© Mark Williams

• I see trees of green, red roses tooI see them bloom for me and youAnd I think to myself what a wonderful world.I see skies of blue and clouds of whiteThe bright blessed day, the dark sacred nightAnd I think to myself what a wonderful world.The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the skyAre also on the faces of people going byI see friends shaking hands saying how do you doThey're really saying I love you.I hear babies crying, I watch them growThey'll learn much more than I'll never knowAnd I think to myself what a wonderful worldYes I think to myself what a wonderful world.

What a Wonderful World (Louie Armstrong)

© Mark Williams

Positive PsychologyScience of Happiness and Strengths

积极心理学：人类繁荣坚韧的科学Life Skills

Dr Mark Williams, Ph.D. Professor of Applied Positive Psychology

Shenzhen University     Mobile: (0011 86 755) 13480129331

email: markw.szu@gmail.comweb: www.aappi.net

© Mark Williams

What is Positive Psychology?

• Positive psychology is the scientific study of human strengths and happiness (subjective well-being)

• Positive psychology tells us what to do in our life so we can be more happy, stronger, and more successful (positive psychology life skills –interventions to change your life).

• Human happiness and personality strengths are scientifically investigated with experiments, case studies and surveys.

© Mark Williams

Why is Positive Psychology Different? (Shahar, 2007)

• Traditional psychology concentrates on studying human dysfunction and illness such as depression, anxiety, and fear.

• Positive psychology studies resilient, successful, talented, strong and happy individuals, families, teams, communities and business and government organizations.

• Thus we can learn these life skills to enhance strength, life satisfaction, and success.

© Mark Williams

Enhancing mindfulness by STOPS Stop what you are doing

Smile Strongly

T Take a breath – sit straight, soft bellyTake some time (count to 5)

O Observe your body & relax itOpen mind-body (look, listen, smell, hear, touch, …)

P Pause to notice Place and PeoplePause to tell somebody something you

noticed Proceed with life

Source: Fisher, T. (2005) ‘Beginner’s mind: cultivating mediator mindfulness’ ACResolution

© Mark Williams

2 Chinese StoriesMr. Pin Pian

Ms. Li Ling

Ms. Pi Ping

Mr. Lin Lian

Rich Families in ShenzhenPoor Families

near Guangdong

© Mark Williams

2 Chinese StoriesMr. Pin Pianyi

Ms. Li Ling

Ms. Pi Ping

Mr. Lin lian

From small cities near Guangdong; worked very hard in school; Had to work hard; graduated from SZU in 2005 because they forced himself to get interested in their major of English; Strong and satisfied?

From Shenzhen; had tutors because their family is rich; talented and handsome; graduated from SZU in law and in management without working very hard at their studies; Strong and satisfied?

© Mark Williams

4 Aspects of Happiness (O’Connor (2008) Happiness)

1. Much joy – Experiencing positive feelings like enthusiasm, contentment, peace, love (lieben), etc., frequently and deeply; laugh out loud a lot

2. Not much misery – e.g. not many feelings like sadness, depression, bitterness, negativity, jealousy, hatred, regret, discontent, loneliness

3. Satisfaction with life – have most things you need, happy with relationships, optimistic; smile a lot; not wanting things they don’t have or feeling you’ve missed out on important things or you’ve failed in important life areas; satisfying work (arbeiten)

4. Meaningful purpose – more about this later!

© Mark Williams

How do you feel right now? 现在你感觉如何 ?

1. Excited – enthusiastic – interested – uninterested – bored兴奋 - 热情 – 感兴趣 - 不感兴趣 - 无聊

2. Joyous – happy - so-so – sad - depressed欢乐 - 愉快 - 马马虎虎 - 悲伤 - 沮丧

3. Peaceful – relaxed – unrelaxed – agitated – jealous - angry 平 静 - 放松 – 拘束 – 焦虑 - 妒忌 - 愤怒

4. Powerful – confident – ok – timid - scared强势 - 自信 - 好 - 胆小 - 害怕。

5. Lively – energetic – listless – lazy - tired - exhausted 活泼 - 精力充沛 – 无精打采 - 懒惰 –累 - 精疲力尽

6. Uplifted – elevated – clear – unclear - confused 提升 – 振奋 - 清晰 - 不清晰 – 混乱

© Mark Williams

Consider this scientific survey• At Florida State University, Tim Judge and his

team began a study in 1965 with 12,686 participants who were around 15 years old which gave information on levels of their positive strength and well-being.

