Browsing by Subject "positiivinen psykologia"
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(2016)Aims. The main objective of this research was to find out what kind of factors are related to agency of young people in parental home context. This research explored assets from householdings perspective in everyday living. Continuous changes in the internal everyday householding and external operational environments challenges agency of young people. Young people also facing the chancing and growing expectations and demands. The research motive from the household teacher's perspective was to find out what kind of viewpoints can be found from everyday householding that can be use for recognizing and strengthening the relationship between the agency of young people and householding. Theoretical viewpoints for this research were attaches to dynamics of family members home been and work, the modalities of agency and positive psychology research. Research questions were: 1. Which agency building factors are resulting from home constructing activity? 2. What kind of tensions and conclusions can be found from householding activities? 3. What the young person has learned in householding classes and how this is present in householding activities? Methods. The research was carried out as a qualitative research. Research material was gathered from stories received by email. The material consisted of written stories about young people's participation in everyday living. These stories were written by parents who have or have had upper comprehensive school aged children living in their home. Ten stories were received. Results and conclusions. Relationship between object and subject of home constructing activity were seen as building factors for agency. Tensions and strenghts between young and parent were seen to be resolution from young peoples participation in home. Tensions and conclusions were themed by (1) changes in home operation model, (2) parents attitude and role, (3) youngs attitude and role and (4) things guiding individuality and object. External communities, specially youngs relationships with peers and household teaching were seen to support young agency in home. Teaching the meanings to every day living aroust from the research material. Parents described this as discussion and interaction with the young and it was seen as important factor for building agency.
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(2018)Objectives. The aim of this study is to describe, analyze and interpret teachers' perceptions of co-teaching and how to support positive education, the reasons for their co-teaching, what positive teaching means to them in regard to using positive education in their teaching, and the positive presentation of positive co-education. Methods. A total of 8 primary school teachers participated in this study in the fall of 2017. The teachers were interviewed by semi-structured theme interviewing and the research material was analyzed in accordance with qualitative content-based content analysis. Results and Conclusions. The study highlighted three main themes, which are the charm of co-teaching, the importance of positive education, and to describe positive education from the perspective of co-education. The teaching methods used in co-teaching were the well-being of the teacher, the collegial models in everyday life, and the learning situations and characteristics of everyday life. Positive education was seen to be very significant, especially as a classroom teacher, for the development of work prosperity and self-education, as well as for the students' perceptions and learning. The conditions for co-operation in positive education were manifested through a specific culture of operation and interaction. The benefits of joint teaching in positive education increased with collegial support, use of time as well as planning and assessment and lastly through the social and emotional integration of the students and the interaction between the student and the teacher.
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(2020)The purpose of this study was to describe the sixth-grade students' perceptions of strengths. The importance of strengths, as well as more broadly positive pedagogy, has recently been emphasized, and various projects have sought to address the curriculum gap in how the subject is concretely addressed in the classroom. This study is interested in what kinds of aspects the students themselves think are important and want to highlight in the strength debate. The material of this study consisted of video interviews conducted by students and questionnaires completed in preparation for them. The interviews followed the principles of peer interviewing and the students interviewed each other without the presence of a researcher. Questionnaires were completed individually. The material were produced by six sixth grades in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The survey included 85 questionnaires and 38 videos. The material was analyzed using material-based content analysis. The results showed a diverse set of individual perceptions of strengths and strength teaching. Students' perceptions were classified into categories based on their content. The largest category was the hobby and school world as a context for strengths. In the answers of this category, the pupils saw their strengths primarily as a competence in school subjects. Alongside this category, many students also mentioned the strengths learned in the project. The material was invariably very positive about strengths and studying them at school. In conclusion, it is challenging for some students to extend their strength thinking beyond the school world, with strength teaching and such research taking place in such a close school context. As a whole, students were able to reflect on the topic of strength analytically and in depth, and to justify their views and the meanings they gave to strength teaching. The attitudes and diverse perspectives of the students who participated in the study show that it is also fruitful to give voice to the students, the target group for strength projects, and to explore the strength theme in different contexts. It is also important that the societal debate also has a many-sided research-based perspective.
