PERSONALITY, MOTIVATION, EMOTION, STRESS & COPING (Free Access)

Personality

Psychodynamics Perspective

There are four major schools of psychoanalytic theory:

  •       Classical Freudian
    •       Ego Psychology
    •       Object Relations
    •       Self Psychology
  • Psychodynamic theorists adhere to the notion of unconscious influences on conscious behaviours
  •  Psychodynamic theorists use introspective methods as a way to tap into internal thoughts and images
  • Sigmund Freud used the analogy of the iceberg to depict the complex interplay of conscious and unconscious forces
  • Freud believed that only 10% of personality is available to conscious awareness
  • Components of the Psyche
  • Freud’s theory outlines three mental components:
  • Id : Hedonistic
  • Ego: Realistic
  • Superego: Moralistic

The Id

  • Unconscious; operates according to the pleasure principle with no regard for moral principles
  • Primary process thinking achieves momentary satisfaction and wish fulfillment
  • Insight (catharsis) reduces tension
  • Freud termed the libido ‘eros’, and termed aggression ‘thanatos’

The Ego

  • Mostly conscious; operates according to the reality principle
  • Tries to align the urge of the id with reality using secondary process thinking
  • The ego considers the situation and past experience to engage in behaviour

The Superego

  • Mostly conscious; operates according to the perfection principle
  • Tries to uphold morality by a strict adherence to societal standards
  • Guilt and shame result from immoral behaviour for those having a strong superego
  • Freud developed a series of four psychosexual stages:
    • Oral Stage
    • Anal Stage
    • Phallic Stage
    • Genital Stage
  • Too little or too much gratification within each stage can result in fixations
  • Defense Mechanisms are the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
  • Repression – the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
  • Regression- defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated
  • Reaction Formation – defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. People may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings
  • Projection- defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
  • Rationalization – defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions
  • Displacement- defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person. As when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet
  • Freud’s theory sparked criticism in several areas:
    • Lack of empirical testing
    • Abstract, untestable concepts
    • Reliance on case studies
    • Biased sample (upper-class, Viennese women)
    • Emphasis on libido and unconscious factors
    • Therapist as the agent of change
    • Personality is fixed (deterministic)
  • Freud’s theory has been commended in several areas:
    • Played a key role in linking personality and culture
    • Drew public attention to psychological factors
    • Mentored many prominent theorists of our time
  • The Neo-Freudians: Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology
    • The Personal and the Collective Unconscious
    • Jung shared, yet rejected, many of Freud’s beliefs
    • Jung believed in the importance of the unconscious and the power of dream analysis
    • Jung favored spirituality and the notion of psychosocial rather than psychosexual energy
    • Jung referred to the personal unconscious as a collection of personal experiences
    • Coined the term ‘complex’ to reflect personal tension
    • Referred to a collective unconscious to reflect spiritual influences, composed of various archetypes, that are inherited and universal
    • Specific Archetypes
    • The mandala refers to the goal of a developing unified self that is a unique process (individuation)
    • The anima refers to the feminine side of males, whereas the animus refers to the masculine side of females
    • The shadow archetype refers to the dark side of humanity
  • The Neo-Freudians: Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology
    • Introversion–Extroversion
    • Jung was the first person to make the extroversion–introversion distinction
    • Jung viewed extroversion as energy habitually directed outward and introversion as energy habitually directed inward
    • Jung viewed extroversion and introversion as different cognitive states that affect attention and objectivity
    • Jung linked personality to cultural differences
    • Jung referred to individual differences in personality that reflect psychological functions (ways a person relates to others, the world, and information)
    • Jung’s four psychological functions are sensing, intuition, thinking, and feeling that combine to form 16 different psychological types
  • The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
    • The Myers- Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI) is used worldwide and in various settings
    • The MBTI shows incremental validity when used with the five-factor model on a social-cognitive task
    • Concerns with the MBTI include its categorical approach and problems with translating content into other languages
  • Criticisms of Jung’s theory echo those of Freud’s:
    • Lack of empirical testing
    • Archetypes as inherited spiritual influences
  • Jung has been commended for providing a theoretical basis for personality (MBTI), for providing a role for culture and cognitive factors in the study of personality
  • The Neo-Freudians: Alfred Adler
    • Adler’s perspective views each person as unique, and he represents a movement called individual psychology
    • Adler refuted Freud’s notion that sexual urges motivate people
