Mental health professionals, social scientists, and members of the media rarely proclaim the beauty of boys and men and their ways of relating to the world. Instead, when the subject of boys and men is discussed in the professional literature, the popular press, or public forums, the conversation is usually focused on either the bad things that men and boys do or how the male socialization process scars boys and men for life, leaving them chronically flawed and in dire need of fixing (Kiselica, 2006).
Although the intense attention devoted to these issues has generated a greater awareness about some of the serious social problems that are mainly perpetrated by males (e.g., violent crime) or primarily suffered by boys and men (e.g., suicide), it has also discouraged an understanding and appreciation for the many good things that boys and men do (e.g., caring for family members) and the great strengths associated with traditional masculinity (e.g., healthy self-reliance; Kiselica, 2006). However, over the past several years, there has also been an increased interest in positive psychology (see Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Snyder & Lopez, 2007), whose purpose is to foster well-being and resiliency in people through the study of strengths and virtue over disease, weakness, and damage, and the application of therapeutic strategies that are designed to build in people what is right rather than solely focusing on repairing what is wrong (Aspinwall & Staudinger, 2003; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Nevertheless, approaches to counseling that focus explicitly on the positives of clients are rather rare (Seligman, Rashid, & Parks, 2006). Even rarer is a helping perspective that looks at the strengths and contributions of boys and men.
Consistent with a positive psychology perspective, the purpose of this video is to demonstrate how psychologists can tap traditional male strengths to promote a happy, well-adjusted life in boys and men.
Drawing from the work of Levant (1995), who observed that there are several attributes of traditional masculinity that are valuable for male development; Kiselica, Englar-Carlson, Horne, and Fisher (2008), who proposed a positive psychology model of boys, men, and masculinity; and Horne, Jolliff, and Roth (1996), who designed a model of optimal male development through the life span; Dr. Kiselica demonstrates an approach to counseling and psychotherapy that accentuates the following healthy behaviors and traditions of boys and men:
- male relational styles
- generative fatherhood
- male ways of caring
- male self-reliance
- the worker–provider tradition of husbands and fathers
- male daring, courage, and risk-taking
- the group orientation of boys and men
- the humanitarian service of fraternal organizations
- men's use of humor
- male heroism
Dr. Kiselica acknowledges that this list of strengths is representative rather than an exhaustive inventory of male assets and that some of these strengths overlap to some degree. He also recognizes that the strengths discussed in this DVD are social constructions that are neither male-specific (e.g., many women have worker–provider roles) nor based on biologically-determined sex differences between men and women, and therefore can be considered human strengths.
Dr. Kiselica intends to emphasize the ways that males demonstrate these strengths and how mental health professionals can consider each strength as a building block for fostering wellness and honorable manhood in boys and men.
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