What´s Positive Psychology?

Psychology plays a very important role in organisations today, in particular, positive psychology. It can be noticed across all industries in today’s workplace, from the IT sector to factory work, and it affects all levels in an organisation. Positive psychology can have an enormous impact on organisations. Everything from moral to employee turnover can be drastically affected.

Psychology has been described as the “scientific study of behaviour and mental processes” (Riffio, 2009). It was very heavily criticised when first introduced to the workplace. Workers believed that the use of psychology was not in their best interests. It wasn’t until 3rd August 1948 that The Manchester Guardian reported that the Trades Union Council had begun attempts to eliminate the common perception by employees that the use of psychology was to prevent employers having to pay them higher wages. For years psychology was considered to only affect the productivity of an enterprise. For example, Frederick Taylor was an engineer who believed that efficiency could be improved by the ‘time-and-motion’ procedure, in which a job was broken down into several smaller jobs. Organisations weren’t invested in the wellbeing of their employees. Their only use for psychology was to increase profit. This has changed drastically since 1996, when the soon to be president of the American Psychology Association (APA), Martin Seligman, coined the phrase ‘positive psychology’.

Seligman had very strong beliefs about how the world was misusing psychology; he believed “psychology was half-baked, literally half-baked. We had baked the part about mental illness [...] the other side’s unbaked, the side of strength, the side of what we’re good at” (Seligman, 1999). He was passion...

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...sitive psychology in organisations have been growing in popularity with the past number years and it will continue to thrive as the years go on.

Works Cited

Achor, S (2011), Ted Talks - Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work, Bloomington, Indiana

Diener, E (N.D) http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/ed-diener/

Fredrickson,B (2003) The Value of Positive Emotions, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society

Ehrenreich, B (2008) Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, Metropolitan Books

Riggio, R (2009) Introduction to Industrial/Organisational Psychology Fifth Edition New Jersey, Pearson Education Inc.

Seligman, M (1999) Address, Lincoln Summit

Seligman, M (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York, NY: Free Press.