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Unit 3 Cognitive Focused Approaches

Unit 3 focuses on cognitive approaches in positive psychology, emphasizing the importance of self-efficacy, optimism, and hope in enhancing individual well-being. It discusses how these cognitive strategies can help individuals overcome challenges, set and achieve goals, and foster a positive outlook on life. The unit also outlines methods for goal setting and the benefits of maintaining a hopeful and optimistic mindset for personal growth and fulfillment.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
5 views

Unit 3 Cognitive Focused Approaches

Unit 3 focuses on cognitive approaches in positive psychology, emphasizing the importance of self-efficacy, optimism, and hope in enhancing individual well-being. It discusses how these cognitive strategies can help individuals overcome challenges, set and achieve goals, and foster a positive outlook on life. The unit also outlines methods for goal setting and the benefits of maintaining a hopeful and optimistic mindset for personal growth and fulfillment.

Uploaded by

Gerald M. Llanes
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unit 3: Cognitive Focused Approaches

This unit will discuss the nature, methods, and benefits of the cognitive approaches in positive
psychology.
Essential Questions:
 What are the cognitive-focused approaches in positive psychology and how are they
beneficial to an individual?
Intended Learning Outcomes:
 Discuss the nature, methods, and benefits of the cognitive-based approaches in positive
psychology
Diagnostic Assessment:
1. What are the key characteristics of cognitive-focused approaches?
2. In your own words, define Mindfulness, Optimism and Hope.
Cognition is defined as all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced,
elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned with these processes even when they
operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as images and hallucinations (Ulrich Neisser).
In this unit we will discuss the approaches involved in acquiring knowledge and understanding
through thought, experience and our senses. You’ll be presented with concepts that Positive
Psychology presents as human strengths that helps them overcome obstacles and succeed.
Seeing Our Futures Through Self-Efficacy, Optimism, and Hope
People would have different picture of their future be in what they expect next week or the
coming years. The unknown gives us the opportunity to look forward that something better and
to move on from our past. This however is highly impacted by perspective and this we will
understand better as we go through the next bullets:
1. Self-Efficacy
Bandura (1997, p. vii) defined self-efficacy as “peoples’ beliefs in their capabilities to produce
desired effects by their own actions.” Similarly, Maddux (2009a, p. 336) has described self-
efficacy as “what I believe I can do with my skills under certain conditions.” For Bandura,
what needs to be done in order to reach a goal (outcome expectancies) are viewed as far less
important than when a person analyzes his or her capability to complete the necessary actions
(efficacy expectancies); consistent with his perspective, studies have shown that outcome
expectancies do not add much to efficacy expectancies when predicting various human actions
(Maddux, 1991).
Self-efficacy is a learned human pattern of thinking rather than a genetically endowed one. It
begins in infancy and continues throughout the life span. Self-efficacy is based on the premises
of social cognitive theory, which holds that humans actively shape their lives rather than
passively reacting to environmental forces (Bandura, 1986; Barone, Maddux, & Snyder, 1997a).
Social cognitive theory, in turn, is built on three ideas. First, humans have powerful symbolizing
capacities for cognitively creating models of their experiences. Second, by observing themselves
in relation to these cognitive models, people then become skilled at self-regulating their actions
as they navigate ongoing environmental events. Thus, cognitive reactions influence the
surrounding environmental forces that, in turn, shape subsequent thoughts and actions (i.e., there
is a back-and-forth interchange of environmental and thinking forces). Third, people (i.e., their
selves) and their personalities are a result of these situation-specific, reciprocal interactions of
thoughts →environment → thoughts. Given these social cognitive ideas, therefore, a developing
child uses symbolic thinking, with specific reference to the understanding of cause-and-effect
relationships, and learns self-efficacious, self-referential thinking by observing how she or he can
influence the surrounding circumstances (Maddux, 2009a).

