is the tendency to explain other people's actions in terms of their internal characteristics: needs, drives, and traits.
Attributional Style
To the extent that they explain success in terms of ability and effort, people feel pride. To the extent that they explain a failure in terms of task difficulty or accident, people preserve their own self-esteem.
Authentic Happiness
Thus, authentic happiness is not static; it is dynamic, and the secret lies in balancing its dynamics. As the scientific pursuit of authentic happiness progresses, many as yet unknown routes will be discovered.
Authenticity
Historical Background
It has been suggested that the self is a mental representation of the underlying organism, an online simulation running within the psyche. The conscious self is, in an important sense, a phenomenal fiction, both in that the content of the dominant self-story can be determined somewhat randomly or arbitrarily, and because the self-story can be an inaccurate or even inadequate simulation of the underlying organism. actual condition.
Autonomy
It was the work of Heiders and deCharms that set the stage for a vigorous empirical study of autonomy. Self-determination theory (SDT), which both emerged from this research and in turn guided it, comprises the most comprehensive empirical study of human autonomy in psychology.
Personal Autonomy in Self-Determination Theory
In their comprehensive 1985 book, Deci and Ryan proposed that extrinsically motivated behaviors vary in their degree of relative autonomy. Finally, when this identification has been mutually assimilated with other aspects of people's sense of self, integration has occurred.
Other Definitions of Autonomy
In his social cognitive theory of agency, Bandura defined autonomy as an action that is completely independent of the environment. Bandura's view of autonomy in no way denies the importance of autonomy as willpower; it simply defines autonomy differently.
Antecedents and Consequences of Personal Autonomy
Aversive Motivational Systems
Each individual may vary in sensitivity to each system, with the sensitivity level for one system not directly related or predictive of the sensitivity level for the other system. He was referring to one of the calamities of his own time: the destruction of human life and the mighty bridge over the River Ennobucht by a raging cyclone.
A Prototypical Model of Awe
Beyond the Prototype
An Expanded Model of Awe
Otto asserts that the opposite of this "nothingness" of the self is the overwhelming Other - the sacred which refers to that which is an exception to the law, or outside the natural order of things, and therefore far exceeds all known schemes mental to understand it. with. In the framework of the extended fear model, we can say that Job experienced failed assimilation twice: the first time when he lost everything he had; the second time he was confronted with a vision as grand as it was absurd to the core.
Future Directions in Research
Balance
In contrast, among those forces of balance that have an intrapersonal goal (not all do), the goal is to harmonize personal strengths and weaknesses, or to harmonize inner tensions. The balance-oriented person is likely to have a slower-paced career, in keeping with the sometimes maligned mom or dad track.
Bandura, Albert
Park, Peterson, and Seligman recently examined the relationship between various character strengths and life satisfaction. Interestingly, six of the ten strengths most associated with life satisfaction were balance-oriented (gratitude, love, wisdom, self-regulation, spirituality, and forgiveness), but only two were focus-oriented (curiosity and persistence; the other two strengths were neither directed toward balance nor focus).
Benefit Finding
It may seem counterintuitive that stressful, challenging, or traumatic life events can be perceived as beneficial. Deceased individuals, victims of terrorist incidents, combat veterans, child Holocaust survivors, survivors of childhood sexual abuse, victims of sexual violence, victims of physical violence, victims of trauma, victims of natural disasters, victims of traumatic exposures - in war, former refugees and displaced persons, political prisoners, parents of sick children, parents who have lost a child to illness or violent death, caregivers of the sick, post-disaster or psychotherapy therapists, nursing daughters .
How Can We Measure Benefit Finding?
Do People Really Find Benefits?
Future Directions in Research, Theory, and Methodology
In addition, few truly prospective studies have measured benefit finding in the time leading up to a stressful event and followed patients through the months of recovery. Prospective studies are critical to addressing many of the unanswered questions surrounding benefit finding, as discussed here.