    • Adler believed that people try to overcome a sense of inferiority that arises from a biological weakness (organ inferiority) or from a psychological weakness
  • Major tenets of Adler’s theory
    • The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the  striving for success or superiority
    • People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and personality.
    • Personality is unified and self-consistent.
    • The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social interest.
    • The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person’s  style of life.
    • Style of life is molded by people’s  creative power.
  • The Inferiority Complex
    • Adler believed that we strive to overcome an  inferiority complex by aiming for superiority and perfection
    • Organ and inferiority complexes were universal concepts for Adler,  but differences in biological and environmental factors accounted for individual differences
  • Styles of Life and the Meaning of Life
    • Styles of life are unique patterns of life expression that are the result of early life experiences
    • Meanings that are “gravely mistaken” result from situations that involve organ inferiority, pampered children, and neglected children
    • Organ inferiority contributes to humiliation and defensiveness from social comparisons, but can be overcome
    • Pampered children feel prominent and may react when they no longer feel this way
    • Neglected children may become cold and hostile due to their mistrust of others
    • Adler’s focus in therapy was on discovering prototypes (early memories) called old remembrances that determine adult styles of life
  • Adler outlined four styles of life:
    • Ruling Type: desire for control
    • Getting Type: dependent on others
    • Avoiding Type: avoidant and isolated
    • Socially Useful Type: self-control and social interest
  • Social Interest – Social interest develops in childhood and is influenced by the interaction with the mother
    • Adler referred to the superiority complex to describe persons having more interest in personal goals than in social interest, and overcompensating for feelings of inferiority
    • Research has reported low intercorrelations among measures of social interest
  • Birth Order
    • Adler supported a link between birth order and personality and outlined several types:
    • Only children are pampered and lack social interest
    • First-born children are conservative and obedient
    • Second-born children are best adjusted
    • Ernst and Angst (1983) found a low association between birth order and personality, and identified several flaws in this type of research
    • Sulloway’s (1996) niche model of personality describes first borns as high achievers and second borns as rebellious
    • Most research in this area is inconsistent, but beliefs about birth order are still held by most people
  • Evaluation of Adler’s Contributions
    • The inferiority complex is regarded as central to identity
    • The role of social interest is key to an understanding of maladaptiveness
    • Identifying pampered and neglected children has contributed to research on parental roles in shaping personality
    • Adler’s emphasis on fictions is consistent with his strongly held teleological view of motivation.
    • Teleology is an explanation of behavior in terms of its final purpose or aim. It is opposed to  causality, which considers behavior as springing from a specific cause.
    • The deficient organ expresses the direction of the individual’s goal, a condition known as  organ dialect. Through organ dialect, the body’s organs “speak a language which is usually more expressive and dis-closes the individual’s opinion more clearly than words are able to do”
    • According to Adler, cultural and social practices—not anatomy—influence many men and women to overemphasize the importance of being manly, a condition he called the masculine protest.
  • The Neo-Freudians: Karen Horney
  • Horney and the Importance of Culture
    • Horney believed that cultural factors influence personality and individual differences
    • Horney identified three contradictions for all people:
    • Success vs. Love
    • Idealism vs. Frustration
    • Independence vs. Situational constraints
  • Basic Anxiety and Basic Hostility
    • Horney asserted that behavior is directed by basic anxiety (helplessness, fear of abandonment)
    • Horney asserted that children develop basic hostility as a result of parental neglect 
    • Horney suggested that a basic conflict arises from contradictions and is central to neurosis
  • Moving Toward, Against, and Away From People
    • For Horney, neurosis stems from opposing desires to move toward, against, and away from others which she called attitudes
    • Horney described dependent persons as engaging in a self-effacing solution in order to gain love
  • The Neurotic Needs
  • Horney outlined ten neurotic needs that reflect personal maladjustment in moving toward, against, and  away from people
  • Extension of Psychoanalytic Theory: Perfectionism as a Multidimensional Construct
  • Psychodynamic theorists were the first to outline perfectionism as an important personality trait
  • Contemporary research confirms perfectionism as a multidimensional personality construct but the number of factors varies across research studies
  • Evaluation of Horney’s Contributions
    • Horney established cultural and familial factors in the study of personality
    • Her identification of contradictions accurately describes neuroticism
    • Her suggestion of neurotic needs led rational–emotive theory and therapy 
    • Horney advanced the feminist position

