Editorial: positive psychology in everyday life

Pocinho, Margarida; Garcês, Soraia; Popa, Daniela

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/18634

Utilize este identificador para referenciar este registo.

Nome:	Descrição:	Tamanho:	Formato:
Editorial Positive Psychology in Everyday Life.pdf		184.83 KB	Adobe PDF	Ver/Abrir

Contacte-nos

Autores

Pocinho, Margarida

Garcês, Soraia

Popa, Daniela

Resumo(s)

Positive Psychology has been established as a major-based-evidence field of knowledge that aims to understand how people can improve their lives, and ultimately, flourish. Studies have been conducted since Seligman (2016) and Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2014) spearheaded this movement of looking for the positive aspects of life rather than focusing on the negatives. However, although the focus of studies in the area of positive psychology is on “cultivating positive feelings, behaviors, or cognitions” (Sin and Lyubomirsky, 2009, p. 468), we wonder whether beliefs about improved wellbeing in response to positive psychology interventions do not bias the way we conduct research in this field. Recent studies show that moderators may exist in such situations from both the characteristics of the activities designed in the interventions and those of the research participants. Current research has shown that participation in activities aimed at improving wellbeing positively biases the beliefs of people in the sample (Gander et al., 2022). It is therefore more than likely that respondents will respond positively to tasks in research designs, anticipating their beneficial purpose, engage in behaviors they would not ordinarily engage in, and self-evaluate themselves as more effective than they actually are.