By Philip Chanin, Ed.D, ABPP, CGP
Board Certified Clinical Psychologist
Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

The Need for a Positive Psychology

“A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless.  The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living.  Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance are ignored or explained as transformations of more authentic negative impulses.”  (Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “Positive Psychology:  An Introduction,” American Psychologist, Volume 55, Number 1, January, 2000, p. 5)

“Psychology has, since World War II, become a science largely about healing.  It concentrates on repairing damage within a disease model of human functioning.  This almost exclusive attention to pathology neglects the fulfilled individual and the thriving community.  The aim of positive psychology is to begin to catalyze a change in the focus of psychology from preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building positive qualities.”(p. 5)

“The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present).  At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom.” (p. 5)

“Our message is to remind our field that psychology is not just the study of pathology, weakness, and damage; it is also the study of strength and virtue.  Treatment is not just fixing what is broken; it is nurturing what is best.  Psychology is not just a branch of medicine concerned with illness and health; it is much larger.  It is about work, education, insight, love, growth, and play…Prevention researchers have discovered that there are human strengths that act as buffers against mental illness: courage, future-mindedness, optimism, interpersonal skill, faith, work ethic, hope, honesty, perseverance, and the capacity for flow and insight.” (p. 7)

Like most psychologist of my generation, my training in graduate school focused on understanding and treating psychopathology.  The “psychology bible” on which I was trained is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).  It is an exhaustive compilation of mental pathology, with a focus on anxiety, depression, substance abuse, personality disorders, and psychotic disorders.  It fails to address or include or consider those positive qualities that lead to a fulfilling life.

When Martin Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, became President of the American Psychological Association in 1998, he expressed a concern “that he and his colleagues had spent too much time focusing on dysfunction and not enough devoted to fostering life satisfaction; he encouraged his peers to pursue ‘the understanding and building of the most positive qualities of an individual: optimism, courage, work-ethic, future-mindedness, interpersonal skill, the capacity for pleasure and insight and social responsibility.’  He called for a return of the field to its origins, which were to make the lives of all people more fulfilling and productive.” (Susan Dominus, “There’s a Formula for Happiness—but You Won’t Find It Alone,”

New York Times Magazine, May 4, 2025, p. 30)

The Importance of Strong, Long-Term Relationships

America’s longest-running wellness study began at Harvard in 1938.  A group of 268 Harvard undergraduates were recruited from the classes of 1939 through 1944.  In the 1970’s, the researchers brought another group of men into the study.  The researchers had begun interviewing them when they were still boys in 1939.  Sixty-five years later, in 2001, when the men were in their late 70s and early 80s, George Vaillant published some of his most significant findings.  He found that for both cohorts, “one of the best predictors of the men’s overall well-being in their old age was how happily married they were at age 50.” (p. 31)

One of the researchers, Robert Waldinger, knew “that being married was associated with overall well-being, but he was intrigued by other, more recent studies that found that marriage alone wasn’t enough—how happy the marriage was mattered…Other research he conducted found that the people who scored highest on measures of attachment to their spouses were also the ones who reported the highest levels of happiness.” (p. 31)

Much of this research, Waldinger found, added up to one key insight: “The clearest message that we get from this 75-year-old study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period,” he said in a TED Talk in 2015.  “Strong, long-term relationships with spouses, family and friends built on deep trust—not achievement, not fortune or fame—were what predicted well-being.” (pp. 31-32)

Waldinger’s work built on other prominent research about happiness and relationships that had been drawing attention in the field: Ed Diener and Martin Seligman “found that happy people spent less time alone every day than unhappy people, and a large study published in 2008 found that those who were more socially engaged—attending church, belonging to organizations—were consistently happier, as were those with large social networks.” (p. 31)

Another researcher, Sonja Lyubomirsky, wrote, “Finding purpose in serving others, spending more time with others—it all points toward the same thing…The reason that all of these interventions are working is because they make people feel more connected to others.  So, when I write a letter to my mom, it makes me feel more connected to my mom.  When I do an act of kindness, it makes me feel more connected to the person I’m helping, or just humanity as a whole.” (p. 33)

Lyubomirsky has found “that when people talk to someone—whether in person, by phone or video chat—those simple interactions seem to boost happiness equally, and that they are all preferable to texting…What she found more surprising was just how effective even having smaller points of connections throughout the day could be for happiness—and how achievable that is, if people could only overcome their own hesitation.  ‘If someone were to ask me what’s the one thing you could do tomorrow to be happier, that’s my answer: having a conversation with someone—or a deeper conversation than you normally do,’ she says…Talking to strangers guarantees novelty, possibly even learning.  It holds the promise, each time, of unexpected insight.” (p. 33)

The Significance of Flow

In his ground-breaking book Flow:  The Psychology of Optimal Experience (2008), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explored the phenomenon of “flow,” the experience we have when we are so engaged in an activity that we are not aware that time is passing.  The preconditions for the flow experience is that it requires a sufficiently challenging activity that engages a sufficient large amount of our ability.

