According to Pluskota (2014), Positive Psychology in schools entails positive education, which combines the traditional education with the study of happiness and well-being. Its objective is to reduce depression while enhancing the welfare and happiness of young people. It works by training the mind and the heart. Traditional education is based on academics and the emphasis on the development of positive character strength development regarding religion, culture or politics which have elements of bias, without the consideration of the personal psychology and thus well-being. The school is a public setting where learning takes place. It involves the interaction of learners, teachers and the school management with the objective of imparting knowledge to students. Within such an environment, each group encounters different types of challenges that may be stressful and thus negatively impact on their well-being and mental health.
Students undergo challenges in the quest to perform well and relate to their peers. Teachers also face the problem of having to put up with so much pressure in dealing with the students. The management has to ensure that the school is running as per the set objectives which may be quite tricky. In this setting, the people involved include head teachers, teachers, teaching assistants, school governors, and parents. Positive psychology in schools is beneficial as it makes life worth living for the people involved, thus helping them to prosper and be successful with their objectives. It will help them to be happy, motivated to do what they do, become committed, perform at their best, have good relations with others, improved well-being and reach their full potential (Pluskota, 2014).
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Application of Positive Psychology
The use of positive psychology is concerned with the focus on PERMA theory, an acronym that stands for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and purpose, and Accomplishments , being the five pillars of Martin Seligman’s well-being theory. Pluskota (2014) explains that Positive emotions include all those good feelings that are related to good emotions such as happiness, satisfaction, and excitement. It translates to students, teachers, school governors and parents having such positive emotions which will lead to positive outcomes such as healthier social relationships. Engagement is about the involvement in activities as a result of their appeal to a person’s interests. For students, it may mean that they are committed to their school work and no matter how difficult and challenging their assignments may be; the motivation that they have given them the strength necessary to accomplish their tasks with ease. Teachers are able to engage with their students and despite the challenges; they are still able to commit to their objectives. Parents and the school governors are also committed to supporting the children and the staff for the common goal due to the commitment that they have.
Relationships refer to the positive association among people in a society. They help in fostering positive emotions both in good and bad times. In the school setting, this will entail the good relations among students, teachers, school governors as well as parents. It will enable people to spread positivity to others and enable the existence of an environment where people can work as a team for successful engagements. Meaning is the purpose for which a person does what they do. It helps one to discover the reason as to why they are involved in different activities (Pluskota, 2014).
This perspective helps them to put everything into context. Students will know the importance of their studies, teachers will know why they have to help students learn successfully, school governors will know why they have to run the school responsibly, and parents will know the importance of supporting their children in school. As such, people will be able to work selflessly towards the achievement of a common objective. Pluskota (2014) further elaborates that Accomplishment refers to the quest to achieve success and mastery. It can lead to the activation of the other elements of PERMA. In the school setting, this may mean good grades for students, which will make everybody including teachers, school governors and parents happy, excited, joyful and motivated.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Positive Psychology
According to Goodman et al . (2017), Positive Psychology has got its advantages as well as disadvantages. It complements traditional psychology by assisting recipients to focus on the positive side of life, which offers better prospects for the future, preventing them from concentrate on the negative elements that affect them negatively. Through positive psychology, a person can be encouraged to commit to improving their health. Through strengths coaching , it helps people to discover their strengths and build on them so that they can become more confident and competent. It emphasizes on building good relationships and as such, helps people to have healthy relationships with others to become happier. Studies show that happy people have good relations with other people. It provides new meaning that allows people to have a more positive outlook on their workplaces, thus improving their working environment. Cumulatively, it also enhances the general community through better mental and physical health of individuals. It also eliminates failure by cultivating a positive attitude among people despite the outcome of events.
The shortcomings of Positive Psychology lie in its philosophy, the cultural element as well as its psychotherapeutic interventions. It integrates scientific reductionism and authoritarian tendencies which are philosophically incompatible, leading to the confusion as to which specific science the author, Seligman, intended to apply, and the type of reality he meant to test. Positive Psychology ignores the cultural diversity that exists in the world. It is more westernized and supports the individual aspects of a person’s psychology. As such, it fails to address psychological issues for non-western cultures, thus presenting an intervention that is not universal. Also, currently, there is also no evidence indicating that psychotherapeutic interventions of positive psychology have long-term outcomes and so further research into this is required (Goodman et al ., 2017).
Research supporting the application of positive psychology in schools
Research shows that the use of Positive Psychology is growing in educational settings including schools, colleges, and universities, with the objective of savoring the importance of applying strengths, enhancing well-being/positive emotions in education settings, increasing resilience in learners as well as the staff so as to prosper and be successful in accomplishing goals. Norrish (2015) concurs that studies show that there has been an increasing interest in positive education following the work of Professor Martin Seligman from the University of Pennsylvania after he developed a school positive education program for Geelong Grammar School based in Victoria. The growing interest emanates from the need to understand and develop high psychological well-being for students, staff and the whole school. Schools have recently integrated positive education in their curriculum as an anti-bullying, value-creation as well as a well-being enhancement initiative among others.
Traditionally, schools have only focused on academic excellence as the only measure of success. Unfortunately, statistics show that psychological distress and mental illness have been increasing among children and adolescents, putting questions as to the role that schools can play to intervene on this. Consequently, this has called for schools to take a more proactive rather than a reactive approach to mental health, which has led them to adopt positive education in order to develop a student in a more holistic way (Pluskota, 2014). Recently, the roles of schools have increased from developing an intellectual to preparing a whole person. Developed countries consider schools as places where young people are prepared for adulthood. With the increasing focus on Positive Education throughout the world, it may become mandatory for schools to integrate it into their systems as they are bestowed with the duty of care. Apart from academics, schools will have to train students on the research as well as the application of positive psychology so as to help reduce cases of mental illnesses (Norrish, 2015).
Conclusion
Positive Psychology in schools also known as Positive Education is relevant for ensuring that mental health of people in this setting is being taken care of. It works through the application of five dimensions of Seligman’s well-being theory. These elements include positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. Despite several benefits, Positive Psychology has got its shortcomings. Various research studies indicate that Positive Psychology is increasingly being applied in educational settings all over the world following the realization that schools should not only focus on academics but rather on the well-being of students and staff.
References
Goodman, F.R., Disabato, D.J., Kashdan, T.B., & Kauffman, S.B. (2017). Measuring well-being: A comparison of subjective well-being and PERMA, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(4), 321-332, doi: 10.1080/17439760.2017.1388434
Norrish, J. M. (2015). Positive education (6 th ed.). Place of publication not identified: Oxford University Press.
Pluskota, A. (2014). The application of positive psychology in the practice of
education. SpringerPlus , 3 , (147), doi: 10.1186/2193-1801-3-147