Object Relations      

  • Object Relations is an off shoot of Psychoanalytic theory
  • It emphasises on interpersonal relationships
  • Inner Images of Self + Other à Interpersonal Relations
  • FOUNDATIONS
    • The word “object” is derived from Freud’s idea of the target.
    • Stems from the Psychoanalytic instinct theory but differs in terms of what drives human beings.
    • Conceived when theorists started acknowledging importance of parent child relationship right after the birth of a child.
    • Ronald Fairbairn formulated the term “object relations” in 1952.
    • Melanie Klein’s work is most identified with the theory.
    • Central idea: Mental representations of significant people have profound effect on our perceptions of ourselves and the social world (Jarvis, 2004).
  • Theory           
    • Focuses on the representations of the relationship between yourself and others, or objects
    • The child- caregiver relationship
    • This pivotal moment of development occurs during the weaning process , in which the child either sees the mother as part ( her breast) or whole ( her whole body), ( Klein, 2008)
    • This process is the foundation of interpersonal relationships , and depending on the relationship formed with the caregiver , a child can have deep disturbances ( Klein, 2008)
    • Children’s early interpersonal relationships are crucial in the development of personality and a healthy ego formation
    • Fantasies
    • One of Klein’s basic assumptions is that the infant, even at birth, possesses an active fantasy life. These fantasies are psychic representations of unconscious id instincts; they should not be confused with the conscious fantasies of older children and adults.
    • they possess unconscious images of “good” and “bad.”
    • Objects
      • Klein agreed with Freud that humans have innate drives or instincts, including a death instinct. Drives, of course, must have some object.
      • Thus, the hunger drive has a good breast as its object, the sex drive has a sexual organ as its object, and so on. Klein believed that from early infancy children relate to these external objects, both in fantasy and in reality.
      • Positions: In their attempt to deal with this dichotomy of good and bad feelings, infants organize their experiences onto positions, or ways of dealing with both internal and external objects.
    • Play Therapy – Klein
      • Melanie developed Play therapy from 1919- 1925 ( Grosskurth, 1986)
      • Play Therapy is developed to uncover a child’s unconscious motivations. Emphasis is on the ‘Ego’ (Grosskurth, 1980)
      • The objects used in play,  project the child’s fantasies and anxieties ( Daniels, 2007)
      • Children’s unconscious lives can be analyzed through their toys ( First theorist to do this)
      • The toys represent the transference from their internal world to the external world , connecting the here and now with present and past
    • Winnicott
      • transitional object – lie between the ideal object of fantasy and the real, but potentially unreliable, objects of external reality.
      • Holding Environment: good-enough mother’ will exercise what might be described as an ordinary level of devotion and loving care; the basic foundation for any child’s later psychological health

Motivation & Emotion

  • Motivation is a process that influences the direction, persistence, and vigour of goal-directed behaviour.
    • Early psychologists believed instincts motivated behaviour and later developed concepts such as extrinsic and intrinsic motivation 
    • Instinct
      • is an inherited, innate characteristic
      • failed as an explanation due to circular reasoning
    • Extrinsic motivation
      • external reward or avoid punishment
    • Intrinsic motivation
      • internal reward (happiness)
      • most powerful motivator
  • Homeostasis and Drive
    • Walter Canon (Homeostasis)
      • a state of internal balance (physiological)
    • Clark Hull (Drive)
      • Disruption to homeostasis produces drives.
      • Drives are states that motivate an organism to reduce the tension and regain equilibrium. To fulfill a need.
      • Primary drive – important for survival
      • Secondary drive – acquired through experience or conditioning