Bandura (1977, 1989a, 1989b, 1997)


proposed that the developmental
antecedents of self-efficacy include the
following:
1. Previous successes in similar situations
(calling on the wellspring of positive
thoughts about how well one has done in
earlier circumstances)
2. Modeling on others in the same situations
(watching other people who have succeeded
in a given arena and copying their actions)
3. Imagining oneself behaving effectively (visualizing acting effectively to secure a wanted goal)
4. Undergoing verbal persuasion by powerful, trustworthy, expert, and attractive other people
(being influenced by a helper’s words to behave in a given manner)
5. Arousal and emotion (when physiologically aroused and experiencing negative emotions, our
self-efficacy may be undermined, whereas such arousal paired with positive emotions heightens
the sense of self-efficacy)
Goal Setting

Why is goal setting important?

o Goals give purposefulness to our lives.


o Goals provide us with fulfillment (and therefore, happiness).
o Our goals are steppingstones to achieving even brighter/higher/more invigorating

goals.

Setting of Life Goals: Happiness is defined as the situation where expectations are met by
reality. To achieve happiness, you first have to have some expectations. You define your
expectations with a personal life plan. It is not just about managing you need to put money in
perspective and prioritize your goals by creating a total life plan. Fill out a goal setting worksheet
and you will then know how to prioritize the monies on your budget and balance sheet
spreadsheets. "You've got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, 'cause you might
not get there." (Yogi Berra) Plan your life so that you do not miss out. It could be the most
important step you take in building your personal finances for a successful and happy life.

Goals give us focus. This is especially important when we’re depressed or down on ourselves. At
those times, we need to take our focus off the current situation and focus or re-focus on the
overall goals and dreams… or maybe set some new goals. Setting goals is a lifelong process that
needs to be renewed and reviewed all the time…at least once every few months.

Correct Goal Setting Process:

 Identify an overall goal or dream (let’s say that you would like to be a healthier)
 Break the goal down into specific goals (like losing 24 lbs.)
 Set a deadline (like lose 24 lbs in 6 months)
 Break it down into monthly and weekly goals (4lbs. per month or 1lb. per week)
 Determine daily tasks (not eating desert or minimizing your calorie intake or running 3
times per week for mile to achieve your goals).

The benefits of goal setting


Hope and optimism: Goals give you a focus and something to look forward to. Your life has a
purpose, increasing your feelings of hope and optimism. Hope will help a person work through
any complications and so not give up when things get difficult. The link between hope and goal
setting goes both ways. Thinking about and planning your goals can increase a feeling of hope
and optimism. This optimism can then boost your ability to achieve your goals. It will also assist
you in planning more goals in the future.
Taking control: Happy people take control of their lives, rather than just drifting or let others
make the decisions. Recognize the feeling of control and empowerment as you establish and then
accomplish your goals. Being able to overcome hurdles and developing a more constructive
attitude to the things you cannot control is a great confidence booster.
Flow experience: A flow experience is one where your whole consciousness is absorbed with a
particular activity. Thoughts of time and other needs (such as hunger) are forgotten. Positive
psychologists generally agree that the more flow experiences a person have, the happier they are.
Goals give us something we can actively get involved with, which is an essential ingredient to a
flow experience. Goals and the flow experience have a good relationship. By setting goals we
enhance our chances of experiencing flow. By experiencing flow, we are more likely to achieve
our goals.
General wellbeing: Having goals in our life is good for our wellbeing. It provides us with an
opportunity to go on a journey which we can learn from and enjoy. It helps a person appreciate
their capabilities, gives life a purpose and increases optimism