Biofeedback
Changes in the autonomic nervous system are particularly sensitive to emotional states, and positive and negative emotions can be easily distinguished by changes in heart rhythm patterns. Practitioners also use heart rate feedback devices to monitor the real-time psychophysiological effects of various therapeutic interventions that affect autonomic nervous system dynamics.
Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions
Broadened Thought-Action Tendencies
People who experience positive emotions may come up with new, creative or challenging thoughts and actions. Research on the thought-action tendencies associated with specific positive emotions has been consistent with the general broad effect.
Evolutionary Value of the Broaden Effect
For example, joy does not lead to any kind of specific response, but it energizes the individual and leads to exploratory play. This presents a challenge from the perspective of evolutionary psychology: to explain why humans evolved readiness to experience expanded thought-action repertoires, and why expanded repertoires came to be paired with pleasurable, reinforcing emotions.
The Build Effect
Resilient people fared better, and that's because they were more likely than their non-resilient peers to have experienced positive emotions. Importantly, resilient people were not free of negative emotions—they felt fear and sadness just like their less resilient peers—but finding occasional opportunities to feel positive emotions seemed to moderate some of the negative effects of a mindset of elongated narrowed.
Significance of the Broaden-and-Build Theory
Limitations and Future Directions
The theory has also focused on generalized effects common to all positive emotions, although other research programs have made progress in understanding the thought-action tendencies of specific positive emotions. Research on specific emotions will be important as we seek to understand the specific types of new thoughts and actions that different positive emotions can elicit and the types of resources they can contribute to.
Buddhism
Yet the specifications of the theory and its domains of applicability are likely to change over time as new findings emerge. But he saw that even with more subtle events, one's inner life is at the mercy of the outer world.
The Truth of Dukkha
After six years of study and disciplined practice, Siddhartha saw the way out of this world of Dukkha, the way that leads to Nirvana (liberation), to this deepest joy, to this "peace that passes all understanding." His calmness and wisdom became so evident that people began to refer to him as the Buddha, a term of honor meaning "the awakened one." While he personally now found the way to this ultimate happiness, he also understood that millions of people in this world are floundering, pushed this way and that by the forces of Dukkha.
The Truth of the Cravings
In addition to these biologically based urges, culture instills in its members other kinds of desires, other sources of Dukkha. In short, the obstacles to one's happiness are within oneself, in one's needs and agitations, prejudices, blindly accepted attitudes, all of which can produce desires and pain.
The Truth of Liberation
The fact that this system often affects people with such feelings as frustration (eg when we lack food or a partner) and panic (eg when we are threatened by a predator) seems like a matter of indifference. A common saying is, "Conquer the beast within." Change so that this pervasive motivational system—that system that comes from biology, from conditioned attitudes and beliefs—serves you instead of ruling you.
The Practices for Attaining Liberation
The fundamental, lasting happiness—the happiness that is ultimately the foundation of ordinary happiness—requires self-transformation, the process that leads to enlightenment and liberation.
Calling
Callings in the Modern Era
Major Dimensions of Callings
The Impact of Callings
While most research to date has investigated attitudinal and self-reported behaviors, recent studies have begun to measure behavioral outcomes such as reemployment, performance, and professional departures. Also, recent studies have begun to consider the potential drawbacks associated with viewing work as a calling.
Future Research Directions
Capitalization
It often involves questions about the event, discussions about the important aspects of the event and the implications of the event. They are often silent exchanges with few or no questions about the event and little or no elaboration of the implications of the positive event.
Career Development
This work served as the foundation for early career counseling practice and modern trait-factor theory of career development. Contemporary career development research and practice is strongly influenced by social constructionist, multicultural and international perspectives.
Change (Stages of )
As their list begins to include more positive things, such as increased self-esteem, better mood, less stress, better sex life and better sleep, they evolve and change. Is it worth it?” “Isn't it?” “Should I continue progress or should I put it off?” The average American makes the same New Year's resolution about three years in a row before finally taking meaningful action.
