Positive Psychology and Depression

unconditional psychological science in the Treatment of Major Depression Positive psychological science is a strengths-oriented, electro optimisticly focused approach to human behaviors and purposes that is relatively new-fangled to the general field of psychology. Previous schools of imagination had al airs focused on the abnormalities, weaknesses, and pathologies of populate. Positive psychology is an exceptionally new branch of psychology and aims at making deportment more than(prenominal) fulfilling, enjoyable, and happy instead of just adequate they wish to promote psychic health and wellspring-being instead of and treating disorders.This research paper will address the roles that hope, gratitude, liberateness, resilience, optimism, and self-efficacy play in peerless(prenominal)s life-time, and how these char spelleristics cease be utilized in a way to maximize wizs imperious affect. One of the most mutual mood disorders is clinical drop-off. Depressi on comes in m both fashions and there be in addition different depressive disorders such as subject area depression, bipolar disorder, and dysthymic disorder. (NIMH, 2009) For the sake of this paper, major(ip) depression will be examined.Related article Approaches to Promoting WellbeingSymptoms of a major depressive episode include touch perceptions of sadness or un delight, irrit qualification or frustration, blemish of occupy or pleasure in normal activities, reduced gender drive, insomnia or excessive sleeping, changes in appetite, agitation or restlessness, angry outbursts, slowed opinion or speaking, fatigue, tiredness, loss of energy, trouble thinking or concentrating, frequent thoughts of goal or dying including suicide, crying spells for no apparent reason, and unexplained sensible problems such as pain (Mayo Clinic, 2012).One does non countenance to have all one of these symptoms, they essential have at least five symptoms, they must persist for at least two hebdomads, symptoms cannot be caused due to drug or alcohol consumption, are not caused by bereavement or last longer than two months, and they must cause a monu mental amount of impairment in the soulfulnesss every sidereal daytime life functioning (DSM-IV-TR, 2000). Major depressive disorder has a lifetime prevalence roll of 11. 2 pct in young adults with 3. 3 part of those cases deemed severe, and a twelve month prevalence rate of 6. percent in adults with 30. 4 percent of those cases diagnosed as severe. wad ages eighteen to twenty-nine are seventy percent more in all likelihood to have escortd depression compared to those over the age of six-spotty, people between thirty to forty-four years doddery were 120 percent more likely, and forty-five to fifty-nine year olds were cytosine percent more likely. Women are seventy percent more likely than their male counterparts to experience depression during their lifetime and whites are forty percent more likely than blac ks to experience depression.Compared to 2 percent or less for most some other disorders, major depression is quite common. (NIMH, 2009) Positive psychology interventions in cases of major depression focus on change magnitude supportive emotions, supreme experiences, subjective well-being, and safe engagements. This differs from traditional interventions by not charge on the depressive, ostracise symptoms and instead trying to focus on the wide-cut aspects of ones life. Positive psychologists do not ignore the accompaniment that mental illnesses are abnormal and the fact that things do go vituperate in peoples cognizes.Instead, they want to incur a closer look at the good things that happen in peoples lives and what makes and keeps people content or happy. In one contract, conducted by Seligman et al, domineering(p) psychotherapy practice sessions delivered through the internet were representn to calm down the symptoms of depression for a minimum of six months where as traditional treatments lasted less than one week. In subjects suffering from severe depression, reduction in mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms was notice.It was excessively observed that subjects who had been suffering from major depressive disorder and underwent commanding psychotherapy had a high reduction in symptoms than those who underwent traditional treatments and those who underwent traditional treatments combined with medications. The hypothesis of this study stated that depression can be treated payoffively not single by reducing its negative symptoms, but too by at present and primarily building positive emotions, character strengths, and meaning. It is executable that directly building these positive resources may alike buffer against their approaching reoccurrence. (Seligman et, al. , 2006) Logically, major depression would be well treated when using a positive psychology oriented approach. People who suffer from depression experience anhedonia an sof tness to experience pleasure in activities which it is usually produced. They lack positive affect, show a lack of engagement in meaningful activities, lack of feeling of purpose, and lack of feeling of meaning. These people no longer find any interest in things such as sex, food, bonding with friends, favorite past times times, and work. (Brynie, 2009) A study by Barnaby D.Dunn, published in July of 2012 similarly form that people suffering from depression in like manner do not experience anticipation or recognize positive emotions the way those unaffected do. (Dunn, 2012) The Merriam-Webster lexicon defines anticipation as 1 b. the act of looking forward oddly enjoyable expectation. 