• His team then surveyed the participants in 2005 to obtain data to calculate subjective well-being and annual income at age 50.

Judge, T. A., & Hurst, C. (2007).

© Mark Williams

Positive people tend to get a high income Income at age 50 预计收入为 50岁

High-positive people 非常积极的人

Low-positive people 积极的人低

Grade Point Average at high school 平均成绩在高中

Low score 低评分 High score 高分

Judge, T. A., & Hurst, C. (2007).

© Mark Williams

More positive = more money?

• This experiment suggests that if you are highly positive:- high self-esteem 自我评价高- high emotional stability 情绪稳定性高- high locus of control 自控性高- high self-efficacy 自我效率高 )

• you will tend to get a lot more money no matter how well you do at school.

• How do you become highly positive? • That’s what we are doing together in this course.

© Mark Williams

High positivity is important in all areas of life

高积极性在生活的各个方面都是很重要的

社区参与

休闲活动

在工作中接触

爱情，婚姻，家庭，朋友

健康

货币收入

© Mark Williams

Happiness Measure

幸福周测量

• “Today, I’ve generally been feeling 在过去的一周中，我一般都感觉 ______”

• “Over the last few days, I’ve generally been feeling 在过去的几天 ，我一般都感觉 ______”

• Write the average of these two scores on the attendance sheet when it is passed around.

10 = extremely unhappy 极度不高兴20 = very unhappy 非常不高兴30 = quite unhappy 很不高兴40 = a little unhappy 有点不高兴50 = Neutral 平淡，无所谓开心不开心60 = a little happy 有点高兴70 = quite happy 很高兴80 = very happy 非常高兴90 = extremely happy 极度高兴 100 = perfectly blissful

© Mark Williams

Who is he? What did he do?

© Mark Williams

Prof. Dr. Martin Prof. Dr. Martin Seligman, 1998 Seligman, 1998

President American President American Psychological Psychological

Association, Association, ““fatherfather”” and world leader of and world leader of Positive Psychology, Positive Psychology,

Director of the Positive Director of the Positive Psychology Center, Psychology Center,

University of University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania

© Mark Williams

What did he do?

• Psychologists split into two camps: • Academic psychology more interested in

education and scientific experiments. • Clinical psychologists interested in client

therapy for depression and mental disorder. • Dr. Seligman hoped to bring psychological

science and practice together.

© Mark Williams

Young ‘Martie’ Seligman• After his Ph.D., he conducted major

psychology experiments on animals and then humans during the 1970s - 1980s to investigate clinical depression and helplessness (very low positive people).

• Today, with bestselling books, Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness, Seligman is recognized as the world's preeminent psychological authority on optimism (high positive people).

© Mark Williams

Seligman’s Early Learned Helplessness Experiment, 1967

• The first (experimental) set of dogs were placed in a box that continued to give the dog electric shocks until they learned to jump over a bar to a safe place – they could help themselves.

© Mark Williams

Learned Helplessness 习得性无助 • The second (experimental) set of dogs

were placed in a box that continued to give them electric shocks for a random period of time – they could not help themselves.

• The third set of dogs (control group) sat in a box with no electric shocks.

• In the final stage of the experiment, all three sets of dogs were placed in boxes which gave electric shocks but the dogs all could jump over to the other side of a partition.

© Mark Williams

Final Stage: Escape 逃生 or Helplessness 无奈 • Across a large number of

repetitions, in the final stage when all the sets of dogs could jump, the first (experimental) set of dogs quickly jumped over the partition and escaped the shock.

