Global Chinese Positive Psychology Association

The impact of positive psychology has been expanding to different parts of the world, including the Chinese communitiy. With an aim to create a more flourishing community among ethnic Chinese, a Global Chinese Positive Psychology Association (GCCPA) was established by Mr. Timothy So in 2010 after he had an inspirational conversation with Dr. Martin Seligman. Timothy is a young scholar who obtained his bachelor degree in Psychology in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. And then he obtained scholarship for pursuing his postgraduate degree in the Cambridge University and Oxford University (http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%98%87%E5%BE%B7%E4%B8%AD).

GCCPA has invited Dr. Seligman as their Chief Advisor, and a number of renowned professors around the world to sit in the Advisory Board (http://www.globalcppa.org/en/aboutus/our_team.html). The association has formed alliance with important units internationally to help promoting positive psychology and well-being in Chinese societies, some of the affiliated associations included the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, the Positive Psychology Center of the University of Pennsylvania, the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), Tsinghua Univeristy's Department of Psychology in Shanghai, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Beiking Normal University's College of Psychology etc. GCCPA also organized its 1st International Positive Psychology and Education Conference of China in 2010 in Beijing.                                   

For more information of GCCPA, please visit http://www.globalcppa.org/en/
                                   

VIA Classification & Inventory: Do you know your Strengths and Virtues?

The "VIA Classification" and "VIA Inventory of Strengths Survey" are regarded as the central tool in the field of Positive Psychology.

"VIA" stands for "Values in Action", the tools were designed by Dr. Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson in 2004 in order to identify an individual’s profile of character strengths by operationalizing their Character Strengths and Virtues Handbook (CSV). The CSV has been considered as the positive counterpart to the DSM, which sceintifically categorizes human strengths and virtues instead of deficits and disorders.

Specifically, the VIA Classification and Inventory consists of 6 virtues and 24 character strengthes resulted from a multi-year research project:

1. Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective
2. Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, zest
3. Love and Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
4. Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership
5. Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self control
6. Spirituality and Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

The VIA Inventory is composed of a 240 item measure of these 24 character strengths (10 items per strength) on a 5-point Likert scale. A higher score on a scale indicates that the participant more strongly identifies with that scale's associated strength. The results rank order the participant’s strengths from 1-24, with the top 5 strengths considered “signature strengths”.

According to the "VIA Institute on Character" (http://www.viacharacter.org/www/) set up later by Dr. Seligman and Dr. Neal H. Mayerson, these character traits are expressed universally by people across all areas in their lives in different cultures.The VIA Inventory has been translated into more than 17 languages and taken more than 1.3 million times by people worldwide.

In order to help people to identify their own positive strengths and learn how to capitalize on them for a more fulfilling life, the institute make the VIA Intentory available for free:

If you are interested to know more about your strengths and virtues, click here: https://www.viame.org/survey/Account/Register

Martin Seligman: From "Learned Helplessness" to "Learned Optimism"

Being regarded as the Father of the modern positive psychology movement, interesting, Dr. Seligman was not that positive in his early research. As one of the most eminent psychologists of the 20th century, Dr. Seligman was reputed for  his theory of "learned helplessness" began at University of Pennsylvania in 1967, as an extension of his interest in depression. His works on "learned helplessness" has been widely cited, and indeed he was the 13th most frequently cited psychologist in introductory psychology textbooks throughout the century. Dr. Seligman is well known in academic and clinical circles and is a best-selling author.

Having started with such a relatively "dark" concept of human behavior, Dr. Seligman introduced some sunshine to the field of psychology by founding the "positive psychology" branch in 1998 when he was the president of American Psychological Association. And as this area became more firmly grounded, Dr. Seligman has viewed the promotion of the field of Positive Psychology "to make the world a happier place" as his main mission since 2000. Details can be referred to Dr. Seligman's Bio via http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/bio.htm

Dr. Seligman is currently Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology and Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. His books with positive psychology topics are very popular, including The Optimistic Child, Child's Play, Learned Optimism, Authentic Happiness, and Flourish.

Dr. Seligman also do public talk sometimes, below is his TED talk in 2004:
Dr. Martin Seligman's TED talk: The New Era of Positive Psychology

If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Seligman's latest research, you can visit his "Authentic Happiness" homepage: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

History of Positive Psychology

Positive psychology is a rapidly developing field that focuses on the science of positive aspects of human life, such as happiness, well-being and flourishing. As summed up by  Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1998, positive psychology is "a scientific study of optimal human functioning [that] aims to discover and promote the factors that allow individuals and communities to thrive." This "positive" branch of psychology intends to complement, not to replace, the traditional areas of psychology that mainly concern with the "negatives".

Although Positive psychology has a relatively short history, it has roots in the humanistic psychology that focused heavily on happiness and fulfillment. Several leading humanistic psychologists including Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Erich Fromm developed theories and practices pertaining to human happiness and flourishing. And this area became "official" when Prof. Martin Seligman, considered as the Founder of Positive Psychology, chose it as the theme for his term as president of the American Psychological Association since 1998.

Positive psychologists aims at enhancing the psychological well-being of human by living a "good life", which means "using your signature strengths every day to produce authentic happiness and abundant gratification" according to Seligman. Positive psychologists are interested in four topics: (1) positive experiences, (2) enduring psychological traits, (3) positive relationships and (4) positive institutions. And they considered "complete mental health" should be consisted of high emotional well-being, high psychological well-being, and high social well-being, along with low mental illness.

As a new and growing area, the central theories in the field are continuing to evolve. In 2011, Prof. Seligman has introduced a new theory of well-being called "P.E.R.M.A." that stands for "Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and purpose, Accomplisment". Interesting, this new theory was developed when his "authentic happiness" theory had been challenged by Senia - Publisher of PPND!

To learn more about "P.E.R.M.A.", click here: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/newsletter.aspx?id=1533

"PPND" was my Window to the World of Positive Psychology!

"Positive Psychology News Daily (abbreviated as "PPND")" (http://positivepsychologynews.com/) opened my world of Positive Psychology dated back to 2008, when I was invited (and honored) to be a contributor to help translating some of the PPND articles from English to Chinese.

PPND is an online news site about the latest research and applications of positive psychology, offered in English, Spanish, and Chinese published by Senia Maymin, MBA, MAPP. Senia was a graduate from the Master in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) at the University of Pennsylvania, and has taught positive psychology at the Masters level at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Chicago Graduate School of Business. It is at the University of Pennsylvania that she became a student and colleague of Professor Martin Seligman - Founder of Positive Psychology and the MAPP program at U. Penn.

PPND has condensed a group of influential Positive Psychologists worldwide and expanded its reach across the globe by having subscribers from Chinese-, English-, Portugese- and Spanish-speaking countries and regions. It has been regarded as a successful and powerful platform that helps to enhance the psychological well-being of our global village.

PPND website: http://positivepsychologynews.com/
Chinese PPND website: http://hk.positivepsychologynews.com/
My contribution to PPND: http://hk.positivepsychologynews.com/contributor/rebecca