A Concise Account of Positive Psychology's Evolution
The emergence of positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) has significantly impacted the public's perception of psychology as a whole. A key tenet of positive psychology is that psychological interventions are no longer exclusively reserved for individuals facing challenges. This shift has been reinforced by numerous popular books (e.g., Duckworth, 2016; Fredrickson, 2009, 2013; Lyubomirsky, 2007, 2013; Seligman, 2002, 2011) that bring empirical science into the self-help genre, as well as the rise of positive psychology coaches offering their services through websites, seminars, and retreats.
Central to the positive psychology worldview is the rejection of a binary categorization of people into those with diagnosable mental health conditions and everyone else. This dichotomy has traditionally separated those receiving clinical psychological treatment from the rest. However, this perspective no longer holds true. Without a way to differentiate individuals within the non-clinical population, the notion of "improving" well-being, whether with or without the involvement of psychologists, lacks scientific validity as it cannot be empirically demonstrated. Consequently, proponents of positive psychology have embraced the concept of varying levels of mental functioning. Seligman (2002), for instance, writes, "Lying awake at night, you probably ponder, as I have, how to go from plus two to plus seven in your life" (p. xi), implying that well-being can be quantified on a numerical scale, ranging from negative 10 to positive 10. It suggests that improving one's "score" is both possible and desirable.
Keyes (2002) introduced the notion that individuals without depression can either be languishing or flourishing, with the latter being the more desirable state. This mental health continuum distinguishes between complete and incomplete mental health. Flourishing individuals experience high levels of well-being, characterized by positive emotions and sound psychological and social functioning. On the other hand, languishing individuals endure low well-being, which can be likened to feelings of emptiness and stagnation-a life characterized by quiet despair, similar to descriptions of oneself and life as "hollow," "empty," "a shell," and "a void." Positive psychology quickly adopted the idea that "languishing" and "flourishing" could serve as observable psychological phenomena beyond the binary categorization of depression. Moreover, it asserted that individuals can transition from languishing to flourishing with the appropriate assistance. Fredrickson and Losada (2005) even claimed to have identified a precise mathematical formula for delineating the boundary between these states.
In his book Flourish, Seligman (2011) presents an updated model of well-being, building upon his earlier work in Authentic Happiness (2002). This revised model captures the essence of positive psychology's vision and aspirations.