• The second set of dogs (learned helplessness), did not even try to jump even though they now could, but just lay on the bottom of the box being shocked.

© Mark Williams

• The third set of dogs (the control 对照组 ) learned to jump over the partition to escape but not so quickly as the first group of dogs.

• Only the second group, who had learned to be helpless, did not try to jump to freedom.

Final Stage: Escape 逃生 or Helplessness 无奈

© Mark Williams

Experiments on People• Similar experiments with people and annoying

bad sounds show similar results. • Both animals & humans can learn helplessness. • When faced with situations where they were

powerless to change an annoying element, 2 out of 3 would cease trying to change the situation after failure.

• Further, when placed in a new situation with a different annoying element, they would make no attempt to fight even from the beginning.

© Mark Williams

But 1 in 3 Humans refused to be hopeless 三分之一的人拒绝绝望

• 1 in 10 seemed to be born with hopelessness, making no attempt even at the beginning to change an annoying element such as shocks.

• But 1 in 3 had optimism, being positively strong to act to improve their life regardless of hardship or failure.

• This later result became the focus of Seligman’s research into optimism.

© Mark Williams

Seligman’s inspiration 塞利格曼的灵感

• Seligman weeding garden, 5-year old daughter throwing weeds.

• Seligman irritated, yelled at Nikki, who replied: • “Daddy. From when I was 3 until I was 5, I was

unhappy all the time. I cried every day. On my 5th birthday, I decided I wasn’t going to cry anymore. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. If I can stop crying, you can stop being such an angry father.”

© Mark Williams

A Change of Heart 一个内心的变化 • Seligman resolved to change - not to be

always angry to make his daughter be better. • Instead, he began to encourage her positive

strength which she showed by talking to him so wisely (social intelligence 社会智慧 ).

• Can psychology build up human well-being and personality positive strengths?

• That became his mission as 1998 president till this day.

© Mark Williams

Positive Psychology uses empirical Positive Psychology uses empirical scientific research scientific research 积极心理学利用积极心理学利用经验研究经验研究

© Mark Williams

Seligman’s PERMA modelP Positive emotions

E Engagement in life and work

R Relationships and love

M Meaningful purpose and goalsA Achievement (esp. for goals)

Source: Seligman, M. www.authentichappiness.org

© Mark Williams

Course Assessments

• There is no final formal exam in the exam week after classes have finished

• There are 5 assessments• Assessment 1: Each week send an email to

markw.positive@gmail.com describing 11 PERMAGASMIC good things that happened during the week (and why they were good because of P, E, R, M, A, G, A, S, M, I, C)

© Mark Williams

• P enhance Positive emotions• E enhance Engagement in life & work• R enhance Relationships & loving kindness • M enhance Meaningful purposes• A enhance Achievement toward goals• G: feel Grateful to someone• A: Awareness of belly breathing mindfulness• S enhance Strengths (individual & group)• M Morph (Change, reframe, remake) negative emotions

(fear, sad, lonely, grief, sickness) to life opportunities• I Inhale down to belly, exhale down doing STOP-SLOW• C Communication through active constructive talk

My PERMAGASMIC model for emails- Positive Psychology Interventions to:

(based on Seligman, M. 2011. Flourishing)

© Mark Williams

PERMAGASMA Weekly Email (30%)Dear Mark, I am grateful for a PERMAGASMIC (orgasmic, fantastic, cosmic) week:

