One of the greatest tradeoffs in positive psychology is that between strengths and positive outcomes. Everyone aspires for the good things in life including but not limited to happiness and good health. It is, however, impossible to achieve these positive outcomes without making a substantial investment in character and personality strengths. Everyone h as strengths that they can invest in life and the relationships that come with it to reap positive returns. However, it is fundamental to have an understanding of signature strengths and how to correctly apply them to achieve the best in life. Signature strengths alone might not be enough, more so under extreme circumstances hence the need to also find and hone necessary lesser strengths to supplement the impact of the signature strength.
Background Information
Positive psychology has been defined as the science that seeks to understand human flourishing at multiple levels in an effort to achieve the very best in life. Life, under positive psychology is perceived to have many different dimensions and also have several characteristics that define flourishing. Among the very simple and common ones is having happiness in life, having positive and mutually productive relationships, and also enjoying a good health (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). It is these elements of flourishing that are defined by positive outcomes in positive psychology. There are several bearing factors to positive outcomes, some of which relate to the individual while others relate to the environment. For example, having a sense of humor is a personal attribute that can make a major difference in life. Humor can, therefore, be defined as a personal attribute. On the other hand, being in a war zone is an environmental attribute that also affects positive outcomes in life. A person with a sense of humor might have a better quality of life even in a war zone than the person who lacks a sense of humor. The personal attribute, therefore, makes a difference in spite of the environment. It is these positive personal attributes that are, from the perspective of personal psychology being referred to as strengths.
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Strengths and Positive Outcomes
Strengths and Health-based Positive Outcomes
Identifying and nurturing strong qualities can combat ill-health as many modern physiological problems have their roots in the barrenness and meaninglessness of life. Health is among the key concerns of the modern world according to Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, (2014). Major investments have been made in research to combat communicable and non-communicable diseases by individuals and governments as well. These efforts have, however, neglected the part that having a meaningful life has an influence on the overall health of an individual. The investment in pathological research that is devoid of investment in meaning in life cannot result in the fruition of fullness of life. As per the research undertaken in Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2014), many people are living a life that is barren and lacking meaning resulting in a very low quality of life. The inner weakness occasioned by this kind of living contributes exponentially to the sicknesses and ailments that have been so well defined and explained by modern psychology. However, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2014) argues that the solution to these health problems does not merely lie in better clinical and pharmacological interventions as they are based on the inner person thus it is within the inner person that they ought to first be resolved . After analyzing the available literature in the subject of positive outcomes, the researcher came to the conclusion that health issues can be prevented, mitigated on and resolved through finding inner strengths, building on them and using them to create a positive outlook on life. The environmental factors will, in turn, react favorably resulting in an all rounded positive life. It is through the building on strengths that bareness and meaningless in life will be eliminated thus, reducing on the health issues that have been attacking the contemporary community. A good example given in Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2014) is how unrealistic optimism can help create positive outcomes. For example, it has been found that HIV/AIDS patients who remain optimistic about their health’s prospects for the future in spite of the scientific evidence to the contrary have less negative effects from their conditions from a health perspective. Similarly, those who approach negative and potentially stressful situations by applying humor have a lower propensity for illness than those who do not. The application of strength in even the minuscule issues in life leads to an overall better quality of life and by extension extenuate on the propensity of ill-health.
Strengths Can Create Positive Outcomes Even In Extreme Situations
It is possible to use strengths to create positive outcomes and flourish even in extremities of life such as suffering from terminal diseases or facing life-threatening situations. Among the greatest threats in life is an ailment that not only threatens to take away life but also take away joy and happiness for the remaining period of life. Breast cancer can be considered as one of these ailments and conditions that affect life both physiologically and psychologically. Upon diagnosis of breast cancer, among the first thought that comes to mind is that it might lead to death. The second thought is that the journey to this eventual death might be extremely painful and dreadful. Finally, the path to avoid death may include expensive treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, which will have major negative ramifications. It would be understandable for a person with breast cancer to be on the brink of despair. Casellas ‐ Grau, Font, and Vives (2014) is a report on a literature review on studies about how the use of strengths has elicited positive outcomes to breast cancer patients in spite of the extremity of their condition.
Mindfulness-based approaches were one of the strengths that were found to elicit positive returns when honed and implemented by the cancer patients. Under mindfulness, one learns to anticipate inevitable and imminent negative happenings and embrace them without attaching to them or reacting to them. The strength of mindfulness was, therefore, able to provide the patients with a positive quality of life that medical intervention was incapable of providing. Expression of positive emotions was another strength that according to Casellas ‐ Grau et al. (2014) brought positive outcomes to the patients. It has been said that every cloud has a silver lining. Expression of positive emotions is based on focusing on the minuscule positive attribute of even the most negative situations. The act of expressing gives these positive emotions a higher prevalence creating positivity, and dimming the negative feelings thus leading to a better quality of life and happiness in the middle of calamity. Spiritual interventions have little to do with religion and a lot to do with strengthening the inner person. Seeking spiritual intervention was noted by Casellas ‐ Grau et al. (2014) to augment inner strengths and enable the attainment of positive outcomes for the patients. Among the positive outcomes realized included an enhanced quality of life, hope, and well-being.
