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Positive psychology is the branch of psychology that uses scientific understanding and effective intervention to aid in the achievement of a satisfactory life,〔Seligman, M.E.P (1998). Learned optimism (2nd ed.). New York: Pocket Books.〕 rather than treating mental illness. The focus of positive psychology is on personal growth rather than on pathology, as is common among other frameworks within the field of psychology. ==Overview== The "positive" branch complements, without intention to replace or ignore, the traditional areas of psychology. By adding an important emphasis to use the scientific method to study and determine positive human development, this area of psychology fits well with the investigation of how human development can falter. This field brings attention to the possibility that focusing only on disorder could result in a partial, and limited, understanding of a person's condition. The words, "the good life" are derived from speculation about what holds the greatest value in life – the factors that contribute the most to a well-lived and fulfilling life. While there is not a strict definition of the good life, positive psychologists agree that one must live a happy, engaged, and meaningful life in order to experience "the good life." Martin Seligman referred to the good life as "using your signature strengths every day to produce authentic happiness and abundant gratification."〔Seligman, M.E.P. (2009). Authentic Happiness. New York: Free Press.〕 Topics of interest to researchers in the field are: states of pleasure or flow, values, strengths, virtues, talents, as well as the ways that these can be promoted by social systems and institutions. Positive psychologists are concerned with four topics: (1) positive experiences, (2) enduring psychological traits, (3) positive relationships and (4) positive institutions.〔Peterson, C. (2009). ''Positive Psychology''. Reclaiming Children and Youth. Vol.18, Issue 2, pp. 3–7.〕 Some thinkers and researchers, like Seligman, have collected data to support the development of guiding theories (e.g. ''"P.E.R.M.A."'', or ''The Handbook on Character Strengths and Virtues)''. Research from this branch of psychology has seen various practical applications. The basic premise of positive psychology is that human beings are often, perhaps more often, drawn by the future than they are driven by the past. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi define positive psychology as "the scientific study of positive human functioning and flourishing on multiple levels that include the biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and global dimensions of life." L.M. Keyes and Shane Lopez illustrate the four typologies of mental health functioning: flourishing, struggling, floundering and languishing. However, complete mental health is a combination of high emotional well-being, high psychological well-being, and high social well-being, along with low mental illness.〔Keyes, C.L.M., & Lopez, S.J. (2002). Toward a science of mental health: Positive directions in diagnosis and interventions. In C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez (Eds.), ''Handbook of positive psychology'' (pp. 45–59). London: Oxford University Press.〕 Most psychologists focus on a person's most basic emotions. There are thought to be between seven and fifteen basic emotions. The emotions can be combined in many ways to create more subtle variations of emotional experience. This suggests that any attempt to wholly eliminate negative emotions from our life would have the unintended consequence of losing the variety and subtlety of our most profound emotional experiences. Efforts to increase positive emotions will not automatically result in decreased negative emotions, nor will decreased negative emotions necessarily result in increased positive emotions.〔Schimmack, U. (2005). The structure of subjective well-being. In M. Eid & R. Larsen (Eds.) The science of subjective well-being. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press, pp. 97–123.〕 Russell and Feldman Barrett (1992) described emotional reactions as core affects, which are primitive emotional reactions that are consistently experienced but often not acknowledged; they blend pleasant and unpleasant as well as activated and deactivated dimensions that we carry with us at an almost unconscious level. From the time it originated in 1998, this field invested tens of millions of dollars in research, published numerous scientific papers, established several masters and Ph. D programs, and has been involved in many major news outlets. The International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) is a recently established association that has expanded to thousands of members from 80 different countries. The IPPA’s missions include: (1) “further the science of positive psychology across the globe and to ensure that the field continues to rest on this science” (2) “work for the effective and responsible application of positive psychology in diverse areas such as organizational psychology, counselling and clinical psychology, business, health, education, and coaching”,(3) “foster education and training in the field.”〔International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) (2011). international positive psychology association. Retrieved from http://www.ippanetwork.org/about_ippa/〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Positive psychology」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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