PSY30011 - Assignment 1: Reading Blog Gable, S.L., & Haidt, J. (2005). What (and why) is Positive Psychology? Review of General Psychology, 9, 103 - 110 Subject: PSY30011 Name: Jessica Foster Student Number: 101778382 Tutor: Nicole Brownfield Submitted as: PSY30011 - Reading Log 1
"What (and Why) is Positive Psychology?" Is an article co-written by Shelly L. Gable and Jonathon Haidt which explores the topic of Positive Psychology, a widely understudied topic within the area of psychology. It appeared in the 2005 edition of the journal "Review of general psychology". Gable, S. L., & Haidt, J. (2005) say that Positive Psychology focuses on the positive aspects which contribute to thriving or desirable functionality of people, groups or institutions. The neglect this area of study receives, despite it being an important area of study, is due to compassion, a focus on distress and disease and the focus on negative psychology created through the field's own nature and theories of psychological process (Gable, S. L., & Haidt, J., 2005) Gable, S. L., & Haidt, J. (2005) outline a few reasons why the study of positive psychology is neglected, the first argument being "compassion". From this argument the authors go on to tell the readers that post WWII came the emphasis on distress and disease, as a lot of the funding agencies for psychologists put a lot of focus into the prioritisation of researching mental illness, and by this time clinical psychology had also come to focus on the diagnosis and treatment of disorders. The final argument the authors present is that "Bad is stronger than good" and how this negative notion forms the base of many theories and frameworks. Throughout the article the authors present the audience with ideas and reasoning as to why positive psychology should be explored, as well as trying to convey to the reader how a focus on these studies is a necessity. The authors present their arguments in this article with well referenced peer reviewed articles, and their reasoning as to why positive psychology is underrated is both well written and valid. After the war, a lot of people needed help resolving their mental health issues, therefore focus was on a medical model disease and the creation of therapy programs. 1 | Page
The article explains to the reader that even though over the past 5 years the interest in positive psychology has widely grown, with more investigators jumping on board all the time, the name "positive psychology" can be seen in a bad light. Critics claim that if there is an area of study called positive psychology then the rest of the areas of study must be negative. Gable, S. L., & Haidt, J. (2005) go on to say this is untrue and unfortunate, and that because psychology has been so widely successful, is the reason why the imbalance of research on positive and negative topics is so well defined. The aspect of "compassion" and helping the suffering first has shown to be a major block