Theories of Motivation

  • Expectancy x Value Theory (Edward Tolman)
    • Goal-directed behaviour is dependent on
      • strength of a person’s expectations
      • value of the goal for the person
  • Psychodynamic
    • sexual energy
    • hidden aggressive impulses
    • dual instinct model
  • Humanistic approach (Abraham Maslow)
    • needs hierarchy (lower 3 needs are deficiency needs, top 2 are personal growth needs)
    • self-actualization is the most important need
    • fulfilling one’s potential 
    • may reach self-transcendence
  • Self Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan)
    • 3 needs
      • Autonomy: The ability to do what one wants to do
      • Competence: the need to master a particular behaviour 
      • Relatedness: the need to get along with peers and other people.
      •  
  • Sexual Motivation (pleasure, reproduction)
    • Physiology (William Masters and Virginia Johnson)
      • 4 stages (refractory period for males)
        • Excitement – arousal happens
        • Plateau – arousal continues till muscles can reach orgasm
        • Orgasm – semen
        • Resolution – decrease in arousal
  • (Study Tip: EPOR)
    • Hormones
      • Hypothalamusàpituitary glandsàgonadsà releases gonadotropins
        • secrete more androgens, testosterone, estrogen, and estradiol
      • Sex hormones organize the development of male and female characteristics
    • Sex determination/differentiation
      • X chromosomes present in female ovum, Y or X chromosome in male sperm
        • controlled by gonadal steroid hormone
        • By 6th week sex differentiation begins
      • Process:
        • all embryos have Wolffian Ducts and Mullerian Ducts
      • Wolffian Ducts
        • can form the male reproductive system
      • Mullerian Ducts
        • can form the female reproductive system
      • For males, the Y gene called SRY-gene generates biochemistry to develop male organ
        • gonads secrete the anti-Mullerian hormone, which degenerates Mullerian ducts
        • Wolffian ducts develop into vas deferens and seminal vesicles 
        • undifferentiated gonads develop into testes, prostate glands, and scrotum
      • For females, no Y gene or SRY-gene.
        • no anti-Mullerian hormone leads to degeneration of Wolffian ducts
        • Mullerian ducts form fallopian tubes, uterus, and vagina.
        • External genitals come between 9th and 12th week
    • Psychology of sex
      • desire 
      • stress, fatigue, and anger can cause arousal problems
    • Sexual orientation
      • maybe one continuum
      • maybe related to the 3 dimensions of
        • self-identity
        • sexual attraction
        • acquired sexual behaviour
  • Hunger Motivation
    • Insulin and glucagon’s are hormones that are secreted by the pancreas to control levels of fat, protein, and carbohydrates
    • Insulin
      • insulin reduces glucose, whereas glucagon increases glucose
      • insulin secretion increases right after food intake to reduce sugar and increase hunger
      • liver sends a signal for hunger after its stored nutrients begin to be used
      • stomach and intestinal distention are satiety signals
      • small intestine produces cholecystokinin (CCK) 
        • a peptide to send signals of satiety
      • Leptin, a hormone from fat cells, gets to the bloodstream, reaches the brain, decreases appetite and increases energy expenditure
        • long term
    • Brain and Hunger
      • Hypothalamus
      • 2 regions
        • Lateral hypothalamus – stimulation leads to increase in feeling of hunger.
          • damaging LH – no eating
        • Ventromedial hypothalamus – stimulation leads to reduction in feeling of hunger off
          •  damaging VH – continuous eating
      • Paraventricular nucleus (PVN)
        • short and long term signal influencing metabolic and digestive processes
      • Psychological aspects increasing or decreasing hunger
        • Availability of food
        • classical conditioning
        • genes
        • pleasure and good food
      • Anorexia and bulimia 
        • high level of serotonin, and leptin
  • Social motivation
      • Craig Hill – 4 reasons to be socially motivated
        • positive stimulation
        • receive emotional support
        • gain attention
        • permit social comparison – comparing belief with other people
      • Affiliation is different for different people.
        • May follow the homeostasis model
        • Need for affiliation is situation dependent
    • Need for affiliation (nAff) – friendly social interactions and relationships with others
      • need to want to be liked by others and held in high regard – good team players
    • Achievement motivation: David McClelland’s need for achievement – need to achieve a goal 
      • Works in two ways
        • Positive desire to succeed (PDTS)
          • Working hard in order to succeed
        • Negative desire to avoid failure (NDAF)
          • Working hard to not fail
          • can impair performance
      • High-need achievers: People high in PDTS and low in NDAF
      • Low-need achievers: People low in PDTS and low in NDAF 
      • When tasks are challenging, high-need achievers outshine low-need achievers
      • High-need achievers choose intermediate difficulty tasks
      • Low-need achievers choose either hard or easy
      • The person’s perception of outcome matters as well.
    • Achievement Goal Theory: focuses on the manner in which success is defined both by individuals and the achievement situation itself.
      • Individual level 
        • Mastery orientation – focus on personal improvement
        • Ego orientation – the goal is to outperform others
      • Situational level
        • Motivational climate – encourages either of the aforementioned two approaches to defining success
    • Need for power (nPow) – want power over other people, influence and make an impact on them.
    • Motivational conflict
    • Approach-Avoidance conflict (our general tendency is to look for pleasure, reward and avoid pain)
      • involves being attracted to and repelled by the same goal
      • grow stronger as we get closer to the goal
      • avoidance tendency increases faster
      • Approach-Approach conflict
        • two attractive alternatives and selecting one means losing the other
        • conflict highest if both have the same value
      • Avoidance-avoidance conflict
        • choose between two undesirable alternatives
      • 2 distinct systems: Jefferey Gray (BAS and BIS)
        • Behavioural Activation System (BAS)
          • activated for reward and positive need gratification
          • emotions of hope, elation and happiness
          • prefrontal left hemisphere
        • Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS)
          • activates when potential pain, punishment, non-reinforcement
          • emotions of fear, inhibition, escape, avoidance
          • limbic system, right frontal lobe
    • Arousal Approaches to Motivation
      • Stimulus motive – is unlearned/automatic and causes an increase in stimulation
      • Arousal theory suggests that there is an optimum amount of arousal for each individual, above and beyond which performance suffers
      • Moderate level of arousal leads to a better performance following the Yerkes-Dodson law or the inverted U-Shaped curve.
      • Sensation seekers – require more arousal. Need more complex sensory experiences
    • Incentive approaches to Motivation
      • Incentives attract and lure people into actions.
      • Behaviour is explained in terms of external stimulus and its rewards.

Emotions (Read: How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain)

  • Emotions are feelings (affective) states that involve physiological, cognitive and behaviour reactions.
  • Richard Lazarus – motivation and emotions are related because emotions are only felt when motives are frustrated, gratified or threatened
  • Adaptive functions of Emotions
    • fear and alarm arousal
    • love (intimate and long term relationships)
    • dictates other people and their behaviour
  • Features
    • triggered by external or internal eliciting stimuli
    • appraisal of stimuli (perceptions)
    • physiological response of bodies
    • expressive behaviour
  • Emotions and the Brain
    • Limbic system and cerebral cortex
    • Cognitive appraisal involves the cortex
    • Emotional regulation requires prefrontal cortex
  • Joseph LeDoux found that thalamus can relay incoming sensory stimulus in 2 ways:
    • High road towards cortex
    • Low road – survival mechanism 
      • directly to amygdala for a reaction (fear response)
  • Dopamine and endorphine – pleasurable
  • Serotonin and nonephinephrine – non-pleasurable
  • Hemisphere difference
    • Left hemisphere is more concerned with happy/positive emotions
    • Right hemisphere is more concerned with negative emotions
      • innate 
      • resting hemispherical dominance affects post-neural reaction to stimuli
    • Physiological + Brain
      • Autonomic Nervous System
        • Fight or flight (Sympathetic and Parasympathetic)
  • Lie detection
    • Polygraph measures
      • respiration, heart rate and skin conductance (sweat glands)
    • Behavioural component
      • expressive behaviour – observable
    • Fundamental emotional patterns – innate set of emotional rection
      • Facial expression
        • Paul Eleman, Wallaw Friesen (Facial Action Code System, FACS)
        • Better at understanding when situational cues are present
        • Women are better
    • We have better judgement of people in the same cultural group
    • Instrumental behaviour – are behaviours directed at achieving some emotion-relevant goal
    • Arousal and performance – inverted U following the Yerkes-Dodgson law
    • Complex task = low arousal

