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
[edit | edit source]This tutorial is about growth psychology, self-actualisation, and provides active review of key learning from the unit.
Growth psychology assumptions
[edit | edit source]To 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 | edit source]- 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
[edit | edit source]Since 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
[edit | edit source]This 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 | edit source]- Tutorial 05 recording, 2017
See also
[edit | edit source]- 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
[edit | edit source]Peterson, 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.