2. Optimism
 A stable tendency “[to] believe that good rather than bad things will happen.” (Scheier
and Carver (1985). They assumed that when a goal was of sufficient value, then the
individual will produce an expectancy about attaining the goal.
 Optimism is derived from the Latin optimum, “best”. Being optimistic in the typical
sense of the word, ultimately means one expects the best possible outcome from any
given situation.
Learned Optimism
In the Seligman theory of learned optimism, the optimist uses adaptive causal attributions to
explain negative experiences or events. Thus, the person answers the question, “Why did that
bad thing happen to me?” In technical terms, the optimist makes external, variable, and specific
attributions for failure-like events rather than the internal, stable, and global attributions of the
pessimist.
Stated more simply, the optimist explains bad things in such a manner as:
(1) to account for the role of other people and environments in producing bad outcomes (i.e., an
external attribution)
(2) to interpret the bad event as not likely to happen again (i.e., a variable attribution);
(3) to constrain the bad outcome to just one performance area and not others (i.e., a specific
attribution).
Seligman’s theory implicitly places great emphasis upon negative outcomes in determining one’s
attributional explanations. Therefore, as shown in Figure, Seligman’s theory uses an excuse-like
process of “distancing” from bad things that have happened in the past, rather than the more
usual notion of optimism involving the connection to positive outcomes desired in the future.
Within the learned optimism perspective, therefore, the optimistic goal directed cognitions are
aimed at distancing the person from negative outcomes of high importance.
Optimistic Explanatory style is different, though related to, the more traditional, narrower
definition of optimism. This broader concept is based on the theory that optimism and pessimism
are drawn from the way people explain events. There are three dimensions within typical
explanations, which include internal versus external, stable versus unstable, and global versus
specific. Optimistic justifications toward negative experiences are attributed to factors outside
the self (external), are not likely to occur consistently (unstable), and are limited specific life
domains (specific). Positive experiences would be optimistically labeled as the opposite: internal,
stable, global.
There is much debate about the relationship between
explanatory style and optimism. Some researchers argue
that there is not much difference at all; optimism is just
the lay term for what scientists call explanatory style.
Others argue that explanatory style is exclusive to its
concept and should not be interchangeable with
optimism.
Go to this link to get to know more It is generally thought that, though they should not be
about optimism used interchangeably, dispositional optimism and
explanatory style are at least marginally related.
Ultimately, the problem is simply that more research must be done to either define a "bridge" or
further differentiate between these concepts
<Excerpt from an Academia Source>
3. Hope

 A goal-directed thinking in which the person utilizes pathways thinking (motivation to


pursue goals and the belief in one’s capacity to achieve desired goals) and agency
thinking (development of routes to goal achievement).
 Only goal/s with considerable value to the individual are considered applicable to hope.
The goal/s can vary temporally which can be short-term or long term. Likewise, the
goal/s entailed in hoping may be approach oriented (aimed at reaching a desired goal) or
preventative (aimed at stopping an undesired event). (Snyder, Feldman, Taylor,
Schroeder, & Adams, 2000)
 Snyder (1994) proposes that hope has no hereditary contributions but rather is entirely a
learned cognitive set about goal-directed thinking. The teaching of pathways and agency
goal-directed thinking is an inherent part of parenting, and the components of hopeful
thought are in place in a child by age two. Pathways thinking reflects basic cause-and-
effect learning that the child acquires from caregivers and others.

Hope Theory
 Averill, Catlin, and Chon
(1990) define hope in cognitive terms as
appropriate when goals are (1) reasonably
attainable (i.e., have an intermediate level
of difficulty), (2) under control, (3) viewed
Click picture to learn more about the hope
as important, and (4) acceptable at social
theory and moral levels.

 Breznitz (1986) proposed five metaphors to capture the operations of hope in response to
stressors, with hope as (1) a protected area, (2) a bridge, (3) an intention, (4)
performance, and (5) an end in itself. He also cautioned that hope may be an illusion akin
to denial.

 Erik Erikson (1964, p. 118) defined hope as “the enduring belief in the attainability of
fervent wishes” and posed dialectics between hope and other motives, one of the
strongest and most important being trust/hope versus mistrust, which is the infant’s first
task. Another broad dialectic, according to Erikson (1982), pertains to the generativity of
hope versus stagnation.

 For Gottschalk (1974), hope involves positive expectancies about specific favorable
outcomes, and it impels a person to move through psychological problems. He developed
a hope scale to analyze the content of 5-minute segments of spoken words. This hope
measurement has concurrent validity in terms of its positive correlations with positive
human relations and achievement and its negative relationships to higher anxiety,
hostility, and social alienation.
 Basing his definition on the coping of prisoners of war, Marcel (see Godfrey, 1987)
concluded that hope gives people the power to cope with helpless circumstances.