Other researchers have elaborated on Csiksentmihalyi’s ideas, notably Fausto Massimini and Antonella Della Fave, both from Italy, in their article “Individual Development in a Bio-Cultural Perspective” ( American Psychologist, Volume 55, Number 1, January, 2000).  They write that “Optimal experience is characterized by the perception of high environmental challenges, matched with adequate personal skills.  Individuals report high levels of affect, concentration, and involvement.” (p. 27)

They elaborate: “Flow can be associated with the most varied activities, provided that they are valid opportunities for action, engagement, and high investment in personal skills. Thus, creative and complex activities—be they work, sports, arts, hobbies, or social interactions—are frequently reported as sources of flow, whereas repetitive and simple tasks are seldom quoted.

Optimal experience promotes individual development.  To replicate it, a person will search for increasingly complex challenges in the associated activities and will improve his or her skill accordingly.” (p. 27)

They continue: “This process has been defined as cultivation; it fosters the growth of complexity not only in the performance of flow activities but in individual behavior as a whole.  The lifelong process of psychological selection, centered on the preferential replication of optimal experience and associated activities, results in the individual’s life theme.  It can be described as a set of activities, social relations, and life goals uniquely cultivated and pursued by each individual.” (p. 27)

They write, “the outcomes of the process depend on the type of activities a person associates with flow and on the features of his or her life theme…during their leisure time, people more and more look for challenging and complex activities, such as handicraft, arts, creative writing, adventure travels with limited equipment and facilities, and high-risk sport performance…few blue- and white-collar workers quote work as a source of optimal experience; more associate flow with socialization and leisure activities…Conversely, artisans, farmers, teachers, social workers and professionals frequently report their complex and challenging work activity as a source of flow, also underlining its positive impact on the quality of life.”  (p. 28)

They elaborate: “One of the basic features of flow experience is the participant’s engagement in the task at hand in terms of high levels of concentration, alertness, active participation, and perception of the importance of the activity…Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), a well-known Italian man of letters, devoted his life to writing poems, literary and philosophical essays, and treatises.  In one of his most famous poems, ‘A Silvia,’ he defines his daily work ‘gli studi leggiadri…e le sudate carte,’ the graceful studies and the hard, laborious papers.  In one sentence, he synthetically described the joys and torments of complex, highly challenging activities.” (p. 28)

“This same dedication has been stated by a group of musicians and music students interviewed by means of the Flow Questionnaire.  For these participants, music involves daily commitment, hard work, and perseverance—in one word, engagement; 72% reported studying and playing music as the most important source of optimal experience in their daily life.  These findings are consistent with the data coming from people devoted to challenging activities, such as surgeons, mountain farmers, mathematicians, and university students.  These individuals very frequently associated flow experiences with their engaging work and study tasks.” (p. 28)

Subjective Well-Being (SWB)

Ed Diener explores another area of positive psychology, subjective well-being (SWB), in his article “Subjective Well-Being:  The Science of Happiness and a Proposal for a National Index.”

(American Psychologist, Volume 55, Number 1, January, 2000).  He writes, “Throughout the world, people are granting increasing importance to SWB.  Inglehart (1990) proposed that as basic material needs are met, individuals move to a post-materialistic phase in which they are concerned with self-fulfillment…As people throughout the world fulfill more of their basic material needs, it is likely that SWB will become an even more valued goal.” (p. 34)

He elaborates, “People’s moods and emotions reflect on-line reactions to events happening to them.  Each individual also makes broader judgments about his or her life as a whole, as well as about domains such as marriage and work.  Thus, there are a number of separable components of SWB: life satisfaction (global judgments of one’s life), satisfaction with important domains (e.g., work satisfaction), positive affect (experiencing many pleasant emotions and moods), and low levels of negative affect (experiencing few unpleasant emotions and moods). (p. 34)

Diener continues: “How much of the time a person experiences pleasant emotions is a better predictor than positive emotional intensity of how happy the person reports being…Thus, feeling pleasant emotions most of the time and infrequently experiencing unpleasant emotions, even if the pleasant emotions are only mild, is sufficient for high reports of happiness.  Although most people report being above neutral in mood the majority of the time, intense positive moments are rare even among the happiest individuals.  Instead, happy people report mild-to-moderate pleasant emotions most of the time when alone or with others and when working or at leasure.” (p. 36)

Diener adds: “One lesson from these findings is that if people seek ecstasy much of the time, whether it be in a career or a love relationship, they are likely to be disappointed.  Even worse, they may move to the next relationship or job, seeking intense levels of happiness, which in fact are rarely long-lasting and are not necessary for happiness.  People need to understand that intense experiences are not the cornerstone of a happy life.” (p. 36)