Simple Strengths Such as Humor is a Major Bearing Factor to Positive Outcomes
For a strength to lead to positive outcomes, it does not have to be exponentially complex such as expression of positive emotions, since simple strengths such as humor can also make a major difference. Indeed humor is so simple that it had traditionally been eliminated from the initial list of strengths in positive psychology. Even after its addition, Edwards and Martin (2014) reports that humor has remained controversial. Humor is extremely simple and can be defined as always seeking to see the funny or funnier side of every situation. Life is complicated and more often than not comes with negative and unpleasant situations. Humor involves seeking to be light-hearted about the event, the complicated and unpleasant situations, and when possible sharing this side of the situation with others. The controversy relating to humor as a strength capable of creating positive outcomes such as better health and a better quality of life is settled by the outcome of the research reported in Edwards and Martin (2014).
As per the research, positive humor styles and negative humor styles were seen as competent predictors of positive outcomes in the individual . The research study Edwards and Martin (2014) involved a full scientific research on the subject of humor based on tests such as Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS), Humor Scale, and the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). These tests were able to assess 178 individuals to arrive at whether they engender positive or negative humor. Positive humor is a light touch that looks at situations positively while negative humor is a light touch that looks at situations negatively. Based on the research, positive outcomes from Edwards and Martin (2014), the nature of humor that an individual has can have a significant impact on the outcomes that the individual faces. Therefore, an individual with a good sense of humor can have positive outcomes in an environment where an individual with negative outcomes may not.
The Mediators and the Moderators
Different strengths engage with different environmental and external factors to create a variety of positive outcomes. Within strengths in positive psychology, there are the mediators and the moderators according to Ghielen, van Woerkom and Christina (2017). Mediators are the kinds of strengths that do not interfere with the external factors per se, but determine how the individual handles the external factors thus contributing to positive outcomes. On the other hand, there are t he moderators which are strengths that also have an external manifestation and therefore impact upon the external factors leading to positive outcomes. For example, a person who has hope as a strength may not use the hope to interfere with external situation. However, the hope will keep the person going, holding on and optimistic about a better future thus keeping despair, desperations, and depression at bay. In this regard, hope as a strength plays the role of a mediator. The role of mediators as per Ghielen et al. (2017) is to ensure that the external factors will not have a major adverse effect when they find an individual. On the other hand, moderators are the personal strengths that enable an individual to function in a scenario leading to positive outcomes. For example, most people miss out on positive outcomes in life because they give up too quickly when they encounter a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. A person who has persistence as a strength will not give up but relentlessly try repeatedly until the obstacle is overcome. In this regard, persistence not only impacts how the individual feels about the situation but also how the individual reacts to the situation. A person who only has mediators such as hope might wait in the periphery and still miss on the positive outcome. However, a person with persistence, a moderating strength will keep pushing on until the positive outcome is achieved. It is, however, worthy of notice that it is not possible to be persistent without having hope. Mediating and moderating strengths, therefore, work hand in hand towards the achievement of positive outcomes in life. Based on Ghielen et al. (2017), it is imperative to have balanced strengths to capitalize on optimum positive outcomes.
Balancing Between Different Strengths to Attain Optimum Positive Outcomes
Optimum positive outcomes can be achieved through capitalizing on signature strengths while honing lesser strengths. Every human being has strengths and weaknesses. A person with hope but lacking persistence might spend most of their lives waiting for something good to happen. On the other hand, a persistent person who lacks hope might spend life waiting for something positive to relentlessly fight for. According to Proyer et al. (2015), different people have different signature strengths and lesser strengths. The signature strengths come easy and are easier to capitalize on when situations arise . It is akin to the adage that the individual with a hammer might consider every issue to be a nail. The hammer might, however, be detrimental when an issue arises that needs finesse. Proyer et al. (2015) recommends that every individual seek to establish what their signature strengths are. It is the situation that require the signature strengths that have the highest propensity to eliciting positive results. The individual who has an understanding of the signature strength will be able to pick out the right scenario to capitalize on. However, just as with the hope and persistence example used above, strengths supplement one another in the quest for positive outcomes. Once the lesser strengths are identified, they should not be shunned because they are lesser. Instead, these lesser strengths should be continually honed and perfected so that they can be applied in the scenarios that cannot be avoided, yet the lesser strength is necessary. For example, a person whose lesser strength is forgiveness and always seems to hold grudges may fall in love and get married. Without the capacity to forgive, a marriage is bound to fail and the positive outcomes attendant therefrom lost. Therefore, while capitalizing on signature strengths, the lesser strengths must also be honed.
