Unit 1: Introduction

Welcome. This course has been designed to support you in using evidence-based insights from positive psychology to improve the wellbeing and happiness of you and your family.

This is of particular relevance given the short- and long-term effects on families living through and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

During this course you will develop your understanding of six key themes from positive psychology and learn practical techniques to develop positive approaches to explore your past, present and potential wellbeing.

Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that investigates how all of us can live happier and more fulfilling lives.

Despite its name, it is not just about being positive all the time and it certainly can’t offer a permanent state of bliss. However, it can improve your wellbeing and help you and your family feel a bit happier at home.

Its success is also based on using scientific research to provide techniques that are proven to help people to flourish.

What positive psychology has to offer

In the video below, Michelle Tytherleigh, a positive psychology researcher from the University of Chester in the UK, discusses what positive psychology has to offer families.

Download this video clip.Video player: unit_1_introduction_v2.mp4

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Transcript

MICHELLE:

As a parent, you'll probably agree that what most of us want for our children is for them to be happy and healthy. In fact, science has shown that being happy can also have major benefits on our health, including living a healthier lifestyle, overcoming stress, boosting our immune system, and protecting the heart. In fact, being happy can even increase our longevity.

In the introduction to this course, you learned how positive psychology is interested in what enables us to live happier and more fulfilling lives. In short, how positive psychology is interested in what is good about life and what makes life most worth living.

As part of this research in positive psychology has been interested in the emotions, the strengths, the processes, the conditions, and the relationships that foster optimal functioning. More recently, research has also looked at the role that positive psychology can play when life does not go right, like the pandemic.

And what it has found is that whilst many individuals have endured high levels of distress during the pandemic, many have still also been able to experience positive mental health as well, in short, by feeling good, functioning well, and doing good. And we call this post-traumatic growth.

For example, some research that was carried out in China, which analysed the words that were used on social media immediately before and soon after COVID, showed that even though there was an increase in anxiety and depression, happiness and life satisfaction, albeit reduced, was still present too.

With research carried out into positive parenting, positive psychology also comes with great news for parents. Again, based on scientific research, we now have a wealth of knowledge, tools, and resources that can help parents be the best that they can be for their children. And of course, we hope that this course will be a start of this journey for you.

And if you'd like to know more about positive parenting and some of the research and benefits that have been identified, please do check out the additional resources that you will find as links at the end of this course.

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The video in section 1.1 highlighted that positive psychology has identified ways to boost happiness and wellbeing.

Throughout the rest of this course, you will be introduced to some of the ways you can boost your happiness and wellbeing, and that of your children, using six key themes that have been shown to improve wellbeing through the way we think about the past, present and future potential.

These six themes are illustrated in the diagram below.

For each of the themes introduced in the course, you are shown some practical activities that you can try at home. The benefits of these have all been supported scientifically and can be attempted by yourself during the course. They can also be adapted to work with children of all ages within the home. Being a good role model to our children is also a great way to help enhance their wellbeing.

Using these techniques can help you focus on improving relationships within the family and having a more optimistic outlook when imagining the future. It can also help you to build on your personal resilience and have a clearer sense of your purpose and meaning in life (Lyubomirsky, 2006).

It is strongly recommended that you have a notepad or a journal to hand during the period that you take this course. You may find it very helpful to reflect on how you have found certain activities and you may want to take notes about ideas and resources that you can use in the future.

We hope you find the course interesting and that you are inspired to try some of the practical ways to boost happiness and wellbeing in your home.

This course has been produced by a research team from the University of Bolton, the University of Chester, and The Open University.

In this first unit you have learned that this course is designed to support you in using evidence-based insights from positive psychology to improve the wellbeing and happiness of you and your family.

Positive psychology investigates how all of us can live happier and more fulfilling lives. This is of particular relevance given the short and long-term effects on families living through and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the next unit we introduce you to six key themes that have been shown to improve wellbeing through the way we think about the past, present and future potential.

Now go to Unit 2: Character strengths, where you explore the first of our six principles.