Diener continues: “There is some evidence that happy people participate more in community organizations, are more liked by others, are less likely to get divorced, tend to live slightly longer, perform better at work, and earn higher incomes…happy individuals seem on average to be more productive and sociable.  Thus, high levels of SWB might be beneficial for a society.” (p. 41)

Diener concludes: “Lasting happiness may come, in part, from activities such as working for one’s goals, participating in close social relationships, experiencing renewable physical pleasures, and being involved in ‘flow’ activities…Quality of work life is likely to be at least as important to SWB as is income.  Similarly, policies that foster close relationships and meaningful activities are likely to be more successful at enhancing SWB than policies designed exclusively to improve efficiency.  To the extent that higher incomes allow people to engage in more rewarding activities, they will improve SWB.” (p. 41)

The Significance of Optimism

Christopher Peterson has written a provocative article, “The Future of Optimism.” (American Psychologist, Volume 55, Number 1, January, 2000).  He writes, “Research by a number of psychologists has documented diverse benefits of optimism and concomitant drawbacks of pessimism.  Optimism, conceptualized and assessed in a variety of ways, has been linked to positive mood and good morale; to perseverance and effective problem solving; to academic, athletic, military, occupational, and political success; to popularity; to good health; and even to long life and freedom from trauma.  Pessimism, in contrast, foreshadow depression, passivity, failure, social estrangement, morbidity, and mortality.” (p. 44)

Health and Social Support

David G. Myers addresses the role of social support in his article “The Funds, Friends, and Faith of Happy People.”  (American Psychologist, Volume 55, Number 1, January, 2000).  Myers invokes the famous psychologist Carl Rogers, who declared, ‘The only question which matters is, Am I living in a way which is deeply satisfying to me, and which truly expresses me?’” (p. 62)

Like other authors quoted above, Myers states, “Epidemiologists, after following thousands of lives through time, have consistently found that close, intact personal relationships predict health.  Compared with those having few social ties, people supported by close personal relationships with friends, family, or fellow members of church, work, or other support groups are less vulnerable to ill health and premature death.” (p. 62)

Myers continues: “When afflicted with leukemia or heart disease, those who experience extensive social support have higher survival rates.  When social ties break, with widowhood, divorce, or dismissal from a job, immune defenses weaken for a time, and rates of disease and death rise.  ‘Woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help,’ observed the writer of Ecclesiastes (4:10).” (p. 62)

Myers concludes: “Being attached to friends and partners with whom we can share intimate thoughts has two effects, believed Francis Bacon (1625):  ‘It doubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half.’  Three hundred and fifty years later, John Lennon and Paul McCartney (1967) sang the same idea: ‘I get by with a little help from my friends.’  Indeed, people report happier feelings when with others…those who enjoy close relationships cope better with various stresses, including bereavement, rape, job loss, and illness.  Among 800 college alumni surveyed, those with ‘Yuppie values’—those who preferred a high income and occupational success and prestige to having very close friends and a close marriage—were twice as likely as their former classmates to describe themselves as ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ unhappy.”  (p. 62)

Conclusion

In conclusion, “Researchers, poets, and philosophers have explored the question of what makes people happy for centuries.  Martin Seligman and other founders of the positive psychology movement say that authentic happiness is not so much about pleasurable feelings as it is about fulfilling endeavors.  It comes from meaningful and purposeful endeavors and relationships.  Activities that challenge us, while using our strengths and virtues, engage us in intense focus (flow), and have clear and measurable goals and immediate feedback, leading to greater happiness.  Fulfilling tasks and relationships offer a sense of control, loss of sense of self or self-consciousness and seem timeless.”

Finally, I will add a quotation that I have shared with many patients over the years: “As a professor, I don’t like this,” Seligman says, “but the cerebral virtues—curiosity, love of learning—are less strongly tied to happiness than interpersonal virtues like kindness, gratitude and capacity for love.  Why do exercising gratitude, kindness and other virtues provide a lift?

‘Giving makes you feel good about yourself,’ says Christopher Peterson.  ‘When you’re volunteering, you’re distracting yourself from your own existence, and that’s beneficial.  More fuzzily, giving puts meaning into your life.  You have a sense of purpose because you matter to someone else.’  Virtually all the happiness exercises being tested by positive psychologists, he says, make people feel more connected to others.”

“That seems to be the most fundamental finding from the science of happiness.  ‘Almost every person feels happier when they’re with other people, observes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  ‘It’s paradoxical because many of us think we can hardly wait to get home and be alone with nothing to do, but that’s a worst-case scenario.  If you’re alone with nothing to do, the quality of your experience really plummets.’”