As director of A Happier You, a wellness program designed to teach participants how to increase feelings of happiness, Dr. Scott Glassman is highly aware of the misconceptions about the field of positive psychology.
According to Glassman, a question he sometimes gets in the program is along the lines of "What if I can't just be happy all the time? If I'm not feeling happy, should I still come to the group?"
“This question highlights the misconception that positive psychology approaches require people to feel good all the time or force the display of happiness when it feels incongruent,” he said.
Glassman and his facilitators make it a point at the beginning of A Happier You to tell participants that positive psychology encourages the acceptance of our emotional states, including negative ones.
“Sadness, frustration, and anger, for example, have value, importance, and utility in shining a light on new information, values, ideas, or deficits in our lives calling for us to fill them,” he said.
Positive psychology, he added, is non-prescriptive in that it provides ways to discover "pivot points" into positive experience without there being a mandate to move there.
“When we feel ready to turn in that direction, positive psychology exercises offer us a way to shift our attention more effectively,” he explained.
Glassman identifies five main misconceptions about positive psychology:
One of the most common misunderstandings is the belief that positive psychology only focuses on positive emotions while ignoring or minimizing negative ones.
“In reality, positive psychology recognizes the importance of all emotions, including negative ones,” Glassman said.
Positive psychology-based practices help individuals establish a better balance between positive and negative emotions, especially if they are consumed with negative feelings, and to explore negative experiences through the lens of learning, growth, and adaptive coping.
This misconception, Glassman advised, may arise from the emphasis positive psychology places on cultivating happiness and well-being. However, the aim of positive psychology is not to promote constant happiness. Instead, it acknowledges that life includes challenges and difficulties, and it aims to provide individuals with tools to cultivate resilience and find meaning even in tough times.
“Positive psychology is not solely concerned with positive thinking or optimism,” Glassman said. “While optimism is a component of positive psychology, the field is much broader and includes the study of character strengths, resilience, relationships, flow, and other aspects of human experience that contribute to well-being.”
According to Glassman, as an academic field, positive psychology is based on rigorous research and scientific evidence. It uses empirical methods to investigate human strengths and virtues, and ways to promote well-being and flourishing.
Positive psychology encourages personal growth and self-care, but it also emphasizes the importance of relationships, empathy, and altruism, Glassman explained. It supports the idea that one's well-being is often tied to the well-being of others, and promotes prosocial behaviors and community engagement.
“It is true that more cross-cultural research needs to be conducted on positive psychology practices to explore appropriate adaptations, norm and value-based aspects of well-being, and implications for social equity,” he added.
Glassman said he sees happiness as a byproduct of activities we enjoy, the relationships that give meaning to our lives, and the fulfillment of our core values and cherished roles. Positive psychology provides a set of tools to help find happiness and meaning.
“Go about living in ways that bring you enjoyment, meaning, and connection, and your thinking will reflect the enacted purposes of your life, as well as the good effects of those actions,” he said. “The thinking itself can set you into motion and foster growth.”
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