Theories of Emotion

  • James-Lange Somatic Theory
    • bodily reaction determine subjective emotion we experience
  • Cannon Bard
    • subjective experience of emotion and physiological are not causal but independent
    • cognition is not involved
  • The Role of Automatic Feedback – supports Cannon Bard
  • Facial Feedback hypothesis 
    • facial muscles to the brain play a big role in determining the nature and intensity of emotion
  • Two-factor theory (Richard Lazarus and Schalder)
    • how cognition and physiological responses interact
    • physical arousal and its intensity tell us how strongly we are feeling something then situational cues determine the labeling of the arousal.

Positive Psychology

Affect

  • Affect is a person’s immediate, physiological response to a stimulus, and it is typically based on an underlying sense of arousal.
    • Involves the appraisal of an event as painful or pleasurable,
      • Also known as valence
    • Affect provides an experience of autonomic arousal

Emotion

  • Judgement about stimuli and its effect on the individual
  • Usually related to external objects which are pertinent to an individual’s well-being
  • Evaluation of situation
    • Reduction in reactivity will take place if an individual acknowledges their own neediness and incompleteness towards certain aspects of the world. Especially things they don’t control
  • Emotions are sharper than affect
    • Always related to an object
    • Associated with goal pursuit
      • Positive when goal is achieved
      • Negative if goal is obstructed

Positive Emotions

  • Two basic forms:
    • Positive affect:
      • Joviality
      • Self-assurance
      • Attentiveness
      • Experiencing positive emotions could lead to
        • Related to personality and well-being
        • Physiological aspects.
        • Helping other people
        • Flexibility in thinking
        • Problem solving
        • Altruistic behaviour
    • Negative affect
      • General distress and would lead to
        • Hostility
        • Irritability
        • Shame
  • Positive and negative affect are NOT polar opposites.
    • Independent of one another and inversely correlated.

The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions by Fredrickson (2004)

  • Theoretically linked with building physical, psychological and social resources.
    • Positive emotions broadens an individual’s momentary thought-action repertoire.
      • Example of thought action repertoire – joy sparks the urge to play
    • Consequences of broadened mind sets are that they promote discovery of novel and creative actions, ideas and social bonds which develop an individual personal resources
      • E.g. physical, intellectual, psychological and social resources
      • Produce optimal functioning over the long term
  • B&B theory postulate that emotions are confused with related states such as sensory pleasure & positive mood
    • Emotions require cognitive appraisal and are related to personally meaningful circumstances
  • Specific action tendencies: certain events make individuals behave in particular ways
    • E.g. in a life threatening situation leads to fight or flight response
    • Works well to describe negative emotions, however, positive emotions seldom occur in life threatening situations, instead they have a complementary beneficial/protective effect
  •  Broadened mindsets carry indirect and long-term adaptive benefits because broadening builds enduring personal resources
    • Juvenile play – builds enduring social and physical resources, social bonds, attachments & intellectual resources by increasing creativity
  • Personal resources accrued during states of positive emotions are durable they outlast the transient emotional states that led to their acquisition
  • Experiencing positive emotions then allows people to transform themselves by becoming more creative, knowledgeable, resilient, socially integrated & healthy

Difference between mood and emotion

            – Mood is generic term and refers to how an individual feels in an overall manner for long period of time.

            –  Emotions are temporary states that tied to personally meaningful events and end with their suppression or enactment.

  •  Positive emotions should not be confused with simple sensory pleasures
    • eg. Eating, sexual gratification (automatic pleasures to physiological needs).

Current Research Findings

  • Broaden thought-action repertoires
    • Positive emotions widen the array of thoughts & actions
  • Undo lingering negative emotions
    • Joy/contentment undo effects of negative emotions
  • Fuel psychological resiliency

-resilient individuals “bounce back” from situations.

  • Build personal resources

-positive emotions augment enduring coping responses,

  • Fuel psychological and physical well-being

-positive meaning and emotions are reciprocal building emotional well-being.

