The new mission of psychology: discover what we can do to be happier, healthier and more resilient

Over the past 11 years, the field of psychology has been on a new mission: to identify, research, and teach the skills that lead to well-being and resilience. Called “Positive Psychology,” it is a rapidly growing branch of scientific psychology that studies the strengths and virtues that allow individuals and communities to thrive.

In 1998, Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania was elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA). At the time, Dr. Seligman was famous in the research world for his work on learned helplessness and optimism. As president of the APA, he designated Positive Psychology as the subject of his term of office.

In many of his presentations to psychologists and others, Professor Seligman reviewed the field of psychology in the 20th century from a historical perspective. He pointed out that before World War II, psychology advocated three missions: to cure mental illness, to make everyone’s life more fulfilling, and to identify and foster talent and genius. Several famous psychologists have devoted their work to promising theories of happiness, but without the empirical research to back them up.
 
After the war, two events changed the focus of psychology. In 1946, the Veterans Administration was created, and practicing psychologists discovered that they could make a living treating mental illness. Then in 1947 the National Institute of Mental Health was formed and academic psychologists found they could get grants for mental illness research. Thus, the greatest emphasis, almost exclusively in psychology, was on mental illness. And the effort has been very effective in providing a greater understanding of psychopathology and many more effective treatments.
 
Yet a little over a decade ago, Professor Seligman believed it was time psychology learned what makes life worth living, what helps people bounce back when adversity strikes, what makes make their lives more enjoyable and meaningful, what communities and institutions can do to promote well-being. He declared that it was time to find what is right in people, rather than just what is wrong with them.
 
What has happened in the period from 1998 to now is nothing short of spectacular. Research on Positive Psychology is being done in almost every corner of the world. The findings are being applied in therapy, training, schools, institutions, corporations, and communities. Much has been discovered about happiness and its pursuit. Interestingly, some of the results have been contradictory, meaning they are not what most of us would expect.
 
The field of Positive Psychology has as its main objective to prepare people to handle all the difficulties and obstacles that life so often presents us with. When Seligman asked one of his heroes, Dr. Jonas Salk, the American biologist and physician famous for the first effective polio vaccine, what he would do as a young scientist today, Dr. Salk said, “I would do immunization, but instead of doing it physically, I would do it mentally.”
 
You can find more information about the impact of Positive Psychology in my book, It’s Your Little Red Wagon… Six Fundamental Strengths to Navigate Your Path to the Good Life (Embrace the Power of Positive Psychology and Live Your Dreams), Available on Amazon.com.
 
Copyright 2009. Sharon S. Esonis, Ph.D.