A brief history of positive psychology

Many have argued that Martin Seligman, in his 1998 APA Presidential Address,

introduced positive psychology to the American Psychological Association.

Although Seligman should definitely be credited for his renewed introduction of a

positive outlook in psychology, other researchers have adopted a similar approach

by studying mental health rather mental illness (see, for instance, Jahoda, 1958), and

maturity and growth (e.g., Erikson, 1959) even before the introduction of positive

psychology. For instance, in 1979, Antonovsky coined the term salutogenesis to

describe an approach focusing on factors that support human health and wellbeing, rather than on factors that cause disease. In fact, the very foundation of

positive psychology dates back to 500 BC. Below we present a very global timeline.

               +/- 500 bc ancient philosophers

Many of the questions that are addressed by positive psychologists were also

raised by ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and eastern

philosophers like Confucius and Lao-Tsu (Dahlsgaard, Peterson & Seligman, 2005).

At around 500 BC, these philosophers were already concerned with questions like:

What does happiness mean? How can happiness be achieved? What is a virtuous

life?

               1842 – 1910 william James

The psychologist William James was interested in the study of optimal human

functioning and considered the consideration of subjective experience as highly

important. He argued that objectivity is based on subjectivity. His interest in

optimal human functioning was reflected by the questions he raised during the

American Psychological Association in 1906. He believed that to maximize human

potential, we must gain insight into both the limits of human energy and ways to

stimulate and optimally use this energy (Rathunde, 2001, p. 136). Some have argued

that William James should be considered “America’s first positive psychologist,”

(Taylor, 2001, p.15).

1950 – humanistic psychology

Humanistic psychology started in the 1950’s in Europe and the United States. Many

of the views and concerns of humanistic psychology are similar to those of positive

psychology. Both humanistic psychology and positive psychology are concerned

with the quality of human experience and the ability to self-actualize; to reach the

highest potential (Moss, 2001). Humanistic psychology has been defined as “… an

orientation toward the whole of psychology rather than a distinct area or school

… concerned with topics having little place in existing theories and systems: e.g.,

love, creativity, growth, self-actualization, peak experience, courage, and related

topics” (Misiak & Sexton, 1966, p. 454). Two of the most influential humanistic

psychologists were Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.

The term positive psychology was first used by Maslow in his book

Motivation and Personality (1954). In this book, he wrote a chapter called “Toward a

Positive Psychology.” In this chapter, Maslow wrote: “The science of psychology has

been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side; it has revealed

to us much about man’s shortcomings, his illnesses, his sins, but little about his

potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his full psychological

height. It is as if psychology had voluntarily restricted itself to only half its rightful

jurisdiction, and that the darker, meaner half” (Maslow, 1954, p. 354).

Humanistic psychology was a reaction to the view of human functioning

reflected by psycho-analysis and behaviorism. According to humanistic

psychology, individuals are shaped by an innate drive to make themselves and

the world a better place. Moreover, whereas psycho-analysis was predominantly

concerned with the negative side of human functioning, addressing topics like

neurosis and psychosis, humanistic psychology mainly focusses on the positive

side of human functioning. The field of humanistic psychology has been criticized

for its lack of scientific rigor. Critics state that the field has relied too much on

introspective, qualitative research methods. Positive psychology shares the same

view on human functioning but uses quantitative and reductionistic methods to

address its claims.

Martin Seligman

is often referred to as the “father of positive psychology”. Seligman

was the founder of the theory of ‘learned helplessness’. He argued that clinical

depression and other related mental illnesses are caused by non-control over the

outcome of a situation. Later, Seligman became interested in how to minimize or

reduce depression. He realized that he and other psychologists were guided by a

disease model that was focused on repairing damage rather than promoting wellbeing. After being elected President of the American Psychological Association ,

in 1996, he chose positive psychology as the central theme of his term. With the

introduction of positive psychology, he wanted to start a new era of psychology

that focusses on the factors that contribute to well-being.

Barbara held

Back in 2004, Held (2004) wrote a critical paper on the viewpoints and ideas

of positive psychology. In this paper, she argued that the current movement of

positive psychology has presented itself as a separate field of psychology which

is characterized by a negativity about negativity itself. In her opinion, it would

benefit both psychology in general and positive psychology in particular for it to

become more integrated into psychology as a whole rather than separated out. She

advocates the importance of an “open acknowledgment and appreciation of the

negative side of human existence/nature, a side that has heretofore been denied or

dismissed by promoters of the movement’s dominant Message” (Held, 2004, p.40).

She labeled this more nuanced approach to the notions of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’

as the ‘second wave’ of Positive Psychology. Others have referred to this integration

of the positive and negative of human experience as Positive Psychology 2.0 (see

for instance Wong, 2011). Recently, scholars within Positive Psychology have begun

to adopt a more nuanced approach to the notions of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ and

have worked on a new mature synthesis of positive and negative within the field.

n critical note

The above described timeline provides a very general overview of the people

and developments that have influenced positive psychology as we know it today.

Obviously, this overview represents just a very limited selection of influential

people.

There have been many more pioneers who greatly influenced the

development of positive psychology.

Examples include, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi  with his work on flow, Carol Dweck with her theory and research on mindsets and  Ed Diener with his essential work on well-being.