Positive Psychological Interventions

As humans we all desire to live happy lives and we do our best towards gaining happiness. Happiness and satisfaction is what evidently lies beneath every action we engage ourselves in, be it in listening to a song, hanging out with friends, or engaging in a job to fulfill our financial needs. During its earlier stages even Psychology emphasized not only on treating mental illness but also on making all individuals more productive and their lives fulfilling as well as nurturing high talent (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2005), so that it would help people lead satisfactory lives. But after the World War II the circumstances lead the field only to focus on treating mental illness and with time as the importance of the forgotten two missions of

al. 2005). Positive Intervention methods are mainly ‘treatment methods or intentional activities aimed at cultivating positive feelings, positive behaviors, or positive cognitions’ (Sin and Lyubomirsky 2009) and according to S. Lyubomirsly and colleagues (2005) their focus is to increase the well being of individuals and to decrease levels of depression and these positive psychological interventions mainly include methods such as Mindfulness interventions (yoga, counting random acts of kindness, etc.), Strength-based interventions (Using signature strengths in a new way, Three good things, etc.), Affect-based interventions (writing about positive emotions, etc.) and Gratitude interventions (Maintaining Gratitude Journals, Expressing Gratitude, etc.) (Gander et. al.

One such area is mental health were some interventions such as Using signature strengths in a new way, Gratitude visit (Seligman et. al. 2005), Three good things and best possible self (Pietrowsky and Mikutta 2012) is proven to relieve symptoms of depression. Interventions such as expressing optimism and gratitude are seen as effective in promoting individual well being (Lyubomirsky et. al. 2011) while Using signature strengths is proven to increase happiness (Gander et. al. 2012) and social skills (Seligman et. al. 2009) among individuals which can be considered beneficial to the area of Self-help. Moreover a study done by Martin E. P. Seligman and colleagues in 2009 revealed that use of interventions such as Three good things and Using signature strengths among school children resulted in them actively engaging in school work and having a positive attitude and interest towards studies thus benefitting the education sector. Furthermore various other positive psychological interventions are used in the fields of industry and forensics (Linley et. al. 2009) as well. These interventions of promoting happiness are generally characterized by their intention to promote positive emotions, behaviors, as well as their focus on improving short-term and long-term well being among individuals (Sin and Lyubomirsky 2009), their general emphasis on special factors such as gratitude and optimistic