2 a mental attitude that influences a afterwards response. (Merriam-Webster, 2012) From this, it is understood that people suffering from depression, and thereof anhedonia, not only canvas out out on the pleasure normally experienced during enjoyable activities, they also do not even look fo rward to any of these pleasurable activities.It is as if they do not see the possibility of an experience producing positive outcomes. Positive psychology, on the other hand, is primarily focused on creating and building-upon positive emotions, serve welling people find meaning in their everyday lives, and promoting an overall increase in mental health. Positive psychology has its roots in self-efficacy, optimism, and hope. Self-efficacy is the belief that you have the skills and self-control necessary to achieve the goals you set for yourself.This is a learned way of thinking, predicted by previous successes, observing others with high levels of self-efficacy, the capacity to imagine oneself achieving a successful outcome, verbal persuasion by other strong and trustworthy single(a)s, and major power to control negative emotions. Optimism is a persons functionency to look at a situation from the top hat possible point of pot, or too expect the trump out possible outcome i n any given situation (Merriam-Webster, 2012). Optimism can be predicted by a childhood environment which provided safety, coherence, secure attachments, and there is also a genetic component to optimism.Television, however, is one of the main culprits in promoting pessimism the enemy of optimism. The final main building block of positive psychology is hope. trust is the combination of the belief that one can r from individually one his or her goals and has the ability to find alternate routes to these goals should they be presented with adversity. (Snyder, 2011) Key steps and aspects of combating major depression with positive psychology were outlined by Seligman, Rashid, and Parks in their 2006 article.Since depression is associated with a lack of positive realizations in ones life, leaf nodes were asked to take steps to help them recognize their signature tune strengths, ways to utilize these signature strengths, good things that happen to them every day, things and people in their lives that they are thankful for, and also to forgive others and themselves for past transgressions. To help clients recognize their signature strengths as well as help them to see the way they view themselves, clients were instructed to drop a line stories describing what they believe to be their character strengths.The client and therapist discuss how stoicism and the absence of positive emotions do nothing but maintain the pedal of depressive episodes. Next, clients were instructed to take the VIA-IS strengths finding questionnaire and then use those results in an assignment stating how they could best utilize their strengths to improve their everyday lives. Afterwards, clients were to recall past situations in which they have successfully used their identified strengths to their advantage. Pleasure, engagement, and meaning as pathways to happiness are discussed during the clients session and their role in overcoming depression is outlined. all of these steps help l ead to the realization of the client that they have strengths that are curious to themselves, they have control over situations that happen to them, and they are not helpless. (Seligman, 2006) The contiguous set of steps focuses mainly on engagement. Clients were asked to keep Blessings Journals in which they put down at least three good things which happened to them each day. They are also encouraged to bring through about three bad things that have happened to them and to go into depth about their emotions surrounding these events and how the events influenced their depression.The therapist will inform the client of the ways in which retaining negative feelings such as anger and virulence can compound the effects of depression and prevent recovery. Clients were encouraged to colloquy about negative experiences and vent about these experiences rather than ruminate on them. Clients were then to write at least one forgiveness garner. They differentiate an incident with a wrong -doing, the emotions experienced along with the event, and they also promise to forgive to transgressor even if it was himself or herself. Seligman et al, 2006) Forgiveness is a freeing from a negative attachment to the source that has transgressed against a person. There is less desire to fend off the person or seek revenge, and an increase in positive feelings or activitys towards the individual. There is a realistic assessment of the harm through with(p), an acknowledgement of the culprits responsibility, a cancelation of debt between the victim and perpetrator, and then a self-removal from the division of victim.Forgiveness is important in a persons life because it helps to bypass the cycle of violence when one person is harmed and seeks revenge and then the initial transgressor seeks revenge as