Shane J. Lopez, PhD
University of Kansas
"Build it and they will come. Build it and
they will come." A similar eerie directive echoed in Ray
Consella's mind in the popular movie, "Field of Dreams." An
epiphany occurred when Consella realized that the building of a
baseball field in rural Iowa would open a metaphysical door to his
past and his future.
Dr. Martin Seligman experienced a similar epiphany
that occurred in his garden and was brought about by the profound
words of a child, his daughter Nikki. In a 1999 speech, Dr. Seligman
recounted the experience that changed his view of parenting and
psychology and he concluded the following:
Raising Nikki would be about taking the
strength that she had just shown--I call it seeing into the
soul--naming it, nurturing it, reinforcing it, helping her to lead
her life around it and let it buffer against the weaknesses and
the vicissitudes. The most important thing, the most general thing
I learned, was that psychology was half-baked, literally
half-baked. We had baked the part about mental illness; we had
baked the part about repair of damage...The other side's unbaked,
the side of strength, the side of what we're good at.
Positive psychology is the other side. It is the
scientific pursuit of optimal human functioning and the building of a
field focusing on human strength and virtue. It builds on the bench
science and research methods that shed light on the "dark
side" of human functioning, and it opens the door to
understanding prevention and health promotion. Dr. Seligman (1998)
noted:
We have discovered that there is a set of human
strengths that are the most likely buffers against mental illness:
courage, optimism, interpersonal skill, work ethic, hope, honesty
and perseverance. Much of the task of prevention will be to create
a science of human strength whose mission will be to foster these
virtues in young people.
In less than three years, since Dr. Seligman kicked
off his APA presidency by introducing his positive psychology mission,
a field of dreams quickly has taken shape. Positive psychology
meetings, summits, and conferences have energized research programs
that focus on personal and community flourishing. Recently, the
Templeton Prizes for outstanding research in positive psychology were
awarded. Upcoming events include the Positive Psychology Summit 2000:
Building a Positive Human Future to be held in October in Washington,
DC and the 2001 Positive Psychology Summer Institute. A positive
psychology book series will be published by APA in upcoming years, and
The Handbook of Positive Psychology will be published by Oxford in
2001. Clearly, as suggested by recent scholarly events, a positive
social science is in development and positive psychology has emerged.
As personality, social, clinical, counseling, and I/O psychologists
continue to band together to address complicated issues related to
health and well-being, see http://www.psych.upenn.edu/seligman/pospsy.htm#Articles,
Columns and Books for synopses of positive psychology articles and
events.
"Build it and they will come." Snyder and
McCullough (2000) posited that if social scientists built a positive
psychology field of dreams, additional researchers would join in the
scientific pursuit of optimal human functioning. I propose that
positive psychology bench science is already being translated into
practice and that therapists and their clients value the shift in
focus from a decrease in pathology to an increase in pre-existing
strengths and a discovery of hidden talents. Thus, this is a mission
that could unite the science and practice communities.
Psychologists have developed the requisite acumen
needed to adequately research healthy processes and states and to
highlight positive psychological outcome. The socio-economic thriving
of the US sets the stage for bold developments in a science of health,
rather than focusing on illness and strife. It is time to go beyond
our attempts to cure mental illness and devote more energies to
preventing sickness and promoting well-being. Positive psychological
science and practice can fuel the identification and understanding of
human strength and virtue. What a mission!
This article first appeared in the Summer 2000 Edition of the APAGS
Newsletter, Vol. 12(2)