Character Education
History
Of course, the debate about the content of character education programs is not entirely new. Critics may argue that the focus of direct-teaching character education approaches should be on those values that are universally shared.
Current Emphasis
Some researchers note that the literature in cognitive psychology on expertise is relevant to character education. As much research on other educational programs suggests, a one-size-fits-all approach to character education programs can be problematic.
Character Strengths (VIA)
In particular, Athenian philosophers such as Socrates and Plato discussed morality in terms of good character and, in particular, virtues—character traits that make someone a good person. Scientific psychology is unable to describe a morally good life, but it is well equipped to describe the what, how, and why of good character.
Background
Good character has been important to parents, educators, politicians and scientists throughout history and place. In recent years, positive psychologists led by Christopher Peterson have reclaimed good character and virtue as a major subject of study.
VIA Classification
The classification is best described as ambitious, meaning that it attempts to specify mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories of moral characteristics without claiming finality or deep theory.
Measurement
Although some people may be low in most of the strengths in our classification, compared to others, the data shows that almost everyone has defining strengths of character within themselves. VIA measures allow not only the comparison of character strengths across individuals but also within individuals.
Research Findings
In addition, the balance between character strengths and its relationship to life satisfaction is examined. Other important aspects of a thriving life also relate to character strengths in the VIA Classification.
Charisma
Theories of Charisma
Research on Charisma
While there are many popular programs that claim to train people to become more charismatic, beyond some dissertation research and some pilot studies, there has been no large-scale research on whether charisma is trainable. Still, this preliminary research suggests that training people to be more socially skilled and to be better emotional communicators does indeed seem to increase the appreciation of one's charisma.
Cheerfulness
On a more general level, some individuals may be more susceptible to the emotional appeal of a charismatic leader (more emotionally sensitive and prone to emotional contagion), or they may be more easily persuaded by charismatic people. There has been, and continues to be, considerable interest in charismatic leadership, with much of this research falling under transformational leadership research.
Approaches to Cheerfulness
Based on different sources (e.g. lexical studies, studies of previous literature and previous factor-analytic work on humor questionnaires) they found that trait cheerfulness was composed of five intercorrelated components, namely a prevalence of cheerful mood (CH1), a low threshold for smiling and laughing (CH2), a composite view of adverse life circumstances (CH3), a wide range of active elicitors of cheerfulness and smiling or laughing (CH4) and a generally cheerful interaction style (CH5). While trait cheerfulness is a one-dimensional concept, empirical evaluation also allows distinguishing between cheerfulness and cheerfulness, as outlined earlier by Lersch.
The Measurement of Cheerfulness as Trait and State
The Relationship between State and Trait Cheerfulness and Their Role in the Induction of Amusement and
In the case of a low cheerfulness state, high-trait cheerful people recover a cheerful mood faster than low-trait cheerful individuals. In particular, the robustness of cheerful mood found among trait cheerful individuals suggests that trait cheerfulness is conceptually close to "sense of humor".
The Role of Cheerfulness in Humor
Examining the relationship between the three concepts and sense of humor is limited by the nature of the sense of humor instruments that have been used to date. Only if the inventories also capture humorlessness can the full range of humor be captured.
Positive Outcomes of Cheerfulness
While joy makes it easy to induce smiling and laughter, seriousness and bad humor impair it.
Chinese Positive Psychology
What Constitutes Being Chinese
Overview of the Article
Three Dominant Chinese Philosophies
The Truth of the Cause of Suffering (Tanha) – Suffering comes from craving for happiness and aversion to pain; both of these psychological mechanisms are rooted in primordial ignorance and delusion about life. The Truth of the Eightfold Path (Magga) – Liberation through enlightenment can be achieved through the eightfold path.
