Abstract
This review examines the application of positive psychology concepts in physical health care contexts. Positive psychology aims to promote well-being in the general population. Studies identifying character strengths associated with well-being in healthy populations are numerous. Such strengths have been classified and Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs) have been created to further develop these strengths in individuals. Positive psychology research is increasingly being undertaken in health care contexts. The review identified that most of this research involves measuring character strengths and their association with health outcomes in patients with a range of different conditions, similar to the position in positive psychology research on non-clinical populations. More recently, PPIs are beginning to be applied to clinical populations with physical health problems and this research, although relatively scarce, is reviewed here for cancer, coronary heart disease, and diabetes. In common with PPIs being evaluated in the general population, high quality studies are scarce. Applying PPIs to patients with serious health conditions presents significant challenges to health psychologists. They must ensure that patients are dealt with appropriately and ethically, given that exaggerated claims for PPIs are made on the internet quite frequently. This is discussed along with the need for more high quality research.
Highlights
Positive psychology is not a new concept; rather it is grounded in the early work of psychologists such as Jung, Rogers, Alport, and Maslow, who focused on what individuals were capable of achieving and in identifying conditions necessary for psychological growth and well-being
One Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs) was located for cardiac patients, one for cancer patients, two for adults with diabetes, and none for patients with chronic lung disease
This review has demonstrated that with clinical medical populations, most applications of positive psychology involve correlational studies with PPIs seldom applied
Summary
Positive psychology is not a new concept; rather it is grounded in the early work of psychologists such as Jung, Rogers, Alport, and Maslow, who focused on what individuals were capable of achieving and in identifying conditions necessary for psychological growth and well-being. Two clinical psychologists [1] produced a seminal paper proposing that psychologists could usefully look at how to promote wellbeing in individuals, as this is an aspect that had been largely ignored historically in favor of studying psychopathology. They stressed the necessity for an evidential empirical basis for this work, as it develops, to differentiate it from the earlier work and to ensure that it is theoretically grounded. The focus would be on three components; positive institutions, positive experiences and emotions, and the positive attributes that individuals possess
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