The New York Times' Look at Positive Psychology

The New York Times Magazine's look at positive psychology contains -- among much else -- a great capsule description of the movement:

Positive psychology brings the same attention to positive emotions (happiness, pleasure, well-being) that clinical psychology has always paid to the negative ones (depression, anger, resentment). Psychoanalysis once promised to turn acute human misery into ordinary suffering; positive psychology promises to take mild human pleasure and turn it into a profound state of well-being. “Under certain circumstances, people — they’re not desperate or in misery — they start to wonder what’s the best thing life can offer,” says Martin Seligman, one of the field’s founders, who heads the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Thus positive psychology is not only about maximizing personal happiness but also about embracing civic engagement and spiritual connectedness, hope and charity.

D. T. Max's piece "Happiness 101" looks at the burgeoning field, which in the last few years has expanded into undergraduate instruction:

Positive psychology is popular with educators because if happiness is something that can be learned, it can be taught. And because being happier seems to have positive long-term effects not just on well-being but also on health and life span.

The article is a great overview of the state of the movement (I think even positive psychology's leaders would agree that it's not yet a 'discipline.')

One contrary opinion came from Julie Norem, chair of the psychology department at Wellesly. She told Max that "“There is way too little evidence of stable, long-term benefits — and lack of harm — to justify large-scale incorporation of positive psychology programs into schools.” She also objects to the one-size-fits-all prescriptions doled out by some practitioners -- Max calls it "sectlike."

Others are concerned that excitement about the field is not yet justified by research or results.

Do classes in positive psychology work? Max sat in on a positive psychology class at George Mason University. When he followed up with them, "They seemed remarkably sure that they had undergone an important experience but less sure what the nature of that experience had been."

In short, he seems to argue, the jury is still out on positive psychology.