 Mowrer (1960) proposed that hope was an emotion that occurred when rats observed a
stimulus that was linked with something pleasurable. Mowrer also described the
antithesis of hope, or fear, which he said entailed a type of dread in which the animal
lessened its activity level and that, as such, fear impedes their goal pursuits.

 Staats (1989, p. 367) defined hope as “the interaction between wishes and expectations”
Staats and colleagues developed instruments for tapping the affective and cognitive
aspects of hope. To measure affective hope, the Expected Balance Scale (EBS; Staats,
1989) entails 18 items for which respondents use a 5-point Likert continuum. To measure
cognitive hope, the Hope Index (Staats & Stassen, as cited in Staats, 1989) focuses on
particular events and their outcomes and contains the subscales of Hope-Self, Hope-
Other, Wish, and Expect. The Hope Index contains 16 items, and respondents use a 6-
point Likert continuum (0 = Not at all to 5 = Very much) to rate both the degree to which
they “wish this to occur” and “expect this to occur.”

 Stotland (1969) explored the role of expectancies and cognitive schemas and described
hope as involving important goals for which there is a reasonably high perceived
probability of attainment. Using Stotland’s (1969) model, Erickson, Post, and Paige
(1975) designed a hope scale that consists of 20 general and common (i.e., not situation-
specific) goals. This hope scale yields scores of average importance and average
probability across these goals. There is little reported research, however, using this
scale.
Can Hope Be Measured?
 In 1991, Snyder, Harris, et al. developed a 12-item trait measure for adults ages 16 and
older in which 4 items reflect pathways, 4 items reflect agency, and 4 items are
distracters. Respondents respond to each item on an 8-point Likert continuum.
 The Children’s Hope Scale (CHS; Snyder, Hoza, et al., 1997) is a six-item self-report
trait measure appropriate for children age 8 to 15. Three of the six items reflect pathways
thinking, and three reflect agency thinking. Children respond to the items on a 6-point
Likert continuum.
 The State Hope Scale (SHS) developed by Snyder and colleagues (Snyder, Sympson, et
al., 1996) is a six item self-report scale that taps here-and-now goal-directed thinking.
Three items reflect pathways thinking, and three items reflect agency thinking. The
response range is 1 – Definitely false to 8 = Definitely true.

Life Enhancement Strategies

Self-efficacy, optimism, and hope provide the momentum needed to pursue a good life.
Therefore, we encourage you to use the self-efficacy, optimism, and hope you already possess to
improve functioning in important domains of your life.
Love
 Build new confidence in your relationships by observing someone who is quite skilled in
managing friendships and romantic relationships. Emulate his or her behavior as
appropriate.
 Approach your next visit with extended family with a flexible explanatory style. When
positive events occur, be sure to identify your role in the family success.
 Set goals for important relationships that will help you grow closer to others. Be sure to
identify multiple pathways and sources of agency for pursuing these aims.
Work
 Develop new skills for work or school by attending training or study sessions that will
help you approach your assignments with increased confidence.
 When a new project is assigned to you, expect that the best will happen. Nurture those
optimistic thoughts daily as you work toward successful completion of the project.
 Break down a big task into small goals and direct your energy toward pursuing small goal
after small goal.
Play
 Watch an hour of educational television for children. Attempt to identify the many
messages designed to enhance self-efficacy.
 Play a board game or a sport with a friend and attempt to respond to a poor outcome with
a flexible explanatory approach.
 Identify a personal goal associated with your favorite leisure activity that you hope to
attain in the next month. Identify and procure all the resources you need to make progress
toward that goal.

