Transcript Slide 1

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY:
happiness, flourishing and flow in learning
and in life
Positive Psychology

Background to Positive Psychology

The importance of Happiness/Well-being

Ideas and strategies to use with students
(and for ourselves)

Connections to other approaches used in
teaching and learning
Jean Johnston, ILSA Annual Conference
2011
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Positive Psychology
 Martin Seligman launched Positive Psychology in 1998
when he became President of the American Psychological
Association
Positive Psychology identifies and studies the factors that
create well-being rather than at cures for psychological
illnesses
 It proposes to make people happier and more fulfilled by
using and developing their strengths
It is based on scientific research that has been carried out
through controlled experiments and longitudinal studies
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The Importance of
Happiness/Well-Being

Why is this important to us as L/S or SEN
teachers?
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What difficulties do our students face?
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What effects can this difficulties have?
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Difficulties that Students Face
 Mental Health Difficulties:
8% of students – 83,083 in number (Epsen Implementation
Report: p. 72)
 Adolescent ‘depressive episodes’
affect between 5-10% of young people (Buckley,
Gavin and McNicholas: 2009)
 Depression is now ten times as prevalent
as it was in 1960 in developed countries –
forty years ago, the mean age of first episode was 29.5 yearsnow it is 14.5 years (Seligman: 2003)
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Mental/Emotional Health
 In an analysis of well-being (using measures of emotional
well- being, psychological well-being and social well-being),
Keyes found that “children without mental illness are not
necessarily mentally healthy” (Keyes, 2006)
Indicators for individual positive mental health currently
include the following key elements:
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life satisfaction
optimism/hope
self-esteem
resilience/coping
social integration
spirituality
emotional well-being
Scottish Association for Mental Health (2006)
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Negative Emotions
Negative emotions such as anger, fear, disgust and so on
help us to respond appropriately to our environment –
their adaptive value is easy to explain and understand (B.
Fredrickson, 2003)
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Fredrickson 2003
Barbara Fredrickson (2003) developed the Broaden-and-Build
Theory of positive emotions. It explained that positive emotions
are important to survival. They:
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broaden and build cognitive processes
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expand cognition and behavioural tendencies
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increase the number of potential behavioural options
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Fredrickson found that the expanded cognitive flexibility that is
evident during positive emotional states results in resource
building that becomes useful over time
.
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Emotional Chemistry
‘The brain is a supremely flexible organ that changes its chemistry in adaptive
response to what is going around it .‘ ( Nettle, 2005)
Every feeling we have is a ‘neuro-chemical event’
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Danger, stress and anxiety trigger the release of
adrenalin and cortisol
 These narrow your focus, sharpen your thinking and temporarily
increase your strength to enable you to run away fast
Dopamine is the ‘motivation chemical’
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Its release into the bloodstream is energising
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It increases our ability to focus
 Serotonin is the ‘feel good’ chemical and is calming and
rewarding (MacConville 2008)
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Emotional Chemistry(cont.)

