Abstract
The use of the positive psychology approach is increasing and this approach emerges as one of the sources that can effectively be used for the field of counseling. One of the main works of the positive psychology approach is the issue of positive emotions, development process of these emotions and benefits of positive emotions. The aim of the study was to test a hypothetical model developed to explain the effect mechanism of positive feelings on individuals' well-being and resilience. The sample consisted of 471 college students from three universities in Turkey. For data collection, Gratitude Scale, Life Orientation Test, Two-Dimensional Self-Esteem Scale, Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale, Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs Resilience Scale and Risk Factor Determining List were used. It was found that all the variables discussed in the model have significant positive relationships with each other. It was found that the proposed model was confirmed and the fit indices were found as at good level. Accordingly, gratitude as a positive emotion and a general life orientation, was found to contribute to the psychological needs satisfaction through the perceived social support and self esteem and need satisfaction enhances the individual's well-being and resilience levels. The research revealed that main proposals of Positive Activity Model and Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions were validated. This validated model may be implemented with experimental researches. Besides, the proposed model may be tested among different samples.
Highlights
Positive Psychology as the Science of Well-Being The history of humanity, in a sense, is the history of “human pursuit of happiness”
Positive psychology is defined as a field of study that focuses on preventing individuals’ mental health through programs contributing to improvement of positive individual traits, enhancement of positive experiences and enabling a boost in subjective well-being (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000), a scientific attempt to concentrate on ordinary strengths and human virtues and to find out what works and what is improving for an average person (Sheldon and King 2001), or a discipline that is interested in identifying processes and conditions that help individuals, groups and organizations to achieve development and functionality at the optimum level (Gable and Haidt 2005)
The study shows that the variables of gratitude, self-esteem, social support, psychological need satisfaction, psychological well-being and resilience are corelated with each other through some variables
Summary
Positive Psychology as the Science of Well-Being The history of humanity, in a sense, is the history of “human pursuit of happiness”. Positive psychology is defined as a field of study that focuses on preventing individuals’ mental health through programs contributing to improvement of positive individual traits, enhancement of positive experiences and enabling a boost in subjective well-being (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000), a scientific attempt to concentrate on ordinary strengths and human virtues and to find out what works and what is improving for an average person (Sheldon and King 2001), or a discipline that is interested in identifying processes and conditions that help individuals, groups and organizations to achieve development and functionality at the optimum level (Gable and Haidt 2005). These definitions indicate that positive psychology is essentially a discipline focusing on strengths to promote individuals’ development, life satisfaction and functionality
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