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Reflection Of Positive Psychology

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Beginning in the 1990s, psychologists began to research what made a person happier and how that process affects the brain. This started a movement, known as positive psychology, that caused society to put a negative connotation on sadness, fear, anger emotions and made being happy the new normal. By focusing on happiness, positive psychologists overlook the importance of less-joyous feelings. The way positive psychologists present emotions might seem as if happiness is the only way to live a fulfilling life. However, studies have proven that those who place happiness above all other feelings usually do not live up to the greatest potential in their career or social life. Sadness, along with other emotions, serves a function in how individuals …show more content…

These feelings can elicit emotions that serve as inspiration for groundbreaking entertainment. According to the article, many widely known artists and writers such as “Vincent van Gogh, Emily Dickinson, and other artistic geniuses saw the world through a glass darkly” (Begley 456). They did not suppress their negative emotions, but used them to their advantage and created incredible art pieces. Author of Against Happiness, Eric Wilson reports the importance of sadness: “The blues can be a catalyst for a special kind of genius, a genius for exploring dark boundaries between opposites” (qtd. in Begley 456). Wilson shows how these raw emotions can be the muse one needs to use their talents. Once people can accept that negative emotions are all just a part of the human lifestyle, these emotions can be used to benefit others’ …show more content…

However, studies have shown that happiness can cause a person to become carefree, which puts them in dangerous situations. According to David, “An excess of freewheeling giddiness and a relative absence of more sober emotions can even be a marker for mania, a dangerous symptom of psychological illness” (124). Although one of positive psychologists’ goal is to decrease mental illnesses, such as depression, putting too much emphasis on being happy can lead to even more mental illness. The criticism that negative emotions receive can cause a lack of thought about decisions and in the end, can increase the number of people suffering from mental

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Most people live a relatively normal day to day life even if we may have our share of mundane problems. If we are asked to describe our emotions, at the very least we can say happy or sad or fine. When we truly love something or take great pleasure in something, most of us tend to wax poetically. In contrast, there are people like Ishmael Beah whose lives started off quite normal but then it took a major wrong turn. From the tender age of ten years, Beah witnessed the horrors of war in his home country, Sierra Leone.

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As stated by the google dictionary, the definition of sadness is the condition or quality of being sad. The quality of being sad is shown through the ups and downs of Doodle. Doodle is disabled, when he was younger his parents thought that he wouldn't live for very long and would ever walk. Doodle and Brother's relationship in the story, “The Scarlet Ibis” also shows sadness because brother was hurting doodle by making him run and pushing him. In the story “The Scarlet Ibis”, by James Hurst, the theme sadness can cause people to realize what they lost, this is shown through mood.

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In Happiness: Enough Already, Sharon Begley makes a case for the modern views of happiness and sadness by providing different professional opinions on the the happiness industry, some believe happiness is the sole purpose of life while others believe it is equal to sadness. Jerome Wakefield, a professor at New York University, is approached by many students with complaint concerning their parents’ opinions on dealing with depression, which consist of antidepressants and counseling. Ed Diener, a psychologist, at the University of Illinois, raised to question the idea of a national index of happiness to the Scottish Parliament. Eric Wilson, a professor, at Wake Forest University, tried to embrace becoming happier but ended up embracing the importance

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In his article "In Pursuit of Happiness: Better Living from Plato to Prozac," Mark Kingwell describes how there has been many debates on the meaning of happiness for many years yet still a singular, justifiable definition eludes society. The pursuit to define and understand happiness has invited several debates, questions, arguments, and suggestions alike. In 1996, a hand full of genetic and behavioral studies suggest evidence that one’s achievable degree of happiness is genetically decided, with evidences showing that no achievement will change your happiness, you are either happy or you’re not. Some studies demonstrated a correlation between dopamine levels in the brain and expressions of personal satisfaction, while others indicated that

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There were so many days that I just couldn’t convince myself to leave the safety of my bed. Some days, I buried myself in books and the internet and other days, I spent hours staring up at the ceiling and wondering why I couldn’t cry no matter how much my eyes burned and my chest ached. Melinda and I could commiserate; we were both lost, wading waist deep in emotions we couldn’t fathom. Moreover, we both found similar escapes-- Melinda had art and I had music. When I was at a point where I could no longer verbalize the way I was feeling, I found melodies and lyrics that perfectly captured my thoughts.