well which initiates and maintains said cycle of violence. When a person displays a willingness to forgive others, it is not only beneficial to that person, but also to all of the people surrounding said incident. It produces positive feelings as well as an inclination to also be forgiving in future situations. This is a form of positive role modeling between peers. Snyder, 2011) another(prenominal) important step is expressing gratitude. Clients are encouraged to express their gratitude to someone they neer properly or fully thanked either in person, through a letter, or via telephone conversation. (Miller, 2008) One way gratitude is experienced is when another individual acts in a way that is costly to himself or herself, provides value to the recipient, and was done intentionally. Another way gratitude can be experienced is when someone survives a catastrophic event, a threat to his or her health, or a flagitious situation.Gratitude is a highly valued character trait in some cultures due to its beneficial nature and tendency to increase a persons tendency to perform altruistic tasks. Those who are high in gratitude are generally less concerned with mate rial goods, more spiritual, more satisfied with life, and more empathetic. (Snyder, 2011) Using the concept of primary ginmill, psychologists can help their clients to prevent depressive symptoms from occurring in the first place, or lessen the severity of depressive symptoms during the contiguous depressive episode.Some positive psychology interventions in Seligman, Rashid, and Parks 2006 study that dealt with primary legal community were being more physically active, favorableizing with more people or more often with people who were already friends, engaging in meaningful work such as volunteering and helping the less fortunate, bonding more with loved ones and forming deeper connections, sinister expectations of oneself and others, and making ones own happiness a priority.In the equivalent study, Seligman and his fellow researchers randomly assigned six nose candy volunteers to one of six intervention activities online. Five of these activities were from a more positive ps ychology focused list of exercises, and one was a placebo. The placebo exercise need participants to write down their earliest memories every night for a week which had only temporary effects on that group. The volunteers assigned to groups 1, 2, and 4 showed pointedly lower depressive symptoms and much higher(prenominal) levels of happiness when compared to the lacebo and two other control-like groups. The volunteers in the successful group also had result which lasted at least six months whereas the people in the other groups had either no results, or results that were only fleeting. (Seligman et al, 2006) Group 1 was required to take the VIA-IS strengths questionnaire and then considers ways in which they could utilize their results to help them in their everyday lives. Group 2 had to write down at least three good things that had happened to them that day and why they thought these things had happened to them.Group 4 had to conduct a gratitude visit, much like the one previousl y mentioned, in which they composed a letter of thanks to someone who had positively impacted their life in some way, shape, or form but they had never fully thanked and then read said letter either in person or over the phone. The two control-like groups assignments were to take a strengths test questionnaire alone, or to write an essay about themselves in a moment when they were at their best. Seligman et al, 2006) These last findings show that the positive psychology activities used in the Seligman et al study can also be used as a form of secondary prevention. Secondary prevention addresses a problem after it has already appeared just as these online participants were already showing signs of extreme depression. After participating in the three blessings per day exercise their depression scores went down showing that this exercise not only could help prevent depressive episode as previously shown, it could also lessen a depressive episode that had already begun.As a spin-off fro m this study a website, www. reflectivehappiness. com was created. This was a social website community centered on positive psychology. New exercises and interventions were posted each month, a book club was formed, a news programletter was published and sent out, and a discussion board dedicated to positive psychology. During the first month of operations, it was found that fifty of the sites subscribers who took pretests for the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, scored in the upchuck that would qualify as extremely depressed.After completing the exercise involving recording three blessings each day for two weeks, the average score for this group of people dropped from 33. 9, to 16. 9. This showed that ninety-four percent of these people were less depressed and fell from the extremely depressed range to the mildly to moderately depressed range. This website is no longer functioning the same way, it has moved to a mobile network which only works on iPhones and now runs under the URL www. happiness. com. Another important part of positive psychology and the ability of a person to remain positive, optimistic, and hopeful is resiliency.Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity and to successfully adapt to the demands of stressful situations (Tugade et al, 2004). People who are seen as resilient are more likely to be expound as self-efficacious, confident, and determined and can also be judge to generate a more positive self-talk, boost their self-image, and promote self-agency (Mak et al, 2011). All of these characteristics are those of someone with a very positive outlook on life as well as a positive view of themselves.These people show a much lower susceptibility to mental disorders and behavioral problems such as depression, anxiety, violence, and substance abuse (Lillehoj et al, 2004). People who are more resilient also show more optimism and a higher level of hope when thinking about the future. The broaden-and-build t heory of positive emotions suggests that positive emotions expand what an individual feels like doing at any given time. (Snyder, 2011) This is referred to by Fredrickson as a broadening of ones thought-action repertoire.Emotions such as joy, interest, contentment, pride, and love all have the ability to expand you potential action options. Joy can create more creative, playful behaviors while interest creates the desire to explore, expand, and experience new things. One of the most important in positive psychology is pride. Pride creates the desire to share good news and envision oneself doing even bigger and better things. The opposite happens in any life threatening situation your thought-action choices narrow to provide a littler list of options to try to conduct a speedy, potentially life-saving choice. Frederickson, 2001) This research proves that when a person is feeling depressed and are lacking the positive emotions described above, they do not have an expanded thought-acti on repertoire and therefore do not see all of the possible paths to their goals which, in turn, leads to feelings of hopelessness and a lack of self-efficacy. Other health benefits of promoting positive emotions are increased laughter, decrease flavor disease, increased longevity, positive turned on(p) disclosure, and overall increased psychological health.Laughter has been proven to be a cyclical cause and effect of positive emotions which in turn improves immune system functioning, and help maintain a stable positive emotional state. Elderly people who had been hospitalized for an incident involving heart disease and kept up a positive attitude had a much lower readmission rate than those who displayed a negative outlook. Also, people who tend to be more positive throughout their lives, participate in emotional disclosure, and upholding an optimistic and hopeful outlook have a propensity to live longer than those who did not.Positive emotions and an expanded thought-action repe rtoire not only help people emotionally avoid depression, they also help people to be more physically active and thus further avoid depressive symptoms. The reasons why exercise helps to alleviate depressive symptoms is not completely understood, but it is believed to happen on a few different levels. First of all, exercise is thought to release beneficial neurotransmitters and endorphins which are essentially feel good chemicals for your brain and body. These chemicals are thought to activate the opioid receptors in the brain creating feelings of happiness and optimism.Another way exercise is thought to help create positive emotions in those who exercise is by lowering certain chemicals released by the immune system which can also preserve depressive feelings. Finally, exercise increases body temperature which is thought to have a calming effect on individuals. The more direct, less scientific ways that exercise can help people avoid depression are by playacting as a distraction from everyday life and taking a persons mind off of things, increasing social interactions and therefore increasing positive interactions, and improving physical appearance and thus increasing confidence. Mayo Clinic, 2011) A study also found that speed go for thirty five minutes per day for five days each week, or sixty minutes per day three times each week had a significant effect on decreasing depression. (Harvard medical School, 2009) All in all, having a positive outlook on life can be beneficial to ones life in countless ways. The study of positive psychology helps people to take steps towards developing better skills to take advantage of their ability to think positively, act positively, and avoid or decrease their depression.Through a few very primary steps, such as gratitude letters, blessings journal keeping, and skills and strengths assessments, one can increase their good sense of self efficacy, increase resilience, increase their sense of hope, and by doing this decr ease major depressive symptoms. Works Cited American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed. , text rev. ). Washington, DC Author. Anticipation. 2012. In Merriam-Webster. com. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http//www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/anticipationBrynie, F. (2009). Depression and Anhedonia. Brain Sense. celestial latitude 2009. Dunn, B. D. (2012). Helping Depressed Clients Reconnect to Positive Emotion Experience Current Insights and afterlife Directions. 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