P. Positive emotions: Enhanced by savouring the fun of playing with my young nephew.E. Engaged in work and life: setting timetable and schedules to finish all my homework on time.R. Relationships: Enhancing my romantic relationship by going for a walk with my girlfriend.M. Meaningful purpose: Enhanced by reading articles about my future profession.A. Achievement towards goals: making progress towards my goal of walking fast 30 minutes every day.G. Giving: I gave some coins most days to my friends and paid for my friend at a mealA. Acting and living, right now in this moment, exactly like the strongest and happiest person I ever dreamed I could be – indeed I am acting and living as that person right now!S. Strengths: Went online to www.cnenn.cn and found my character strengths and am using them nowM. Morphing: My eye was hurt – I used the “ABC-reward” method tried to overcome the fear in my heart and just listened to the doctor using the belly-breathing method to relaxI. Inhale-exhale STOP-SLOW: Belly breathing, “Stop and Smile, Take a while – Take a breath, yes breathe in now, Open my eyes, Open my ears, wait for a wonderful thing”C. Communication: Had active-constructive communication with my brother and he smiled with me.

Regards, Arthur

© Mark Williams

Assessment 2 (10%): Group PPT• Group PPT on applying Positive Psychology to some

area of life or work • In groups of 2-4 students, create a PowerPoint file

(each student creates 5 slides with your name on them) applying positive psychology to some area of life – teaching, management, hospitals, uni life, romantic love, friendship, family, money, fame, holidays, sport, coaching, work, career, sales, government, housework, having children, getting married, recovering from failure or illness, small business, or the construction, restaurant, hotel, real estate, advertising, entertainment, banking, airline, driving, supermarket, film and television industries.

© Mark Williams

Assessment 3 – Strengths Email (10%)• By week 10, each student will send me a 60-120 word

email describing your main personality strengths based on your understanding of your Enneagram

• This email must have the words <YOUR STUDENT ID> <YOUR ENGLISH NAME> PERSONALITY STRENGTHS in the subject line of the email and at the start of your email text itself

• To know you strengths you will need to do the free Chinese Enneagram test at www.cnenn.cn

• You can also do the free character strengths test at www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu (go to the middle of the home page – scroll down & click) 。

© Mark Williams

Assessment 4 – Class Speech (10%)• From week 12 onwards, each student will give a 2

minute English speech in groups about how you are using your personality strengths, your dreams for your life, your 5 years goals, and your life goals. The best speeches will be given to the whole class.

• You will include your goals in 3 of the major areas of life including: Financial planning; Family; Career and work life; Education and life long learning; Public service; Self development; Health-education-diet; Pleasure; Friends – social life; Music-art-fashion; Home life; Culture-religion-spirituality

© Mark Williams

Assessment 5 (40%)

• Attendance, participation, & contribution to course (translations, comments)

• You will need to write at least one gratitude letter to your mother or father

• There will also be a short 1 page informal exam in the last week of this course

© Mark Williams

• I took a long time to write letter. After I give to mother, I think she could never be happier. Most amazing thing is I’m happier too. I understand – when you make someone else happy you become happy. (Dylan)

Also, I would like some of you to read your gratitude letters to inspire

the whole class, for example:

© Mark Williams

Questions to discuss

• It is important to study happiness scientifically because …

• Happiness comes from ….  • Any of us can raise our baseline levels of

happiness by … • “My personality strengths are ….”

© Mark Williams

References• Ben-Shahar, Tal. (2007). Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfilment. McGraw-Hill: New York• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New

York: Harper & Row.• Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General • Psychology, 2(3), 300 - 319.• Fredrickson, B. L., & Levenson, R. W. (1998). Positive emotions speed recovery

from cardiovascular sequelae of negative emotions. Cognitions and Emotion, 12, 191–220.• Fredrickson, B., Mancuso, R., Branigan, C., & Tugade, M. M. (2000). The undoing effect of positive emotions. Motivation and Emotion, 24(4), 237 –

258.• Jackson, S., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). Flow in sports: The keys to optimal experiences and performances. Champaign,

IL: Human Kinetics.• Happiness. (2010, June 21). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:54, June 22, 2010, from http://

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Happiness&oldid=369291403• Revonsuo, A. (2007). Psychology and Coaching. Available online:

www.his.se/upload/71497/1_PC_Intro.ppt • Seligman, M. E. (2002). Authentic Happiness. New York: Free Press.• Seligman, M. Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. New York: Pocket Books