Positive Psychology: Two Sides of the Psychology Coin
Positive psychology is often viewed as the complement to traditional psychopathology. These two fields represent opposite—but essential—sides of the same coin: the study of what’s wrong with human functioning versus the study of what’s right or human flourishing. Drawing from the principle of complementarity in physics, this perspective suggests that two seemingly competing views can together form a more complete understanding. That is the case with psychopathology and positive psychology.
While positive psychology owes much to the progress made in understanding and treating mental illness, psychology for too long focused primarily on dysfunction, disease, and human weakness. Positive psychology, by contrast, is the scientific study of human character strengths and virtues, wellness, and flourishing. However, as Lopez, Snyder, and Rasmussen (2003) emphasized, a balanced psychological assessment must consider both weaknesses and strengths.
The Science of Well-Being
Positive psychology is fundamentally the science of well-being. Applied positive psychology studies positive emotions and thoughts, character strengths and virtues, and life-giving relationships and institutions (Linley & Joseph, 2004; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Seligman et al., 2005). Historically, psychology emphasized fixing what was broken. Positive psychology instead emphasizes preventing illness and helping individuals recover and thrive. Its health benefits are well-documented—from offering hope in the face of depression, to reducing stress, to lowering cortisol levels (Fredrickson & Losada, 2005).
At the heart of positive psychology lies the Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) framework (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). This model identifies six universal virtues across cultures and traditions:
Wisdom
Courage
Humanity
Justice
Temperance
Transcendence
These virtues offer a roadmap for living a meaningful, authentic life—especially amid adversity and are further explained with 24 character strengths. These virtues and character strengths will be defined and describe on an resource page soon. Bottom line: positive psychology seeks to help people not only survive life’s hardships, but flourish through them.
Can Negative Emotions Be Positive?
You might be thinking: How can emotions like anger or grief be positive? One criticism of positive psychology is its perceived lack of focus on the full emotional spectrum. But the truth is, positive psychology doesn’t reject negative emotionality—it invites us to experience all emotions in a healthy, constructive way.
Emotional health is particularly under-researched in military populations. However, studies—including the work of Dr. Barbara Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina’s Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab—are showing how positive emotions and affect play critical roles in human flourishing.
The Resilient BEliever: Emotions in Adversity
What sets the emotional life of a resilient Christian apart? Traumatic experiences often peel away surface emotions and reveal the raw, unfiltered core of what it means to be human. In the face of death, combat, or internal battles, emotional responses can range from numbness to rage, despair to joy.
Numbing, for example, is often a necessary short-term response to trauma. It helps a person focus and survive in chaos. But when denial and emotional suppression become long-term patterns, they can contribute to depression, isolation, and breakdown. Numbing in the short term is adaptive coping but in the long term is is avoidance and mal-adaptive.
Here’s the good news: most of us can learn to respond to trauma in healthier ways. Bad things happen to good people every day—but how we respond is what defines us. One of the greatest tools in that response is hope. For more on that, visit our coming soon On Faith, Hope and Love and explore how these three Biblical virtues can turn trauma and drama into triumphant and victory.
Turning Tragedy Into Transformation
Some of the most powerful lessons about post traumatic growth through suffering come from those who lived through unspeakable hardship. These classic works have shaped my view of how new sense of self can can rise from the ashes—and how God can use adversity to make us stronger and more compassionate human beings:
Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can't Wait
Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Corrie ten Boom, A Prisoner and Yet...
These authors speak to the heart of Christian flourishing: not a life free from pain, but a life redeemed through faith, strengthened by struggle, and defined by hope.
References
Cowen, E., & Kilmer, R. (2002). Positive psychology: Some plusses and some open issues. Journal of Community Psychology, 30, 449-460.
Dahlsgaard, K., Christopher, P., & Seligman, M. (2005). Shared virtue: The convergence of valued human strengths across culture and history. Review of General Psychology, 9, 203-213.
Fredrickson, B., & Losada, M. (2005). Positive affect and the complex dynamic of human flourishing. American Psychologist, 60, 678-686.
Linely, P. A, & Joseph, S. (2004). Applied positive psychology: A new perspective for professional practice. In P. Linely & S. Joseph (Eds.), Positive psychology in practice (pp. 3-12). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
Lopez, S. J., Snyder, C. R., & Rasmussen, H. N. (2003). Striking a vital balance: Developing a complementary focus on human weakness and strength through positive psychological assessment. In S. J. Lopez and C. R. Snyder (Eds.). Positive psychological assessment: A handbook of models and measures (pp. 3- 20). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Previous classifications of character strengths. In C. Peterson & M. Seligman (Eds.), Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification (pp. 53-89). New York, NY: Oxford University.
Sandage, S. J., & Hill, P. C. (2001). The virtues of positive psychology: the rapprochement and challenges of an affirmative postmodern perspective. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 31(3), 241-260.
Seligman, M. E. P, & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5-15.
Seligman, M. E. P, Steen, T., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress. American Psychologist, 60, 410-421.