Holistic Approach to Strengths and Positive Outcomes
A positive character leads to a good life. The condition of this statement as well as its manifest simplicity is astounding. There is also a much longer version of this statement. Focusing on signature strengths while also honing lesser strengths can enable an individual to capitalize on environmental factors to achieve positive outcomes leading to a good life. According to Quinlan, Swain and Vella-Brodrick (2012), too much focus should not be made in the means and tools to the extent of forgetting the eventual target. Instead, positive psychology from a perspective of strength and positive outcomes should be holistic in nature, seeking to amalgamate all pertinent and underlying factors. Instead of over-focusing on balancing strengths with the intention of getting individual positive outcomes, research should be undertaken to enable individuals to approach the subject from a holistic perspective so that the eventual focus can just be enjoying the better health and better quality living. Eventually, the use of a strength to attain the required positive outcome will be enjoyable in itself: This broad definition permits inclusion of strengths not captured by a particular classification; it does not hypothesise as to the outcome of strengths use, but does stipulate that use of a strength is enjoyable (Quinlan et al., 2012, p. 1146).
The holistic approach to strengths and positive outcomes in positive psychology must, therefore not be carefully factored in the day to day life as tools and equipment for achieving an important duty are. Instead, all strengths, both signature and lesser should be harnessed, learned, honed and perfected. After that, they should be holistically embraced as part of the character of the individual who adheres to the concepts of positive psychology. Consequently, the application of strengths in individual situations will come naturally and without efforts to the individuals. Once this is attained, the environment and the situations it brings with it will no longer be a bearing factor to the good quality of life and fullness of health the individual. There will no longer be a struggle to find the specific strength that is most suitable for a specific situation. Instead, the individuals will approach life simply, holistically, and in a flourishing manner.
Discussion
A common adage, created to define life indicates that it is not a bed of roses and even if it was, roses still have thorns. Modern life can be very difficult as evidenced by the high prevalence of psychological problems most of which result from stress and substance abuse. However, within every person lies the capacity to handle these external factors and enjoy, not endure life no matter how difficult it gets. The way to enjoy life in spite and to some extent because of the external factors can be referred to as positive outcomes. Among the best positive outcomes in life would be living devoid of stress or depression, having happiness and joy, and not having physiological problems such as diseases and ailments. Further having a good job, finical freedom, and people to love and be loved by can also be considered as primary positive outcomes. However, the available environment does not make it easy to achieve these positive outcomes . As with the third principle of thermodynamics, nature always seems to tend to chaos. To avoid life going into chaos because of vagaries of life, each individual is equipped with strengths. Modern positive psychology has reduced these strengths into twenty-four categories. Each and every person has areas among the 24 strengths that they have a potential to excel and also areas where they have little in any potential to excel. The areas of ease of excellence can be termed as the signature strengths and are the principle key to attaining positive outcomes. The areas among the 24 strengths that an individual would struggle are the lesser strengths. The ideal scenario is to be able to excel in all strengths but this may not be practical. The next best thing would be to seek to capitalize on the next best thing which is shining through the signature strengths while seeking to hone and improve on the lesser strengths.
The issue of strengths and positive outcomes in an effort to achieve a good quality of life is not merely academic in nature. As has been realized in the above research, scientific studies have been undertaken with results revealing the effectiveness of applying strengths to achieve positive outcomes in difficult conditions. Indeed, in one of the studies, harnessing and honing some strengths were seen to mitigate on situations as dire as dealing with a terminal disease yet realizing a positive outcome. Most importantly, however, using strengths to realize a better life through achieving positive outcomes should not be a rigorous and meticulous process. Instead, it should be a process capable of being enjoyed just as its outcomes of a good life, joy, and health should be enjoyed. It is towards this end that more research should be undertaken towards the attainment of a holistic approach to positive psychology in general and specifically the concept of using all strengths to achieve all positive outcomes in spite of all adverse factors of life. It is only through this way that the absolute flourishing endeavored by positive psychology can be achieved.
References
Casellas ‐ Grau, A., Font, A., & Vives, J. (2014). Positive psychology interventions in breast cancer. A systematic review. Psycho ‐ Oncology , 23 (1), 9-19
Edwards, K. R., & Martin, R. A. (2014). The conceptualization, measurement, and role of humor as a character strength in positive psychology. Europe’s Journal of Psychology , 10 (3), 505-519
Ghielen, S. T. S., van Woerkom, M., & Christina Meyers, M. (2017). Promoting positive outcomes through strengths interventions: A literature review. The Journal of Positive Psychology , 1-13.
Proyer, R. T., Gander, F., Wellenzohn, S., & Ruch, W. (2015). Strengths-based positive psychology interventions: a randomized placebo-controlled online trial on long-term effects for a signature strengths-vs. a lesser strengths-intervention. Frontiers in psychology , 6 , 456. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00456/full
Quinlan, D., Swain, N., & Vella-Brodrick, D. A. (2012). Character strengths interventions: Building on what we know for improved outcomes. Journal of Happiness Studies , 13 (6), 1145-1163
Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Positive psychology: An introduction. In Flow and the foundations of positive psychology (pp. 279-298). Springer Netherlands