  • Traditional perspectives suggest positive emotions mark health.
  • The broaden- and build theory suggests positive emotions also produce health and well-being.
  • In short positive emotions fuel human flourishing.
  • Positive emotions are an essential topic within the science of well-being, they
    • Produce health, well-being and fuel human flourishing
    • Broaden people’s attention and thinking
    • Undo lingering resilience
    • Build consequential personal resources
    • Trigger upward spirals towards greater well-being in the future
  • The broaden-and-build theory conveys how positive emotions move people forward and lift them to the higher ground of optimal well-being.
  • Positive Emotions and Health resources
    • Helps develop the immune system
    • Beneficial to the Brain, nervous system, endocrine system.
  • Positive Emotions and social resources
    • Our relations with others
    • Buffering hypothesis- social support from others reduce the potential effects of stress (Cohen & Wills, 1985).
    • Direct effects hypothesis- social support contributes to individuals health independent of his/her level of stress.
  • Positive Emotions and Psychological resources
    • Coping with stress

Positive coping strategies

  • Used to reduce the perceived discrepancy between stressful demands and available resources for meeting these demands.
  • Rudolph Moos framework for systems and their relationships
    • Environmental system such as life stressors and social resources
    • Personal System such as Demographic factors and Personal factors
    • Life crisis and transitions such as event related factors
    • Cognitive appraisal and coping process
    • Health and well-being.
  • Emotion focused coping- Coping is done by focusing on the accompanying emotion because the situation may not necessarily change
  • Managing affective states associated with uncontrollable stress.
  • Problem focused coping- Coping with stress is done by targeting the problem head on.
  • Directly modify the source of stress.

Avoidant Coping

  • Time out from active coping is required to restore the personal resources.

All three coping styles can be distinguished between functional and dysfunctional.

Problem solving skills

  • To enhance psychological adjustment (D’Zurilla & Nezu, 1999).
  • Better physical psychological and social adjustment (Heppner, 2002).

Social Support

  • Living cooperatively in groups.
  • Perceived social support, supportive relationship and social networks.
  • Assessments and interventions.

Catharsis

  • Required while holding emotional traumas and related anxieties.
  • Crying – immediate emotional relief

Faith – religion as a way of coping.

  • Religious experience involves a transcendent factor, a mystical factor and a social factor
  • Meditation, relaxation and exercises

Reframing- step out from the old frame and try to look at the problem from an alternative frame.

  • Benefit finding and benefit reminding
  • Enhanced personal development, a new life perspectives, and strengthened relationships.
  • Humour – see the funny side of the situation.
  • Distraction – rather than monitoring.

Proactive coping: here individuals pre-empt potential stressors and create methods to deal with them in advance

PERMA Model:

 Founder: Martin Seligman

  • Stands for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Achievement/Accomplishment
    • Positive Emotions (P)
      • Feeling good
      • Feel Appreciated
      • Having Hope
      • Satisfaction
      • Peace
    • Engagement (E)
      • Being completely absorbed in activities
    • Relationships (R)
      • Positive Relationships
      • As humans, we are “social beings
    • Meaning (M)
      • Purposeful Existence
    • Achievement
  • Sense of accomplishment and success.
  • achieving a goal you have set for yourself or succeeding in a task that has value for you.
    • The awareness of PERMA can help you increase your well-being by focusing on combinations of feeling good, living meaningfully, establishing supportive and friendly relationships, accomplishing goals, and being fully engaged with life. 

Happiness and Subjective Well-Being

  • Different definitions for each person
  • Rarely used in research studies because of its subjective nature

Subjective Well-being

  • Combination of positive affect and general life satisfaction
    • General life satisfaction is the subjective appreciation of life’s rewards
    • Used synonymous with happiness in psychology literature.

Theories:

  • Humans have a hedonic way of behaving
    • Pleasure driven & Pain avoidance will lead to happiness
  • Eudaimonia
    • Human flourishing associated with living a life of virtue, or happiness based on a lifelong pursuit of meaningful, developmental goals.
  • Theories of happiness:
    • Need/goal satisfaction theories
    • Process/activity theories
    • Genetic/personality theories
  • Need/goal satisfaction theories
    • Objective was reduction of tension and satisfaction of needs
    • Understanding was that reaching our goals will make us happy
    • Happiness was a target
  • Process/Activity theories
    • Engagement in particular life activities would provide happiness
    • FLOW
      • Engagement in interesting activities that match or challenge task-related skills
    • Work can produce happiness
    • Process of pursuing goals generates energy and happiness
  • Genetic/personality theories
    • These theories view happiness as being stable
      • Non dependent on life events
    • Research showed happiness remained relatively stable over a period of time
    • Extroversion and neuroticism was closely related to happiness
  • Subjective Well-being
    • Well-being was a subjective evaluation of one’s current status in the world.
      • Our experiences of pleasure and our appreciation of life’s rewards
  • Determinants of Happiness
    • Money was a stronger correlate for students from poorer countries
    • People from wealthier nations were happier than those from impoverished nations
    • Strong relationship with money for low SES but insignificant for the affluent
    • Married people are happier
      • All ages, income, educational levels or racial-ethnic backgrounds
    • Good social relationship is also important
    • Emotional, Social and Psychological Well-Being
    • Optimal function is a combination of these factors and have the absence of recent mental illness
  • Emotional well-being: subjective well-being.
    • Presence of positive affect, satisfaction with life and absence of negative affect
  • Social well-being: incorporating acceptance, contribution, coherence, and integration into our environments and society
  • Psychological well-being: combining self acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy, positive relations with other.
  • Complete state model states that combining mental health and mental illness symptoms which are ever changing can result in fluctuations in states of overall well-being.
  • Strategies for life enhancement
    • Realize the enduring happiness doesn’t come from success
    • Take control of your time
    • Act happy
    • Seek work and leisure that engages your skills
    • Join the movement movement
    • Sleep
    • Priority to close relationships
    • Focus beyond the self
    • Gratitude journal
    • Spiritual self nurturance

