Kindness and Lasting Happiness

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Psychology’s history is a relatively rough one and has only recently been considered a science. According to Martin Seligman (2000), negative psychology is psychology that deals with recovery and healing, using the disease model. This type of psychology has been popular in America since the end of World War II because of grants given to the industry during that time (Seligman, 2000). That time period left positive psychology, the psychology of developing ones skill and wellbeing and perfecting what is already there, overlooked and forgotten. But what psychologist have recently recognized is that positive psychology can be just as useful as negative psychology but it is a vastly under developed area. Thus many scientists have embraced the new frontier of positive psychology. I did a study on the subject of positive psychology. I took two life experiences, one that I found personal pleasure in, and another that wasn’t as fun at the time but benefited others and compared and contrasted the resulting feelings of happiness. Finding some “me centered” activity was not hard for me to do, b...

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