MENTAL HEALTH: POSITIVE DIGRESSION

Health, like illness is indicated when a set of symptoms at a specific level are present for a specified duration.  This health coincides with distinctive brain and social functioning.  According to Freud, normalcy is the capacity to love, work and play.  Current psychological researchers refer this capacity as “mental health”.  Mental health is a state of successful performance of mental function resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationship with people and the ability to adapt to change and to cope with adversity.

Ryff and Keyes (1995) combined many principles of pleasure to define complete mental health.  Optimal functioning is the combination of emotional wellbeing, social wellbeing and psychological wellbeing (Ryff &Keyes, 1995; Keyes & Lopus, 2002; Keyes & Magyar Moe, 2003).  State of mental functioning will involve the presence and absence of symptoms of emotional, psychological and social wellbeing as well as absence of recent mental illness.

Emotional wellbeing refers to subjective wellbeing.  It is defined as the presence of positive affect and satisfaction with life and the absence of negative affect.  Social wellbeing includes acceptance, actualization, coherence, contribution and integration.  Psychological wellbeing incorporates self-acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy and positive relations with others.

INTRODUCING MENTAL HEALTH

Most of the treatments for the mental illness including the medicines are temporary and are only partially effective.  A variety of effective therapies for reducing the severity and number of patient symptoms are available now.  Invention of SSRI’s helped the medical model to reduce the severity of symptoms, even though there are some exceptional cases.  Still, mental illness continues to disable individuals, family, societies and countries.  Remission of depression symptoms among many patients even after taking SSRI is partial or short lived.   Huge investments in the area of the study of etiology and treatment of mental disorders have not reduced the inflow of patients.  One-third of the patients are identified to have very low response to the drug treatment.  Period of remission from most therapies is brief.  60% to 70% of patients with unipolar major depression relapse within 6 months of symptom remission.

Mental illness reduces productivity and costs billions of dollars each year due to lost wages, medical costs and disability claims.  Hence, while continuing the treatments for those who have broken down, another focus has to be given to the prevention of breaking down.  Attention has to be made in the direction towards mental health promotion, as an aim itself.  The challenges that lie ahead are

a) Reducing the prevalence of mental illness

b) Preventing the early onset in young adults lives

c) Prolong remissions following the therapies

d) Reducing the recurrence of mental illness, throughout the life course

How Positive Psychology works?

Giving importance to the positive aspects does not mean to ignore the problems of life. Positive Psychology, on the other hand, suggests to look at the strengths and the resources without getting away from the reality of experiences.  Strengths are the best things, our life may offer, to manage the weakness and to repair the worst things in life.  Hence, Positive Psychologists are those who help the people to overcome pathology and to overcome stress.  They see vital balance in the way that people are understood and treated.  

Referring to the example of the story of "Watchology", mentioned by Lauraking (2007), to learn how a watch works, it is better to explore a working watch rather than a teathered and broken watch.  Let psychologists concentrate on what the individuals have instead of what has been missing.

FLOURISH HYPOTHESIS

To flourish is to live optimally and to experience the good things in life such as personal growth, generativity and resilience.
The ratio of positive to negative affect is a key predictor of human flourishing.
The ratio is 2.9:1
For each negative affect experience, one mush have 3 positive affect experiences over the course of time to keep moving forward in life.  Researchers in this area claims that the ratio is real for the individuals, marriages and business teams.
Positive to negative affect ratio up to 11.6:1 will promot flourishing.  Ratios beyond 11.6:1 may lead to disintegration of flourishing.

RESILIENCE HYPOTHESIS

Positive emotions through their broadening effects, trigger upward spirals of well being.  "Upward spirals" are the conceptual opposite of the common notion of "downward spirals" of depression. Positive emotion, here, removes the tunnel vision, allowing the individual to see more possibilities. Hence, they can cope better and be resilient.
Researches indicated that individuals with resilience had the positive feelings, such as gratitude and optimism, as they could find goodness in the people who were helping, even in the midst of terrible miseries.

