Keep it positive
HOW can we reach the masses with the most useful ideas from psychology?
This is a topic dear to my heart as a clinical psychologist. Much of our therapy work is conducted at an individual level behind closed doors. This can be very effective in helping people achieve constructive change in their lives. However, such interventions might only be readily accessible to a limited number of people.
Bringing psychology to the masses was a theme of a session at the World Congress of Positive Psychology held in Melbourne last month. This was the first time the congress was held outside North America.
Angie Hilton and I presented on Destination Happiness, the TV wellbeing show that Angie created using her TV background and passion for promoting mental health and wellbeing. The show will continue for its third season from early September.
Other presenters included Libbi Gorr, who offers an informative and upbeat radio program for the “flawed and optimistic”. Sophie Scott, a journalist and author, has covered stories that have had a wide impact, even contributing to positive changes in legislation. Another presenter, Milad Hadchiti, has a prime-time TV show in Lebanon drawing on positive psychology, inspiring people to consider ways of easing racial conflict in the Middle East.
My favourite example of our efforts to reach a wider audience has a local flavour. It’s a delightful story of initiative and creativity.
A few weeks ago, Angie received a message from a viewer about how Destination Happiness had positively impacted on her life. Michelle Travers, an early childhood educator at Leopold Child and Family Centre, had watched the show from the outset.
Inspired by the regular segment on random acts of kindness, Michelle organised a Kindness Project over two terms with her class children and parents, which raised money for a local student being treated for cancer.
Michelle and her centre manager, Monica, then encouraged all their colleagues to complete the Survey of Character Strengths that we described in the show. This questionnaire helps people identify their top character strengths, or most favourable personality attributes, from a list of 24 strengths.
As another initiative, Michelle and kindergarten teacher, Steph, introduced a gratitude exercise in the class on Friday afternoons, when the children would describe such things as what they had learnt that day, or worked hard on, or enjoyed.
Parents who arrived early to pick up their children were invited to join the class. Those parents enjoyed the gratitude exercise with their children so much that many started arriving early each week.
Now more than half the class’s parents have regularly joined the gratitude exercise at the end of the week.
Last week I went to meet the Leopold staff to discuss how they were using their character strengths. We did an exercise that helped identify their top strengths as a group.
It was no surprise that kindness was one of the early child educators’ top collective strengths. However I wouldn’t necessarily have expected that their very top collective strength was honesty and integrity. This strength was strongly shared by almost one in two teachers.
How wonderful to gather such evidence that these local educators are so strongly and naturally inclined to be open, honest and clear in their communication. Another encouraging characteristic of this strength is a strong interest in accountability. It was obvious that the teachers exercised a high standard of care for the young people in their charge. Here’s an additional good news story for Geelong. Whereas Michelle had initially learnt about character strengths and other positive psychology interventions from Destination Happiness, she had exercised her love of knowledge by seeking further information from the Institute of Positive Education. This Geelong Grammar-based organisation has not only formally taught 20,000 educators around the world in “Positive Education”, but also offers an extensive range of free online resources. Michelle developed her understanding of this field by accessing these resources. An example of the institute’s reach is that 200 international attendees at the Melbourne World Congress visited Geelong to see the school. I left my meeting with the Leopold educators feeling as uplifted as anything I had encountered at the World Congress. It’s safe to say that Geelong is punching above its weight in the world of wellbeing. Chris Mackey is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. Find tip about mental health and wellbeing at www. chrismackey. com. au/ resources.