Positive psychology

1. Course title: Positive psychology

2.Course description: Nonobligatory lecture in English for IV and V years psychology students and others, 30 hours

Introduction - the field of positive psychology, general ideas, representatives, links between different concepts, current discussions

Optimism - Scheier and Carver's conception of the optimism, optimism in the Seligman's conception, methods of measure, empirical research grounded in these theories, applications

Hope - the Snyder's concept of hope, Trzebiński and  Zięba's basic hope conception, methods of measure, empirical research grounded in these theories, applications

Self-efficacy - Bandura's conception of self-efficacy, general and specific self-efficacy, methods of measure, empirical research grounded in the theory, applications

Self-esteem - low, high, optimal self-esteem and its consequences, method of measure, empirical research, applications

Positive emotions - the role of positive emotions in humans' functioning - Fredrickson's explanations, method of measure, empirical research, applications

Mindfulness and flow - the Ryan and Deci's concept of mindfulness, the McCullough's concept of mindful attentiveness, the Csikszentmihalayi's concept of flow, methods of measure, empirical research grounded in these theories, applications

Happiness - the approaches to happiness and subjective well-being, global assessment of life satisfaction, method of measure, empirical research

Gratitude - McCullough, Emmons, and Tsang's conception of the grateful disposition, methods of measure, empirical research grounded in the theory, applications

Goals - Little's conception of personal projects, Locke and Latham's goal setting theory, Gollwitzer's model of action phases, methods of measure, empirical research, applications

Strenghts and virtues - Peterson and Seligman's conception, Linley's conception, methods of measure, empirical research, applications

Summary - positive diagnosis, history and critique of positive psychology movement

3. Aims and objectives:The aim of this lecture is to provide a comprehensive introduction to the research, theory and intellectual position of positive psychology. The second aim is to explore the assessment of positive psychology constructs. The active participation in this cours may also enhance the general skills of oral communication in English at the field of psychology.

4. Required reading list:

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 1-26.

Held, B.S. (2004). The negative side of positive psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 44 , 9-46.

Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (Eds.). (2004). Positive psychology in practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Seligman, M.E. & Csikszentmihalayi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5-14.

Snyder, C.R. & Lopez, S. (2002). Handbook of positive psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.

5. Methods: Lecture with multimedia presentation, films and audio recordings

6. Assessment method:Assessment is based on attendance and active participation.  It includes the assessment of activity on every lecture.

Autor: Mariola Łaguna
Ostatnia aktualizacja: 05.11.2009, godz. 13:22 - Mariola Łaguna