Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Growth psychology
Tutorial 06: Growth psychology
This is the sixth and final tutorial for the motivation and emotion unit of study.
This tutorial is complete for 2019. |
Overview
editThis tutorial is about growth psychology, self-actualisation, and provides active review of key learning from the unit.
Growth psychology assumptions
editTo what extent do you agree with the underlying assumptions of growth psychology? Not sure? Consider these questions (do a class line-up (as per the first tutorial for each and discuss):
- Do you think that "evil" (or anti-social) behaviour:
- is inherent in human nature?
- is a product of a sick culture?
- How does learning best occur? Does effective learning follow from:
- well-developed curricula and expert teaching?
- having one’s interests identified, facilitated, and supported?
- Does psychological therapy work best by:
- fixing what is broken?
- nurturing what is best?
- Which answers correspond to growth psychology paradigms? (the 2nd answer in each case)
Self-actualisation
edit- Self-actualising is the process of fulfilling your potential.
- Complete this Self-evaluation of self-actualisation
- Review your answers and highlight:
- What are you doing that is particularly helping you towards self-actualisation?
- What aspects could you grow and develop to help towards self-actualisation?
Happiness
editSince the development of positive psychology in 1990s, there has been a significant focus on psychological research and understanding of happiness.
- Martin Seligman suggests three components of happiness which he calls the:
- Pleasant life: Dealing with the past, optimism about the future, happiness in the present (hedonic pleasure and the skills to amplify pleasure). However, this form of happiness is limited by being short-lived, subject to the hedonic treadmill, and heritable.
- Good life: or Eudaimonia; Engagement (flow, absorption)
- Meaningful life: Connection to a higher purpose)
- Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, suggests two components of happiness: (Why are we happy? (Dan Gilbert, 2004, 21:20, TED talk)):
- Natural happiness: What we feel when we get what we want
- Synthetic happiness: What we feel when we learn to like what we get
Pearls of wisdom - Nuggets of truth
editThis exercise seeks to crystallise and share the:
- "pearls of wisdom"
- "nuggets of truth"
- "flashes of insight"
- "take-home messages" etc.
that have arisen from your engagement with Motivation and emotion content and/or learning activities.
Link: Pearls of wisdom |
Recording
edit- Tutorial 05 recording, 2017
See also
edit- Additional tutorial material
- Problems for discussion
- Fully functioning person
- Happiness - Practical exercises
- Meaning and coherence
- Optimal human functioning
- Lecture
- Tutorials
- 20 emotions (Previous tutorial)
- Review (Next tutorial)
- Wikipedia
- Character Strengths and Virtues (book) (Wikipedia)
- Psychological resilience (ability to bounce back)}}
References
editPeterson, C. (2006). What is positive psychology? In A primer in positive psychology (pp. 3-24).
Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5-14.
Seligman, M. E. P., Rashid, T., & Parks, A. C. (2006). Positive psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 61, 774-788.