Positive Psychology and Coaching

By: Dr. S. Sabesan

Positive psychology and Coaching share the same platform in terms of their objectives. They are not only concerned with the enhancement of performance and wellbeing but also with the facilitation and promotion of optimal human functioning. Since Positive psychology has infused significant interest in the psychology of human strengths, the field of coaching is richly benefited by its contribution. This article offers interesting insights from positive psychology to practicing coaches.

Suffering and well being are both part of the human condition. Human sufferings and sustenance of well being demand scientifically well-informed solutions through therapy and coaching. Though the science of psychology has made great strides in understanding what goes wrong in individuals, families, groups and institutions, these advances have come at the cost of understanding what is right with people.

GAP of Psychology is incomplete:

The Gross Academic Product (GAP) of psychology tends to provide an incomplete picture of human life. Positive psychology endeavors to correct this imbalance by focusing on strengths as well as weaknesses, on building the best things in life as well as repairing the worst.

Defining Positive psychology:

Positive psychology is the study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups and institutions. Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture genius and talent," and "to make normal life more fulfilling”. In the similar vein, coaching helps ordinary people become extraordinary and enable them to move to the next orbit of development and excellence by focusing on their unused potential and strengths. Helping coachees to flourish is often a large part of the coach’s goal.

Objectives of Positive psychology:

Positive psychology asserts that human goodness and excellence is just as authentic as distress and disorder and life entails more than the undoing of problems. Its aim is not the denial of the distressing, unpleasant or negative aspects of life, nor is it an effort to see them through rose-colored glasses. It fully acknowledges the existence of human suffering, selfishness, dysfunctional family systems and ineffective institutions. Its aim is to study the other side of the coin - the ways that people feel joy, show altruism and create healthy families and institutions – thereby addressing the full spectrum of human experience.

The task of Positive psychology is to understand the factors that build strengths, outline the contexts of resilience, ascertain the role of positive experiences and delineate the function of positive relationships with others. Therefore, Positive psychology is not a replacement for traditional psychology, but merely is a supplement to the hard-won gains of traditional psychology.

Concerns of Positive psychology:

According to Seligman (2002), Positive psychology has three central concerns:

1. Positive emotions - Understanding positive emotion entails the study of contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and hope for the future
2. Positive individual traits - Understanding positive individual traits consists of the study of the strengths and virtues, such as the capacity for love and work, courage, compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self-knowledge, moderation, self control, and wisdom.
3. Positive institutions - Understanding positive institutions entails the study of meaning and purpose as well as the strengths that foster better communities, such as justice, responsibility, civility, parenting, nurturance, work ethic, leadership, teamwork, purpose and tolerance.

Positive psychology is not prescriptive

Positive psychology is descriptive and not prescriptive. Positive psychologists do not tell people which choices they should make; rather they merely inform them about what is known about the consequences of their choices. Objective, empirical research on the conditions that lead to different outcomes can help people make more informed choices, but positive psychologists do not take any theoretical stand on the desirability of the different choices. Likewise, executive and business coaches never prescribe any choices that coachees should make during the coaching conversations.

Efficacy of Positive psychology interventions

Positive psychology interventions can both increase happiness and alleviate symptoms of depression (Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson, 2005). Fredrickson (2001) found that positive emotion can “undo” negative emotion and be the building blocks of resilience that combat physical illness. Strengths function as a buffer against adversity and against psychological disorders and they may be the key to resilience (Masten, 2001).

Positive psychologists have discovered that happiness is not just a destination, but rather a major variable that supports in one’s efforts to stay motivated.

Furthermore, it has identified many methods for increasing the happiness quotient and thereby guides people toward a life that can be fulfilling and meaningful.

Highlights of Positive psychology research findings :

1. Wealth is only weakly related to happiness both within and across nations, particularly when income is above the poverty level (Diener & Diener, 1996).
2. Activities that make people happy in small doses – such as shopping, good food and making money – do not lead to fulfilment in the long term, indicating that these have quickly diminishing returns (Myers, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000).
3. Engaging in an experience that produces ‘flow’ is so gratifying that people are willing to do it for its own sake, rather than for what they will get out of it. The activity is its own reward. In such an activity, concentration is fully engaged in the moment, self-awareness disappears, and sense of time is distorted (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
4. People who express gratitude on a regular basis have better physical health, optimism, progress toward goals, well-being, and help others more (Emmons & Crumpler, 2000).
5. Trying to maximize happiness can lead to unhappiness (Schwartz et al., 2002).
6. People who witness others perform good deeds experience an emotion called ‘elevation’ and this motivates them to perform their own good deeds (Haidt, 2000).
7. Optimism can protect people from mental and physical illness (Taylor et al., 2000).
8. People who are optimistic or happy have better performance in work, school and sports, are less depressed, have fewer physical health problems, and have better relationships with other people (Lyubomirsky, King & Diener, 2005).
9. People who report more positive emotions in young adulthood live longer and healthier lives (Danner, Snowdon, & Friesen, 2001).
10. Physicians experiencing positive emotions tend to make more accurate diagnoses (Isen, 1993).