Cultural Beliefs or Worldviews
The Chinese PP states the duality hypothesis – the good life cannot be achieved by emphasizing the positive and avoiding the negative, but by embracing and integrating both the positive and the negative. Overcrowding and the magnitude of life's problems make it necessary for the Chinese people to learn how to get along with each other and how to work together to find solutions.
What is the Chinese Perspective of PP?
Believing in the inclusiveness of change naturally leads to strengths of flexibility, agility and optimism. Belief in the usefulness of effort leads to strength of conscience, responsibility and hard work.
Civic Responsibility and Virtues
The ideal life according to the average Chinese over the years is: Live a simple life in peace and harmony with one family and neighbors. The dualistic hypothesis of Chinese PP can contribute to the development of a balanced model of PP that includes both positive and negative experiences and both Western and Eastern cultural values.
Factors that Influence Civic Responsibility
Current Emphases
Community service has been found to improve academic and behavioral outcomes as well as sense of civic responsibility. Little in the way of longitudinal research has been conducted to assess the impact of a sense of civic responsibility.
Civility
People with high incomes but little time may choose to donate money and resources as their form of civic engagement. While these activities have previously been left out of the discussion of civic engagement, Herd and Meyer argue that these invisible activities nonetheless represent a vital form of civic activity.
Civil Conduct
Psychologists who study the understanding and regulation of the behavior of individuals focus mainly on the definition of politeness as a form of politeness, morality and courtesy. They emphasize the ability of individuals to distinguish between different forms of action and the reasons underlying such actions.
Civil Citizens
Psychologists who study an individual's understanding of civility and social institutions seek to discover how people become productive citizens and understand their rights and responsibilities. Civil associations of individuals with the community are presented as different from their voluntary associations with local groups.
Studying Civility
Studies of civil associations relate to the preservation of the dignity of all members of society, but may not include the maintenance of equality. In this respect, culture differs from civil society, even though both concepts promote studies of how individuals try to live in harmony with each other.
Clifton StrengthsFinder
Development of the Clifton StrengthsFinder
Since 1999, some theme names have changed, but the theme descriptions and most of the item pairs have not changed (the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0, which contains 177 item pairs, was released in 2007). Since Clifton StrengthsFinder feedback is provided to promote intrapersonal development, comparisons across profiles of individuals are discouraged.
Administration, Scoring, and Feedback
Reliability
The examination of theme-score intercorrelations suggests the absence of complete redundancy between themes. This supports the idea that each of the 34 themes provides unique information for evaluation purposes.
Validity
Overall, the results indicate that items relate to their respective themes in a consistently positive manner. In addition, the analysis of the mean item-cross total correlations indicates, as expected, that items have a higher positive relationship with their assigned themes than with other themes.
Application
Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer
Development of the Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer
Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer 171 assumed that two of the same top three would be listed on score reports from both administrations. Internal consistency and stability estimates were calculated to examine the baseline reliability of the Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer.
Applications
65% of respondents had at least two Top 3 topics from the first administration that appeared in the Top 3 set from the second administration. Gallup researchers plan to continue to study the measure's psychometric properties, particularly concurrent validity and cross-cultural applicability, and to modify it based on research findings.
Clifton, Donald O
StrengthsExplorer programming, grounded in traditional Gallup practices, will be refined based on the principles of positive psychology, the scientific study of and evidence-based promotion of optimal human functioning. The productive collaboration between Gallup and positive psychology will hopefully lead to refined and new measures and programs that will continue to generate more answers to the question: "What would happen if we studied what is right with people?".
Clinical Psychology
Several other factors stimulated clinical psychologists to turn their attention to psychopathology, thereby strengthening disease ideology's grip on the field. Nowhere is the power of disease ideology over clinical psychology in most of the developed world more apparent than in the dominance of the DSM.
Positive Clinical Psychology
In fact, the influence of illness ideology has probably increased since the mid-20th century as a result of the growing influence of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). These problems in life are not seen as located within the person, but in the interactions between the person and other people, the community and the wider culture.
Close Relationships
Love