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Positive emotions like happiness, contentment, and joy help us develop stability and optimism, deepen social connections, and encourage a sense of purpose and meaning in life. They can give us the motivation and energy to achieve our goals, pursue our passions, and help us navigate difficult situations more quickly and confidently. Negative emotions like anger, sadness, and fear are vital. They can help us identify areas of our lives that need attention or change and motivate us to take action. Studies have shown that individuals who can acknowledge and process negative emotions in healthy and constructive ways experience greater psychological well-being and resilience.

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Louis is a depressing city,” Said junior, Bill Sanders, “that definitely puts a sense of hopelessness in a person.” He then went on to explain that, “nothing identifies with people more than sad songs, or songs that at least sound sad.” People are like sponges, when something bad happens, even those who are not affected will feel some sort of pain. Certain areas exude negativity, and are a breeding ground for creativity.

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Frank Ocean once said, “When you 're happy, you enjoy the music. But when you 're sad, you understand the lyrics.” Why does one have to be sad to “understand the lyrics”? Evaluating a song and being given the ability to relate enhances one’s respect for the composer. For example, when one first listens to “Danny’s Song” by Kenny Loggins, they probably believe the song is about love, however, once a person analyzes the lyrics the realize that the song is actually a story of a couple who are having a baby boy.

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In the world of Matthea Harvey’s “The Crowd Cheered as Gloom Galloped Away,” sadness is represented in a physical form as pharmaceutical tiny ponies to show how people deal with solving depression through antidepressants. Emotions are an abstract concept, and despite their universal nature, people struggle to deal with them. The characterization of depression as ponies comments on how people deal with emotions as a whole. The poem elaborates saying that the people could overcome their depression, but they cannot simply do so on their own, they need a tangible representation in order to do so.

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In this article, Kingwell first relates happiness as a dubious concept and paradox that can hardly be defined in a single sentence. He continues to discuss unhappiness as a result of the insatiable pursuit of happiness. And finally, Kingwell demonstrates how scientists try to reduce happiness to a genetic factor. The science assumption makes happiness a biological pattern that can

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“Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly every action and rational choice, is thought to aim at some good; and so the good has been aptly described as that which everything aims. But it is clear that there is some difference between ends: some ends are activities, while others are products which are additional to the activities. In cases where there are ends additional to the actions, the products are by their nature better than activities.” (Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, as translated by Crisp, 2000, p. #3) Aristotle was the first philosopher who wrote a book on ethics titled, Nichomachean Ethics.

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In addition, a study of Fredrickson (1998) also revealed that positive emotions are conceptually different compared to negative emotions. Negative emotions should not conceived as opposite of positive emotions because both function in a different way. Thereby, when experiencing positive emotions, negative feelings are almost not noticeable. Effects Diener et al.

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Sad music can bring most listeners comfort and pleasure, according to research from Durham University. In that research, it was also found that sad music can have negative feelings and profound grief.

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well, it’s just feeling good­enjoying life and wanting the feeling to be maintained” (Schoch). It is strived for in relationships, in successful endeavors or actions, or in taking up particular hobbies. Happiness is an amazing thing and makes one feel great, but can too much happiness be a bad thing? Too much happiness is a surprising statement, but is nonetheless true, because too much happiness can have negative impacts on one's life. Negative emotions, despite the fact that they are less coveted than the positive emotions, serve just as vital a role in terms of giving perspective, creating arguments, and preventing unnecessary risk.

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Psychology is defined as “the scientific study of the mind and behavior” (Introduction to Psychology, 2015). Psychology provides an overview of biology and behavior, sensation and perception, learning, memory, intelligence, language, motivation, emotion, abnormal psychology, and therapy (PSY 102 Course Syllabus, 2018, pg 1). Because psychology allows for a better understanding of how the mind and body work, this knowledge can be beneficial for any field of study or career. The theoretical and practical understanding of the basics of psychology can help with decision-making, critical thinking, stress management, time management, better understanding of others, improving communication, and even achieving goals and objectives, all components that allow someone to be more successful throughout their life. Throughout this course I hope to gain a greater understanding of historical and theoretical perspectives of human behavior and development (PSY 102 Course Syllabus, 2018, pg 2).

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