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(2018)Objectives. This study began with the assumption that in pedagogical documents the early childhood education staff describes more children's needs of support than their strengths. In particular, when deciding on the resources of special support, attention has been paid to the children's needs of support and the problems of development. An alternative to this problem-centered approach is positive psychology and positive education which both focus on examining strengths and well-being elements. The goal of positive education is to support well-being and learning in the day care and at school. Peterson and Seligman (2004) created the distinction of character strengths as they discovered a lack of a commonly defined vocabulary in positive psychology. This study examines whether there are more descriptions of children's strengths or descriptions of their needs of support. And whether the early childhood education staff describes the children's needs of support more specifically than their strengths. The study examines what character strengths can be found in descriptions. Methods. The data of this qualitative study consists of the pedagogical documents of 13 children and the questionnaires collected from their parents. The children were 3-5 years old. The data was analyzed by using content analysis and discourse analytic methods. Results and Conclusions. Both the parents and the early childhood education staff described the strengths of the children more than their needs of support. Total of 74 per cent of personnel expressions and 76 per cent of parents expressions were about strengths. The strengths of children with special needs were described less than children with no special needs. Out of Seligman and Peterson's 24 character strengths, there were mentioned 16. The most mentioned character strengths were kindness, curiosity and zest. There was found three ways of expressions; short-and-simple, descriptive and guiding way. There was no short and simple expressions in the descriptions of the needs of support, while 22 per cent of the strengths were described short and simple way. Descriptive way was the most common. Only 13 per cent of all expressions are written in guiding way, and it was less common in descriptions of the strengths (3%) than in descriptions of needs of support (45%).
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(2021)Positive education is a new application of positive psychology. The main purpose of positive education is to increase the well-being of individuals, to wrap learning and well-being in school together, and to harness character strengths as resources. Positive education is used in many Finnish schools. This educational trend is currently very topical, as studies show that mental disorders in children and young people has increased both in Finland and globally. There is little research data on positive education. The views of the working teachers and the experiences of the pupils have been studied in a few master's thesis. The views of classroom teacher students have not been studied nearly at all. The purpose of this thesis was to find out what views do students have on positive education. The study was conducted with qualitative approaches. 26 classroom teacher students from master’s degree participated in the study. The data was gathered by using an electronic questionnaire. The data was analyzed by content analysis. According to this study, classroom teacher students had a positive attitude to positive education, but also critical. Positive education was seen to contribute widely to well-being. The students felt that the focus on well-being was appropriate for their own teach-ing philosophy. Strength-based education was perceived as the core of positive educa-tion. Positive education was thought to focus for the most part on supporting individual needs and development. Individual support that requires strong student knowledge was seen easily to overstress teacher. Students saw that positive education especially bene-fits students with special needs, who often threaten to be criticized for their own actions. Students believe that positive education promotes learning and schooling positively through many factors. Lack of knowledge was seen as a challenge for positive educa-tion. Students felt they knew about positive education a bit. They also pondered the sci-entific origins of positive pedagogy. Students were concerned about the possible way of positive education to ignore challenges in an overly positive way and to neglect the study of academic skills. This study shows that positive education needs more research.
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(2017)Happiness and welfare are extremely hot topics at the moment, especially in the western countries where pursuing happiness is an important part of people's lives. According to researches it can be said that happiness is based on welfare. But how can we affect our welfare and what are the key elements of it? Can we increase it by attending life philosophical mass lectures? Research of positive psychology has explored interventions focusing on increasing positive feelings as well as personal strengths. In this particular research we are focusing on Paphos Seminar, which can be considered globally quite unique seminar combining life philosophical mass lectures and socially intense learning environment. In this study we contrast life philosophical Paphos seminar to a positive psychology interventions even though Paphos seminar is not considered or named to be an intervention. In the seminar, participants are encouraged to reflection via life philosophical lecturing together as a group and by themselves. Environment and the atmosphere together with the lecturing make a unique space for the participants to reflect on their lives and thinking in a different and probably in a "fresh" way. The point of life philosophical lecturing is not, however, "to teach" anyone. On his lectures Esa Saarinen uses multidisciplinary research and methods, for example videos, music and dialogs, to activate people's thinking and reflection instead. The atmosphere of compassion and pro-sociality is critical for the lectures, which focus on goodness, opportunities and transition of participants. There are no exact quantitative or qualitative goals on the lectures, only a deep hope of flowering of the participants. This research is the first one to study Paphos Seminar. There are previous researches studying the lectures of Esa Saarinen with university students from the aspects of welfare or cognitive strategies. Change in cognitive strategies are also claimed to change during Saarinen's lecturing through the engaging learning experience. According to these studies, it can be addressed, that seminars have increased participants' welfare and changed their perception of knowing as well as cognitive strategies. This longitudinal study is aiming to examine is it possible to experience increased well-being and life satisfaction after participating to the Pafos Seminar. Participants of this study took part in Pafos Seminar in summer 2015. At the same time this study is measuring motivational strategies and epistemological beliefs. Furthermore the persistence of the transition has been studied in this research by the follow-up measuring with three groups (n= 87, n = 58, n= 36). Material was collected by inquiry in three different measurements between June 2015 and March 2016 and the change in well-being, motivational strategies and epistemological beliefs within eight months. Changes in all the three variables were measured with repeated measurements t-tests and Wilcoxon test. Reflection strategies and perception of knowing were studied with the one-way variance analysis. Relation between well-being, motivational strategies and epistemological beliefs were studied with the Spearman's correlation coefficient to see if there were any interesting changes in between them during and after the seminar. Results of this research show that welfare and satisfaction of life were increased during the seminar concerning all participants (n = 58). Seminars capability to increase emotional, psychologic a social well-being and satisfaction in life was proven but there was a downward trend in longitudinal perspective after the follow-up measurement. Positive change in well-being can be said to be linked to participant's motivational strategies. Seminar as an intervention of positive affects to participant's well-being fits perfectly for individuals appreciating reflection alone and together with others. Appreciating doubtless knowledge might be obstructive for the increase of well-being in this context.