Maximizing our Present through Creativity, Wisdom, Courage and Mindfulness


Our reaction to different scenarios is highly impacted by how we process our current situation.
This separates a person who is well adjusted from one that is not. In this next topics we will be
discussing some key factors that differs person
1. Creativity

 It refers to the phenomenon whereby something new is created which has some kind of
subjective value (such as an idea, a joke, a literary work, a painting or musical
composition, a solution, an invention etc.). It is also the qualitative impetus behind any
given act of creation, and it is generally perceived to be associated with intelligence and
cognition.
 It is the process of generating novel ideas and is the basic force for all inventions. The
process of creation involves seeing new relations between concepts and things and
determining unique solutions to problems. The creative process is about seeing new
associations between objects and concepts and the creative person is marked by traits of
originality, nonconformity and high levels of
knowledge.

2. Wisdom

 Baltes (1993) analyzed cultural-historical and


philosophical writings and found that wisdom

Click picture to watch the video


(1) addresses important/difficult matters of life; (2) involves special or superior
knowledge, judgment, and advice; (3) reflects knowledge with extraordinary scope,
depth, and balance applicable to specific life situations; (4) is well intended and combines
mind and virtue; and (5) is very difficult to achieve but easily recognized.
 “[Wisdom] is uniquely human; a form of advanced cognitive and emotional development
that is experience driven; a personal quality, albeit a rare one, that can be learned,
increases with age, can be measured and is not likely to be enhanced by medication”
(Jeste etal., 2010, p. 668).
 According to Sternberg, wisdom involves forming a judgment when there are competing
interests that lack a clear resolution. As such, balancing personal interests and actions and
sharing a wise judgment may entail exceptional problem-solving ability.
 Baltes and his colleagues (Baltes & Smith, 1990; Baltes & Staudinger, 1993, 2000)
define wisdom as the “ways and means of planning, managing, and understanding a good
life” (Baltes & Staudinger, 2000, p. 124). Simply stated, “Wisdom is an expertise in
conduct and meaning of life” (p. 124).
 Robinson’s (1990) review of early Western classical dialogues revealed three distinct
conceptualizations of wisdom: (1) that found in persons seeking a contemplative life (the
Greek term sophia); (2) that of a practical nature, as displayed by great statesmen
(phronesis); and (3) scientific understanding (episteme). Aristotle added to the list of
types of wisdom by describing theoretikes, the theoretical thought and knowledge
devoted to truth, and distinguishing it from phronesis (practical wisdom).

Can Wisdom Be Measured?

 A brief self-report measure of wisdom that includes Likert-type items recently was
constructed and validated for inclusion in the Values in Action Classification of Strengths
(Peterson & Seligman, 2004). The items are not linked to any of the aforementioned
theories, however, and they tap five aspects of wisdom: curiosity, love of learning, open
mindedness, creativity, and perspective. Although all respondents complete the wisdom
items, only people who have wisdom as one of their top five strengths (out of 24) receive
feedback on their capacity for wise living.

 A longer self-report measure called the Wisdom Development Scale (Brown & Greene,
2006) also shows promise as a measure of wisdom. it includes dimensions for self-
knowledge (6 items), altruism (14 items), inspirational engagement (11 items), judgment
(11 items), life knowledge (9 items), life skills (11 items), and emotional management (9
items).

 The Wise Thinking and Acting Questionnaire (WITHAQ; Moraitou &Efklides, 2012) is
an assessment that specifically taps the cognitive facet of wisdom. This scale contains
three subscales: Practical Wisdom, Integrated Dialectical Thinking, and Awareness of
Life Uncertainty, and has been found to be psychometrically sound with both older and
young adults.

Life Enhancement Strategies


Pursuits of wisdom has been chronicled in many historical and fictional accounts. For example,
Buddha abandoned everything that he knew and loved in order to seek enlightenment, a state of
wisdom and love that has defined the Buddhist traditions.
Love
 Balancing your love life with your work life will take a tremendous amount of wisdom.
Identify one person in your family who is the best role model for using wisdom to
balance his or her love life with his or her work life. Interview this person and determine
the four wise acts in which he or she engages to maintain that balance
Work
 Share your wisdom about succeeding academically and socially with freshmen at your
college or university. Your perspective on how to adapt may prove valuable to other
students, particularly those who may not have others in their lives to share this type of
wisdom (e.g., first generation college students).
Play
 Balance your work or school demands with your leisure activities. Reflect on the past
week and determine how well you balanced your daily living.

