Positive Psychology

Historical Background

Psychology was originally a branch of philosophy. It emerged as its own discipline through early work on perception and sensation, as well as personality and psychological dysfunction. Early in the history of psychology, there were many examples of “positive psychology,” including making people's lives more productive and meaningful, identifying and encouraging giftedness in children, and helping people find niches within the vocational world that best suited their unique talents. Following World War II, the founding of the Veterans Administration (VA; now Veterans Affairs) and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) led to an increasingly narrow focus on diagnosing and treating mental illness. These governmental initiatives greatly expanded the opportunities available to psychologists, and led to growth in the field. Treating psychological dysfunction and mental illness was the fundamental priority of psychologists in the VA system. Similarly, the NIMH prioritized research that sought to understand and improve treatment in these same areas. The field as a whole was heavily influenced by these postwar changes, and before long, the focus on dysfunction and pathology dominated the discipline.

Counseling psychology also emerged as a discipline in the years following World War II, and counseling psychology's interests have historically maintained a balance between understanding the nature and treatment of psychological maladies and understanding and cultivating character strengths. Among subfields of psychology, counseling psychology has been notable for the extent to which its interest in character strengths has been supported. Several examples of this support can be found in vocational approaches, such as those of Frank Parsons and E. K. Strong, which attempted to identify people's abilities and aspirations and match them with jobs that would be satisfying to them. Within the broader field, the humanistic movement began to influence views on human nature. The humanistic perspective highlighted people's natural tendencies to seek personal growth and generally drew attention to the multitude of strengths people possessed. The existentialist movement within psychology also drew attention to the human capacity to overcome adversity and create meaningful experiences from what the existential theorists regarded as the random, and often challenging, stream of life. Leading proponents of these perspectives, such as Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, and Gordon Allport, influenced the way in which psychologists regarded the human being, and elevated the importance of the human capacity for growth and psychological strength, even during the period that was dominated by research, theory, and practice emphasizing human weaknesses and afflictions.

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