THE UNDOING HYPOTHESIS

Positive emotions have the potential to undo hanging on negative emotions.  Undoing effect occurs both at the cognitive level as well as at the psychological level.
In an experiment done by Frederickson et al (2000), among a sample of US participants, after exposing to an anticipated fear evoking situation, it was identified that watching positive emotion videos had been more effective in reducing the previously enhanced cardiovascular responses faster than watching negative emotion videos and neutral videos.

The Broaden and Build Theory of Positive Emotions - 1

Positive emotions are important in people's lives.  However, we generally have the habbit of giving more importance to the negative emotions.
Positive emotions are not just signals of the absence of negative emotions.  They are the force within us that could help us even during the demands that challange survival.
The theory is a multifaceted model of positive emotions.  The facets shall be presented as five hypotheses
1. Broaden hypothesis
2. Build hypothesis
3. Undoing hypothesis
4. Resilience hypothesis
5. Flourish hypothesis
(Please visit www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3156609)
Broaden hypothesis
     Positive emotions broaden momentary thought-action repertoirs.  This broadening will wider range of thoughts and actions one is likely to pursue.  Hence, individuals who feel positive emotions will be able to see more possibilities. Negative emotions will narrow momentary thought action repertoirs.  Individuals with negative emotions are similar to those who have tunnel vision.  Range of possibilities will get narrowed.  Body will be prepared to take specific action - be ready to fight or flight - for the immediate survival.  Such an evolutionary instinct need not have a long term objective.  Broadening effect can also act in evolutionary perspective in life threatening circumstances.  It can lead to long term survival possibilities.
     In a study conducted by Fredrickson & Brangan (2005), a sample of five groups of subjects were exposed to different affects using video-shows.  One group was shown the video of penguins playing to induce joy.  The second group was exposed  to various nature scenes to induce contentment.  The third group was exposed to a video, in which a gang of men taunted an Amish family.  The fourth group was exposed to video of mountain climbers who is hanging precariously from the edge of mountain, in order to elicit fear.  The last group was shown a screen saver, of coloured sticks piling up on one another, as a neutral stimulus.  After viewing the video clips, the participants completed a series of global local processing task.  The task included a standard figure and two comparison figures.  Viewing the standard figure, the participants have to decide which of the two comparison figures was most like the standard figure.  The global response option represented more broadened thinking.  Participants in positive emotions (those who were exposed to video of penguins playing and to nature scenes) chose the global options more often in comparison with neutral or negative emotion condition.
     In another study after these movie clips, participants were asked to list the powerful emotions they felt, right at the moment.  For the purpose, a hand out, with 20 blank lines with the statement, "I would like to -----" were given to all the participants.  After that, the number of sentences completed was tallied.  The more the sentences completed, the broader will be the thought actions repertoirs.  Particiipants in positive emotions filled more number of blanks when compared to the participants who were exposed negative affect eliciting and neutral movies.
Build hypothesis
     When the momentary thought action repertoirs are broadened, a variety of personal resources are built up.
1. Physical resources such as co-ordination, cardiovascular health and muscle strength
2. Social resources such as friendship, social skills and support
3. Intellectual resources such as knowledge and problems solving
4. Psychological resources such as creativity, optimism and resilience.
     Positive emotions may be transient, but the personal resources gained out of these positive motions are lasting.  For instance when children play, they typically experiences positive emotions such as joy, happiness and contentment.  Play can also lead to acquisition of physical strength.  Socila bonds with the play-mates will get strengthened.  Children will learn and follow the rules of game and team work.  All these resources will be lasting even after the experience of positive emotions.  Later in life, these resources can be called upong during another stressful situation.
     Studies indicate that securely attached children are more resourseful, flexible and perseverent when it comes to problem solving in comparison to their insecurely attached peers.  Securely attached adults also show superior intellectual resources.  the are more curious and open to new information.  People learn faster and demonstrate improvements in intellectual performance when in a positive emotional state in comparison to neutral or negative emotional states. According to Boulton and Smith (1992), Juvenile play of many mammals has been linked with specific survival maneuvers they utilize later.  For instance, rats those were deprived of the ability to engage in play as juveniles were slower to learn a complex motor task in comparison to rats that were not play deprived.