Abstract
This study explores the potential of promoting college students’ positive psychological development using popular online social networks. Online social networks have dramatically changed the ways college students manage their social relationships. Social network activities, such as checking Facebook posts dominates students’ Internet time and has the potential to assist students’ positive development. Positive psychology is a scientific study of how ordinary individuals can apply their strength effectively when facing objective difficulties and how this capability can be cultivated with certain approaches. A positive message delivery approach was designed for a group of new college entrants. A series of positive messages was edited by university counselors and delivered by students to their Facebook social groups. Responses from each posted positive messages were collected and analyzed by researchers. The responses indicated that: (1) relationships of individual engagement and social influence in this study can partially explain the observed student behavior; (2) using class-based social groups can promote a positive atmosphere to enhance strong-tie relationships in both the physical and virtual environments, and (3) promoting student’s positive attitudes can substantially impact adolescents’ future developments, and many positive attitudes can be cultivated by emotional events and social influence.
Highlights
Positive psychology is the scientific study of how ordinary individuals apply their strength and virtues effectively when facing objective difficulties and how this subjective capability can be properly cultivated with certain approaches [1]
The framework can be used as a guideline for practitioners and researchers in defining the scope of their interests and for cultivating certain approaches for positive psychology development
For students in this study at least, Facebook seems to have dominated their Internet time, and this online social network has become a portal for information sharing, activity organizing, and friendship maintenance
Summary
Positive psychology is the scientific study of how ordinary individuals apply their strength and virtues effectively when facing objective difficulties and how this subjective capability can be properly cultivated with certain approaches [1]. Psychological practitioners have typically devoted their attention to diagnosing and treating human pathological errors rather than understanding how normal individuals develop positive capabilities to cope with possible mental illnesses [3]. The development of the latter is closely related to an individual’s emotions, his/her traits, and is subtly embedded in social contexts [4]. Positive psychology studies how normal people flourish under certain conditions [7], and it provides a robust theoretical framework for practitioners in various domains, such as learning [8], coaching [9] and healthcare [10] This framework focuses on three areas of human experience. The framework can be used as a guideline for practitioners and researchers in defining the scope of their interests and for cultivating certain approaches for positive psychology development
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