FLOW- The Psychology of optimal experiences

  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Harper and Row, 1990
  • Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
  •  Describes how this pleasurable state can be controlled, and not just left to chance, by setting ourselves challenges–tasks that are neither too difficult nor too simple for our abilities.
    • With such goals, we learn to order the information that enters our consciousness and thereby improve the quality of our lives.
  • It is not dependent on outside events, but rather on how we interpret them.
  • The FLOW state is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person.
  • Finally, happiness depends on inner harmony.
  • Optimal experience is when an individual feels a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished, does not come through passive, receptive, relaxing times.
  • Regardless of culture, stage of modernization, social class, age, or gender, the FLOW state as described as enjoyment in similar ways.
  • Tasks characteristics:
    • A chance of completion
    • Concentration on the activity
    • Clear goals;
    • The task provides immediate feedback
  • In the FLOW state
    • One acts with deep and effortless involvement,
    • Reduction of worries and frustrations of everyday life from immediate awareness
    • a sense of control over their actions;
    • Concern for the self disappears, yet, paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over; and
    • The sense of duration of time is altered.

FLOW state features:

  • A Challenging Activity that Requires Skills
  • The Merging of Action and Awareness
  • Clear Goals and Feedback
  • Concentration on the Task at Hand
  • The Paradox of Control
  • The Loss of Self-Consciousness
  • The Transformation of Time
    • The key element of an optimal experience is that it is an end in itself.
    • It is an autotelic experience.
    • “auto” meaning self, and “telos” meaning goal.
    • It refers to a self-contained activity, one that is done not with the expectation of some future benefit, but simply because the doing itself is the reward.

Me/We Balance

  • Individualism of Me
  • The person with a good idea, through hard work, can succeed in the pursuit of personal goals.
  • Concerns of individual is greater than the concern for the group.

Core and Secondary Emphases

  • 3 core elements
    • Independence – About the individual
    • Uniqueness – what is different about the individual
    • Self as unit of analysis – the entire self is used a part of analysis
  • Six secondary characteristics-
    • Personal attitude towards self.
    • Pursuit of one’s potential.
    • Focus drives that are integrated into personality.
    •  Identity and values contribute to sense of autonomy.
    • Perception are accurate.
    •  Mastery of environment and enjoyment of love, work and play.
  • Attention to positive than the negative.
  • Attainment of positive mental health is passive and remediation of mental illness is active and demand more resources.
  • Maintenance of mental health does not warrant same careful attention.

Issues in positive psychology

  • Abnormal behaviour gains more attention.
  • Emphasis more on internal characteristics of a person.
  • Weaknesses and negative emotions often plays a role.
  • Cultural context are not considered.

Balanced Conceptualization of Mental Health

  • Eric Fromm (1955) – Sane society – mental health as the ability to love and to create.
  • Marie Jahoda (1958) – mental health as positive condition driven by psychological resources and desires for personal growth.

Resiliency

  • A pattern of positive adaptation in the context of past or present adversity (Wright & Masten, 2005).
  • A set of inner resources, social competencies, and cultural strategies that permit individuals to not only survive, but recover, or even thrive after stressful events, but also to draw from the experience to enhance subsequent functioning (Stanton-Salazar & Spina, 2000).
  • Resilience in childhood is defined as typical development in the face of adverse circumstances that propel others to deleterious outcomes (Deater-Deckard, Ivy, & Smith,  2005).
  • Resilience itself could be seen as the process of, capacity for, or outcome of successful adaptation in the face of challenging or threatening circumstances (Veselksa, Geckova, Orosova, Gajdosova, van Dijk, & Reijneveld, 2008).

Why Study Resiliency?