3. Courage

 Courage is the (1) magnificence, the planning and execution of great and expansive
projects by putting forth ample and splendid effort of mind; (2) confidence, that through
which, on great and honorable projects, the mind self-confidently collects itself with sure
hope; (3) patience, the voluntary and lengthy endurance of arduous and difficult things,
whether the case be honorable or useful(4) perseverance, ongoing persistence in a well-
considered plan (Cicero)
 Peterson and Seligman (2004) conceptualized courage as a core human virtue comprising
such strengths as valor (taking physical, intellectual, and emotional stances in the face of
danger); authenticity (representing oneself to others and the self in a sincere
fashion);enthusiasm/zest (thriving/having a sense of vitality in a challenging situation);
and industry/perseverance (undertaking tasks and challenges and finishing them).
 In a similar model, O’Byrne et al. (2000) identified the three types of courage as physical,
moral, and health/change (now referred to as vital courage). Physical courage involves
the attempted maintenance of societal good by the expression of physical behavior
grounded in the pursuit of socially valued goals (e.g., a firefighter saving a child from a
burning building). Moral courage is the behavioral expression of authenticity in the face
of the discomfort of dissension, disapproval, or rejection (e.g., a politician invested in a
“greater good” places an unpopular vote in a meeting). Vital courage refers to the
perseverance through a disease or
disability even when the outcome is
ambiguous (e.g., a child with a heart
transplant maintaining his or her intensive
treatment regimen even though the
prognosis is uncertain).

Click picture to watch the video


 Psychological courage, as Putman (1997) described it, is strength in facing one’s
destructive habits. This form of vital courage may be quite common in that we all
struggle with psychological challenges in the forms of stress, sadness, and dysfunctional
or unhealthy relationships. In light of these threats to our psychological stabilities, we
stand up to our dysfunctions by restructuring our beliefs or systematically desensitizing
ourselves to the fears. One striking argument that Putman advanced about psychological
courage is that there is a paucity of training for psychological courage as compared to
physical and moral courage. Putman goes on to say that pop culture presents many
physically and morally courageous icons in literary works and movies, but exemplars of
psychological courage are rare. Perhaps this is due to the negative stigma surrounding
mental health problems and destructive behaviors. It is also possible, however, that the
language surrounding vital courage is new relative to that for moral and physical courage
(the latter having been acknowledged since the ancient Greeks).

4. Mindfulness

 According to Langer, it is a flexible state of mind—an


openness to novelty, a process of actively drawing
novel distinctions. When we are mindful, we become
sensitive to context and perspective; we are situated in
the present. When we are mindless, we are trapped in
rigid mind-sets, oblivious to context or perspective.
When we are mindless, our behavior is governed by rule
and routine.

 Mindlessness is the state of “not being there” wherein


we are unaware of what is happening. Most common
Go to this link to learn more
ways are repetition (when we are used to the activity that about mindfulness
we can execute the task without focusing) and a single
exposure to the information (locking ourselves in one
understanding of a fact)

 The goal of mindfulness is to cultivate perspective on one’s consciousness and identity


that can bring greater peace mentally and relationally. Mindfulness may also be used in
mindfulness-based therapies, to address stress, anxiety, or pain, and simply to become
more relaxed (Psychology Today)

 Mindfulness has
“sati” was roughly translated to “mindfulness.”
The practice was popularized in the West
through the work of Jon-Kabat Zinn. Zinn
created Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to
treat pain, anxiety, and stress, and he ultimately
brought mindfulness into mainstream clinical
practice (Psychology Today)
Click picture to learn more about
Buddhism
 Mindfulness is one form of meditation. Meditation utilizes various practices to quiet the
mind or achieve a higher level of consciousness, one of which is mindfulness.
Mindfulness can be cultivated within or outside of formal meditation and woven into any
activity, such as taking a walk or being engaged in conversation (Psychology Today).