What does positive psychology offer to coaches?

The mission of positive psychology is to develop sound theories of optimal functioning and to find empirically supporting ways to improve the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people. Positive psychology theory and research offers scientific legs upon which the field of coaching can firmly stand, leading to the artful practice of executive coaching.

Several executive and business coaches are employing Martin Seligman’s “Authentic Happiness Coaching Model” with their clients. Positive psychologists have standardized robust assessment tools to study human strengths and virtues. Lopez and Snyder (2003) have compiled a handbook of psychometrically robust assessments for soft phenomena such as hope, optimism and spirituality. Martin Seligman et. al (2005) developed reliable and valid measures of levels of well-being, strengths, approaches to happiness and life satisfaction.

Coaches, who are profited by the insights from positive psychology, believe that developing a person's strengths is more effective, enjoyable and efficient rather than spending inordinate amounts of time trying to correct weaknesses in the clients. Those coaches help coachees identify their signature strengths; utilize them in problem management and opportunity development.

Csikszentmihalyi, (1990) found that using one’s strengths in a challenging task leads to the experience of flow and the engaged life. Coaches help clients use their existing strengths to identify their vision of what they really want and turn it into reality. They shift attention from what causes and drives pain to what energizes and pulls people forward.

Coaches help coachees identify and reconnect with strengths, generate ideas for applying strengths in new ways and select strength of deployment strategy. By focusing on effective deployment of strengths, coaches can help coachees access their natural giftedness and find their most direct routes to enhanced job fulfilment, performance and well-being,

To conclude, there have been enough empirical evidences to show that positive psychology based coaching is found to be very effective with sustainable impact (Seligman, Steen, Park and Peterson, 2005).This type of coaching significantly helps people leverage their strengths and reach their full potential.

References:

1 Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 0-06-092043-2.

2.Deborah D. Danner, David A. Snowdon, and Wallace V. Friesen, Positive Emotions in Early Life and Longevity:Findings from the Nun Study, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2001, Vol. 80, No. 5, 804-813.

3. Diener, E. & Diener, C. (1996). Most people are happy. Psychological Science, 3, 181-85.

4. Emmons, R. A. & Crumpler, C.A. (2000). Gratitude as a human strength: Appraising the evidence, Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 19, 56-69.

5.Isen, Alice M. (1993), “Positive Affect and Decision Making,” in Handbook of emotion, e d. Michael Luis and Gannett M. Haviland, New York: Guilford.

6 Lopez SJ; Snyder CR. (2003). Positive psychological assessment: a handbook ofmodels and measures. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

7.Lyubomirsky, S., King, L.A. & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803-855.

8.Masten, A. (2001). Ordinary magic: resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56, 227-238.

9. Myers, D.G. (2000). The funds, friends, and faith of happy people, American Psychologist, 55, 56-67.

10. Peterson, C., Park, N., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2005). Orientations to happiness and life satisfaction: The full life versus the empty life, Journal of Happiness Studies, 6(1), 25 – 41.

11. Ryan, R. M. & Deci, E.L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being American Psychologist, 55, 68-78.

12.Seligman, M.E.P., Steen, T.A., Park, N. & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology

progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 410-421.

13. Seligman, M.E.P. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press/Simon and Schuster.

14. Seligman, M.E.P. & Pawelski, J.O. (2003). Positive Psychology: FAQs. Psychological Inquiry. 14, 159-163.

15. Schwartz, B., Ward, A., Monterosso, J., Lyubomirsky, S., White, K., & Lehman, D.R., Maximizing versus satisfying: Happiness is a matter of choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, Nov 2002, 1178-1197.

16. Taylor, S.E., Kemeny, M.E., Reed, G.M., Bower, J.E. & Gruenwald, T.L. (2000). Psychological resources, positive illusions, and health. American Psychologist, 55, 99- 109.