Endorphins are small neuropeptides produced by the body
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They are natural opiates (endogenous morphine)
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They are released every time you laugh, relax and exercise
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Each release makes more connections in the brain, creating new
neural pathways
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They create more bonding in the brain so they expand cognitive
processes
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They enable broader, more flexible, more creative thinking
(MacConville 2008)
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We can increase our well-being by choosing to do activities that produce
endorphins
In the same way, we can also make our thinking broader and more
flexible
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Research
The concepts and claims of Positive
Psychology are supported by research
evidence which includes:
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physiological evidence
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neurological evidence
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psychological evidence
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Happiness
• Increases positive emotions.
• Reduces the impact of negative emotions
Nettle, Happiness: The science behind your smile (2005)
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What Happiness is Good For
Briefly, happiness/positivity
 Increases our engagement in our everyday lives
 Broadens our mindset, our actions and our social
resources
 Enables creative and more flexible, global thinking
 Improves attention, short term memory and problemsolving
 Allows us to build up intellectual and psychological
reserves
 Undoes negative feelings
 Increases resilience and tolerance
Sonja Lyubomirsky: http://thesciencenetwork.org/search?topics+Human+Flourishing
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What is Happiness?
Take a minute to
think about it.
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Three Levels of Happiness
Level 1
Level 2
(Momentary feelings)
(Judgements about feelings)
Joy
Pleasure
Well-being
Satisfaction
Level 3
(Quality of life)
Flourishing
Fulfilling one’s Potential
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More immediate
More sensual and emotional
More reliably measurable
More absolute
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More cognitive
More relative
More moral and political
Involving more cultural norms and values
(Nettle, 2005)
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Fulfilling one’s
potential
Well-being and
satisfaction
Physical,
sensual
needs
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Levels of Happiness
A study by Lyubomirsky (2007) has shown that our level of happiness is
made up of three main components:
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set point: this is what we are born with – it accounts for about 50% of
our level of well-being
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circumstances: account for about 10% of our level of well-being. Even if
our circumstances change dramatically, we quite quickly return to our set
point
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intentional behaviours: the
good news is that we have a
intentional
behaviours
set point
lot of influence on our own level
of happiness. Our own actions/activities
account for about 40% of our level
of well-being
(MacConville 2008)
circumstances
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ILSA Annual Conference
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USING POSITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY IN OUR
TEACHING
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Approaches that
Promote
Happiness and
Learning
The following strategies have been found to develop positive emotions that are based on the exercise of strengths– a happiness that Seligman calls ‘authentic’.
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‘Practising releasing
endorphins through exercise,
meditation, optimistic thinking
and relaxing can have huge
An increase in happiness is generally
achieved by pleasant activity training
Nettles, (2005: p.151)
impact on the quality of
students’ lives’
Ruth MacConville (2008)
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Effects of Exercise
• Produces serotonin and endorphins
• Gives feelings of self-esteem and
mastery
• Allows ‘Time-Out from stress – potential
for engagement/Flow/meditation
• Provides opportunities for social contact
and reinforcing friendships
Evidence from research:
• SMILES
- the Standard Medical Intervention and Long-term
Exercise Study
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(Archives of Internal Medicine 1999:159, 2349-2356)
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Exercise
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Younger children do not always get opportunities
for outdoor play
◦ Restrictions at home and in school
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As students get older, many exercise less and less,
girls in particular
◦ Many students opt out because of the competitive
nature of sport
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Meditation/Reflection/ Mindfulness
Half an hour’s meditation each day is essential, except
when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed.
St Francis de Sales 1567-1622
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Meditation actually comprises a family of techniques
that go by different names (Zen, transcendental, Vipassana etc.) and
different categories (concentrative, mindfulness, contemplative)
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The core ingredient that underlies them all is the cultivation of attention
An avalanche of studies has shown that meditation has multiple
positive effects on a person’s happiness and positive emotions, on
physiology, stress, cognitive abilities and physical health as well as on
other harder-to-assess attributes, like ‘self-actualisation’ and moral
maturity (Sonja Lyubomirsky, 2007: 250-251)
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Relaxation
HEALTH
WARNING!!!
Research shows
that soaps in
particular leave the
viewer slightly
depressed
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Optimistic Thinking
 Research shows that optimists are more likely
to persevere
in the face of difficulty
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PRACTICE
Identify barrier thoughts
Visualize a future where everything is as you
wanted it to be – you’ve tried your best, worked
hard and achieved your goals. Describe in writing
what you imagine.
Identify long-term goals and break them into subgoals – if barriers come into your mind, generate
resolutions
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OPTIMISM
Optimism is not about providing a recipe for
self-deception. The world can be a horrible
and cruel place, and at the same time it can be
wonderful and abundant. These are both
truths. There is not a halfway point – there is
only choosing which truth to put in your
personal foreground (Lee Ross, quoted by Sonja Lyubomirsky, 2007: 110)
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Signature Strengths
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Chris Peterson and Martin Seligman devised a classification
system for character strengths
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This classification is based on strengths that are
traditionally acknowledged as representing what is best in
humanity
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Seligman referred to these as signature strengths and
described their classification as “ a classification of the
sanities”
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They provide a counterbalance to classifications of
Jean Johnston, ILSA Annual Conference
psychological illnesses
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Happiness Challenge
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Three Good Things
Wishing Others Well
Feeling and Communicating
Gratitude
Practising Mindfulness
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Three Good Things
The student keeps a daily record of three good things that
have happened during the course of the day. The events
may be small, but the student recalls what happened and
perhaps records her/his contribution to the event.

