Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide, Volume III, Work and Wellbeing

Chapter 4

Positive Psychology and Coping

Towards a Better Understanding of the Relationship

Philip Dewe

Birkbeck, University of London, U.K.

Introduction

Since Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) first published their seminal paper on positive psychology “quite a lot has happened in what has become known as the positive psychology movement” (Gable & Haidt, 2005, p. 103). Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000, p. 5) describe positive psychology in terms of three themes: “a science of positive subjective experience, positive individual differences and positive institutions.” Together these three themes represent a psychology of positive development and positive individual performance. The positive psychology movement has, of course, attracted considerable attention. Its ideas continue to be vigorously debated as commentators explore what is new about it (Lazarus, 2003a), what it means in terms of understanding the work experience, and how well it confronts the methodological difficulties that all researchers face when trying to unravel the complexities of individual wellbeing (Lazarus, 2003b). At the heart of this debate is the question of balance, of just how much the idea of a positive psychology has “passed unrecognized” (Linley et al., 2006, p. 4) and been “short changed” (Lazarus, 2003a, p. 105) because psychology has, for too long, allowed its preoccupation with individual vulnerability to dominate the research agenda. Within this debate the role of positive psychology may, ...