  • Children face adversity and are at risk
  • Wide variety of outcomes
  • Poverty is linked with poorer resiliency

Resilience

  • ‘bouncing back.’
  • Phenomena characterized by patterns of positive adaptation in the context of  significant adversity or risk (Masten and Reed, 2002).
  • External  adaptation –  linked with adapation to social,  educational,  and  occupational expectations of society
  • Internal adaptation – linked with adaptation to positive psychological well being

Building Resilience – 7 C’s Kenneth Ginsburg

  • Competence
  • Confidence
  • Connection
  • Character
  • Contribution
  • Coping
  • Control

The Strength Model of Self-Control

  • Baumeister et al., 2007
  • Self-control refers to the capacity for altering one’s own responses, especially to bring them into line with standards such as ideals, values, morals, and social expectations, and to support the pursuit of long-term goals.
  • At the theoretical level, self-control holds important keys to understanding the nature and functions of the self.
  • the practical applications of self-control- behavioural and impulse-control problems, including overeating, alcohol and drug abuse, crime and violence, overspending, sexually impulsive behaviour, unwanted pregnancy, and smoking; emotional problems, school underachievement, lack of persistence.

Limited resources

  • Self control appears to be vulnerable to deterioration over time from repeated exertions. An analogy to Muscles getting tired.
  • Self-regulation depends on a limited resource that becomes depleted by acts of self-control.
  • Subsequent performance even on other self-control tasks become worse.
  • Ego depletion- a state of diminished resources.

Elaborating Strength Model

  • First: regular exertions of self-control can improve will power strength.
    • Resistance to depletion
  • Second: Conserve the remaining strength. Eg. When muscle tire, using of some self-regulatory resources.
  • Third: exert self-control despite ego depletion if the stakes are high enough. Eg. Offering cash incentives or other motives for good performance.
  • Multiple lines of work have identified procedures that can moderate or counteract the effects of ego depletion.
  • state of positive emotion
  • implementation intentions

Practical Applications

  • Positively: self-control is associated with good adjustment, secure attachment, and other favourable psychological states.
  • Negatively: poor self-control is associated with elevated rates of psychopathological complaints and symptoms, as well as increased vulnerability to various substance-abuse and eating disorders.
  • Self is more important than a network of cognitive schemas.

Free will

  • The functional purposes of the self almost certainly include managing behaviour toward fostering enlightened self-interest and facilitating group membership by garnering social acceptance.
  • Explanation for Self control failure

Present Bias:

  • Individuals change behaviour and do not follow existing plans.

Yielding to temptation:

  • Impulsive purchasing and consumer behaviour
  • Strength of the desire.
  • Standards, a monitoring process, and the operational capacity to alter one’s behaviour (willpower or strength; knowledge about the self and contingencies; skill).

Approach/Avoidance goals

  • Easier to control approach goals than avoidance; avoidance by its nature evoke anxiety and stress; associated with decreased feeling of self.
  • Goal conflict
  • Inter goal facilitation

Excuses:

  • Prescriptive clarity- rules, goals and procedures
  • Personal obligation- extent to which person is required or expected
  • Personal control- amount of control a person has over the outcome.

Beliefs about self control

  • Individual differences
  • Wait for larger reward that smaller one.
  • Impulsive versus reflective control systems
  • hot or go system
  • Cool or know system
  • Resisting temptations

Psychological Distance- psychological separation between the self and the situation.

  • Procrastination
  • Do not fulfil their obligations, deliver on their promises or fulfil personal goals.
  • Evidence of laziness and self indulgence.
  • Some people do their work under pressure.
  • Time pressure add emotional energy, perhaps lead to better performance.
  • Research on cost and benefits of Procrastination.

Gainful Employment

  • A healthy life is the one in which a person has the ability to love and to work (O’Brien, 2003).
  • Importance of positive interpersonal relationship and employment.
  • Gainful employment refers to an employment situation where the employee receives steady work and payment from the employer.
  • In psychology, gainful employment is a positive psychology concept that explores the benefits of work and employment.

Gainful employment is work that is characterized by nine benefits.

  • The importance of work in determining how a person feels about himself or herself.
  • Need for engagement of the worker’s talents.
  • Stretch their talent and capabilities in working with people.
  • Sense of attachment, loyalty, and companionship to her customers, co-workers and boss.
  • Productivity and satisfaction
  • Happiness and Satisfaction
  • If a person is happy at work, his or her overall satisfaction with life will be higher (Hart, 1999).
  • Performing well and meeting goals
  • Career self efficacy- personal confidence in ones capacity to handle career development and work related activities.
  • Happy people are often considered as high performers.

Deriving purpose by Service

  • Sense of providing needed service to the customers.

Engagement and Involvement

  • Satisfaction
  • Employees know what is expected of them
  • Engaged involvement has resemblance to flow
  • Commitment

Varieties in duties

  • Variability in work
  • Presenteeism- physical presence at work

Income for family and self

  • Rational approach to monetary rewards

Companionship and loyalty

  • Friendship network
  • Vital friends

Safe work environments

  • Welfare of the workers
  • Perceived safety

Respect and Appreciation for Diversity

  • Diversity management (proactive)
  • Leaders should have a heterogeneous culture.
  • Capital at work
  • Fred Luthans
  • Traditional economic capital- What you have?- Financial, Tangible assets etc…
  • Human Capital –  experience, education, skills, knowledge, and ideas of the individual
  • Social Capital- relationship, network of contacts, and friends.
  • Positive psychological capital –confidence, hope, optimism, Resiliency