Oldal 15 [15]
1 POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers: Theoretically and practically, in their work
with clients and research, they focused their attention on human needs and
healthy human development. Humanistic psychology brought new beliefs that
a person has a desire to live his life in a way that gives him the feeling that he
is developing and fulfilling his potential. One is happy when one learns, im¬
proves, uses and develops one’s abilities. In the Person-Centered Approach
(PCA), Carl Rogers states, among other things, that authenticity (being oneself)
and self-acceptance make a significant contribution to self-satisfaction and
life.
Martin Seligman, President of the American Psychological Association, and
founder of Positive Psychology (1999): He emphasizes the meaningfulness of
being and he is the author of the 2002 theory of true happiness, which measures
life satisfaction and, in a larger study from 2014, measures well-being (Seligman,
2014).
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Even before founding Positive Psychology of the
Decade, he researched the so-called optimal survival, a state of mind he called
FLOW. We experience FLOW during demanding activities when we concentrate
fully and are relaxed. People who experience such conditions are happier be¬
cause of them.
Barbara Fredrickson: In her action theory, the broaden-and-build theory of
positive emotions, she explored the importance of positive emotions, which
allow people to be creative, playful, and curious, giving them opportunities to
gain new physical, social and intellectual resources.
Daniel Goleman: He dealt with emotional intelligence in the positive psychol¬
ogy movement. He intended to seek the penetration of rational cognition into
emotional life. Expressing young people’s emotions is part of the process of
formal and non-formal education at school and beyond, and therefore he em¬
phasizes the need to address socio-emotional literacy. Socio-emotional liter¬
acy should be part of the school curriculum or part of the teaching and learn¬
ing subjects.
The scientific and professional work of the representatives of positive psychol¬
ogy documents the cooperation according to the focus of their subject of re¬
search. The most extensive collaboration of the positive psychology movement
is a monograph about positive psychology, written by Snyder and Lopez, to
which 107 contributors contributed. Authors who contributed their thoughts
are Seligman, Maddux, Wright, Lopez, Keyes, Watson, Nakamura, Csikszent¬
mihalyi, Diener, Lucas, Fredrickson, Knapp and others. At the individual
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