Problem-Solving Appraisal and Psychological Adjustment


Problem solving appraisal refers to a person’s self-appraisal of his or her problem-solving
abilities and attitudes (i.e., his or her self-evaluated capacity to resolve problems). A critical
strength or resource for coping with life's demands is a person's appraisal of his or her problem-
solving skills and style. Some people bring a great deal of resources to resolving their problems,
but others have significant problem-solving deficits. An important individual difference that
influences applied problem-solving behavior is a person’s problem-solving appraisal.
The PSI is the most widely used measure of problem-solving appraisal. The PSI consists of 35
items, each having 6 possible responses that vary from 1 = strongly agree to 6 = strongly
disagree. The instrument provides measures of (a) Problem-Solving Confidence, defined as one’s
beliefs in his or her problem-solving abilities; (b) Approach-Avoidance Style, defined as one’s
general tendency to approach or avoid different problem-solving activities; and (c) Personal
Control, defined as one’s beliefs in his or her emotional and behavioral control while solving
problems. An extensive body of empirical research supports the construct, convergent, and
discriminate validity of the PSI across a range of populations and cultures.
Psychosocial Adjustment
In the past 25 years, a broad range of studies have suggested that problem-solving appraisal is
associated with general psychological and social adjustment, depression, hopelessness and
suicide potential, anxiety and worry, alcohol use and abuse, eating disorders, childhood
adjustment, and childhood trauma. This entry focuses on the first four areas.
General Psychological and Social Adjustment: Individuals who have a negative (as opposed to
a positive) problem-solving appraisal tend to be less well-adjusted psychologically, to have more
personal problems, and to experience more difficulty establishing a personal identity separate
from their parents. In addition, they have fewer social skills and experience more social distress.
There appears to be a dysfunctional pattern in which avoiding their problems leads to lower
problem-solving confidence, and subsequently, lower psychological adjustment. The more
positively individuals appraise their problem solving, the higher their levels of psychological and
social adjustment.
Depression: A positive problem-solving appraisal is associated with lower levels of depression.
People with a negative problem-solving appraisal are at a higher risk of depression when they are
under high stress. Having a positive assessment of their problem-solving ability provides
individuals with some protection against depression when they are confronted with high levels of
stress.
Hopelessness and suicidality: A negative problem-solving appraisal are associated with feelings
of hopelessness and suicidal ideation. A person’s problem-solving confidence, in particular, is a
relatively strong predictor of his or her feelings of hopelessness. Individuals with a negative (as
opposed to positive) problem-solving appraisal who are under high levels of stress tend to
experience higher levels of hopelessness. Thus, problem-solving appraisal is a consistent
predictor of hopelessness and sociality.
Anxiety and worry: People with a negative appraisal of their problem-solving abilities tend to
experience higher levels of anxiety in general, and especially when under stress. In particular,
problem-solving confidence and a sense of personal control were most strongly associated with
both anxiety and worrying
Formative Assessment
1. This is the term that defines “the interaction between wishes and expectations”
2. He created the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction that puts the mindfulness in
mainstream clinical practice.
3. Enumerate and explain at least 3 benefits of goal setting
4. What is the real name of Buddha?
Summative Assessment
1. Adapt a mindfulness exercise and continuously practice it for 14 days. Note the impact of
the exercise in your daily mood.
2. In this time of pandemic, what gives you Hope?
References:
Hefferon, K., & Boniwell, I. (2011). Positive psychology: Theory, research and applications.
McGraw-Hill Education
Lopez, S. Pedrotti, J. & Snyder C. (2015). Positive Psychology The Scientific and Practical
Explorations of Human Strengths (3rd Edition). Sage Publications Inc.,
TED. (2017, March 11). The Power of Mindfulness: What You Practice Grows Stronger |
Shauna Shapiro | TEDxWashingtonSquare [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeblJdB2-Vo

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