Positive thinking

Lowri Dowthwaite, University of Central Lancashire   Happiness is big business, with sales of self-help books in the UK reaching record levels in the past year. Perhaps that’s because happiness is no longer the birthright of the elite. Just half a century ago, psychologist Warner Wilson seemed to suggest that you are less likely to be happy if you’re uneducated and poor when he stated that a happy person generally is “young, healthy, well educated, well paid, extroverted, optimistic, worry-free, religious, married, with high self-esteem, high job morale, modest aspirations, of either sex and of a wide range of intelligence”. Today happiness is something we can all aspire to. But, as many of us try out gratitude journals, meditation and positive affirmations, we often discover that they don’t make us substantially happier. The same often goes for reaching the goals that society values – such as marriage, an interesting job or physical fitness. So is happiness just a my...

Lowri Dowthwaite, University of Central Lancashire   Over the past two decades, the positive psychology movement has brightened up psychological research with its science of happiness, human potential and flourishing. It argues that psychologists should not only investigate mental illness but also what makes life worth living. The founding father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman , describes happiness as experiencing frequent positive emotions, such as joy, excitement and contentment, combined with deeper feelings of meaning and purpose. It implies a positive mindset in the present and an optimistic outlook for the future. Importantly, happiness experts have argued that happiness is not a stable, unchangeable trait but something flexible that we can work on and ultimately strive towards. I have been running happiness workshops for the last four years based on the evidence from the above field of psychology. The workshops are fun and I have earned a reputation a...

Kate Isherwood, Bangor University The UK is facing a mental health crisis in the workplace. Around 4.6m working people – 7% of the British population – suffer from either depression or anxiety. In total, 25% of all EU citizens will report a mental health disorder at some point in their lives. People who have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, or show symptoms of one, and remain in work are known as “presentees”. These individuals may have trouble concentrating, memory problems, find it difficult to make decisions, and have a loss of interest in their work. They underperform and are non-productive. Medication and/or talking therapies – like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – have been shown to be highly effective in treating common mental health disorders. But these interventions are aimed at those who are already signed off sick due to a mental health diagnosis (“absentees”). Stress and pressure in work is not the same as at home, so those with ment...