This foregrounds positive feelings in the student’s
mind
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Writing the Self
 Writing regularly about oneself is
extremely effective in boosting
positive emotions
 The writing does not need to be
about happy events
 Nettle (2005) believes that it is
effective because writing gives us
space to be more mindful of our
thoughts
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WOW!
Wishing Others Well
Give opportunity for students to:
 share/listen to good news
 choose a ‘person to be kind to this week’ (needs very careful
management and mature students!)

write a letter to a prisoner of conscience
FEELING GRATITUDE
Suggest that they might:
 Write a letter, visit or email someone to
whom you are grateful for some thing and tell him/her
how you feel
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Random Acts of Kindness
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Closely related to WOW and to ‘Three Good Things’ is the idea of
doing one unsolicited ‘Good Deed’ for another person each day. It
could be:
Clearing the table
Picking up something that someone has dropped
Holding open the door
Washing the car
Putting out the wheelie bin
Doing the shopping –
or one of thousands of other small but significant acts that make
other people’s lives just a little bit more pleasant
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Mindfulness
We engage all the time in ‘future-mindedness’, or what Seligman
calls ‘mindlessness’
Activity
In order to bring our minds into the present, a simple breathing
exercise for a few moments can help to focus the mind on the
present. This is done by simply sitting quietly breathing in and out,
watching the breathing and thinking simply of the breathing. If the
mind strays away from the breathing, observe that it has
happened and just return to concentrate on the breathing
This has the effect of slowing down, relaxing and opening the
mind
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Mindfulness Practise with
Younger Students
Ruth MacConville has some lovely suggestions for younger students:

Mind in a Jar - Fill a clean glass jar with water. Point out its clearness to
the children and compare it perhaps to your mind when it is quiet a
peaceful. Now put in a little bit of sand and swirl it around. Now it’s like
your mind when it’s busy, full of all kinds of thoughts. Quietly watch the
sand as it sinks to the bottom and your mind clears

Rain Stick – this is a tube with beads or rice inside. The children take it
in turns to turn the rain stick over and listen to the beads falling. Listen to
the silence when the ‘rain’ stops
(MacConville, 2008)
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Flow

Flow is a term coined by the psychologist Dr Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi, an associate of Martin Seligman
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It describes a state of optimal experience and involvement in an
activity during which we are performing at our best
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During flow individuals are completely involved in what they are
doing; our skill level matches the challenges of the task, we feel
compelled to persist at what we are doing until we get it right
and we lose track of time
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Flow provides an important pathway to happiness as it provides
the deep satisfaction of successful engagement
(Ruth MacConville, 2008)
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FLOW
Csikszentmihalyi, (2002)
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CONDITIONS FOR ‘FLOW’
COMFORT
ZONE
STRETCH
ZONE
Scaffolding may be put
in place to support
weaker students in
achieving FLOW in their
work
PANIC
ZONE
This area equates to Lev
Vygotsky’s
Zone of Proximal
Development/Learning
(Vygotsky, 1978)
Tal Ben-Shahar (2007)
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Setting Goals

Csikszentmihalyi (1990) explains that having meaningful
goals and a clear sense of purpose is essential to attaining
flow
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Achievement of flow may be assisted in the classroom by:
 the provision of clear goals and success criteria for all tasks that are set
 allowing adequate time for the students may engage with each task
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Well-Being and ‘Flourishing’
Well-Being Theory
PERMA
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Positive Emotion
Engagement
Relationships
Meaning
Achievement
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Happiness,
Flourishing and
Flow in Learning
and in Life
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References and Further Reading
Books
 Csikszentmihalyi, M. Finding Flow (1997)
 Csikszentmihalyi, M. Flow {2nd Edition} (2002)
 Frederickson, B. Positivity (2009)
 Lyubomirsky, S. The How of Happiness (2007)
 MacConville , R.,Teaching Happiness (2008)
 Nettle, D., Happiness: The science behind your smile (2005)
 Seligman, M., Authentic Happiness (2003)
 Seligman, M., Flourish (2011)
 Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness (2009)
Websites
http://www.evenhappier.com/docs/broaden-and-build.pdf
http://www.fredrickson.socialpsychology.org
http://www.positivityratio.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/24_01_11_happiness_challenge_final
http://www.actionforhappiness.org
http://www.icepe.ie (Teaching Happiness: Positive Psychology for behaviour and learning)
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http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/questionnaires.aspx
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