3 Reasons Life is Worth Living From Positive Psychology

When mainstream psychology blogs are taking notice of Positive Psychology, you know it's moving into the mainstream.

I have issues with Positive Psychology as a discipline on its own, but when it is an adjunct to other forms of therapeutic interventions, I think it has a lot to offer. Some people can benefit from focusing on their strengths and the positive aspects of life more than focusing on the negative and their pathologies.

Jeremy Dean at the PsyBlog: Psychology Blog has posted a good article on why positive psychology is useful: 3 Reasons Life is Worth Living From Positive Psychology:

For decades psychologists were almost exclusively concerned with alleviating mental distress. No bad thing of course - psychological knowledge has contributed to great strides in the treatment and understanding of mental illness. But to only study pathology, damage and weakness in humanity is to leave out half the picture. What about human strengths, human virtues and human excellence - surely these are worth studying too?

In the last few decades the positive psychology movement has recognized this need for research into what makes us happy, what makes us excel and how these things might be enhanced. Acknowledging this important movement, over the coming weeks PsyBlog will be looking at some of the research emerging from this area. We start with three reasons life is worth living to whet your appetite.

The three reasons he lists are:

1. Evolution drives us towards happiness
2. Optimism is good for you
3. The search for excellence

You'll have to go to his blog to read about each of these reasons.

Tags: Positive Psychology, 3 Reasons Life is Worth Living, Jeremy Dean, life, psychology