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(2020)The school world has long focused on the problem-based assessment of students. When the focus is on the pupil's deficiencies and areas for improvement, the aspects that should be valued and praised may be left behind. Positive education is a pedagogical application based on positive psychology that focuses on enhancing the well-being and learning of students. The focus is on the student's strengths and successes rather than weaknesses. In recent years, the emphasis on positive education has also increased in Finnish schools. Research has typically focused on measuring the effectiveness of methods and developing well-being measures in the form of intervention or action research. Since teachers' perceptions of positive education have not been studied much, this study aims to chart how positive education has been carried out in the ordinary Finnish classroom environment. The research was carried out by using qualitative research methods. Six classroom teachers that were interested in and using positive education were interviewed about their perceptions and experiences of positive education. The interviews were conducted with a semi-structured theme interview and analyzed by theme analysis. According to the results of this study, teachers perceived positive education as character strengths and their further development, positive perception and positive feedback. Teachers shared their thoughts and experiences of teaching positive education from the point of view of their desires, benefits, hands-on teaching, attitudes, recommendations, distribution and applicability. Based on the positive experiences of teachers, positive education can be taught in school as separate lessons or as embedded into other lessons. The study suggests that positive education could be implemented more widely in schools, as it could be a potential way to increase the well-being of the whole school community.
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(2019)The wellbeing and agency of children are undeniably important topics. A variety of different agreements and acts need to be taken into consideration when ensuring their wellbeing and agency are realized. Earlier research has shown that children’s wellbeing is often viewed adult-oriented and is based on worries and problems. Additionally, child-oriented research on elementary school aged children’s experience of their own wellbeing is still sparse, even though the need for it has been recognized. This study portrays sixth graders’ wellbeing as they experience and describe it. The aim of this study was to increase understanding of those sources for children’s wellbeing that the children themselves find important and meaningful. The theoretical background of this study is in positive psychology. The method used in this study was qualitative, and it was based on child-oriented and phenomenological-hermeneutic principals. The material researched for this study consisted of photographs taken by the children and the writings to go with them (N=22). The material was produced and collected during the fall of 2017 in a Positive CV pilot at an elementary school in southern Finland. Content analysis and phenomenological-hermeneutic method were used to analyse the material. The results were built by both direct mentions and meaning-making. By examining the photographs taken by the children and their direct mentions in their writings the following were found to be important factors: activities, relations, sleep, and material things. The following factors were formed in the research of children’s meaning-making: self-expression, relatedness, capacity, and positive emotional experiences. These factors are supportive of one’s wellbeing, therefore they are also sources of wellbeing for the sixth graders participating this study. This study has given us a chance to be aware of the diversity in children’s wellbeing. Wellbeing is important to children also, and they are willing and capable of treasuring it. Children can and will tell about topics important to them, and it is the adults’ and the society’s responsibility to create the time and place for them to do so. Positive recognition and Positive CV are suitable concrete ways for supporting children’s agency and their wellbeing.
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(2018)Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract The purpose of this master´s thesis is to understand the thought-world of ninth grade students. What kind of things in life are the most meaningful, which elements are they comprised of and what is the relation between these things and instinct motiovation and well-being. The theoretical framework of thesis uses the concept of positive psychology, youth and particularly Self-determination theory. According to Self-determination theory of Deci and Ryan there are three innate needs that, if satisfied, allow optimal function, growth and reinforce also inherent motivation and well-being. These important need are relatedness, competence and autonomy. The material was collected first during Positive CV intervention in August 2017 and later in December 2017. During the intervention the students were requested to make a photocollage to indicate five certain things which they regard to be the most important for them. Only eight collages were returned and six students participated to join the theme interview. Later also two stundents voluteered to join the interview despite they didn´t returned the photocollage in time. The results show that the most meaningful things for youngsters are family, friends, hobbies and phone. Based on Self-determination theory the most significant need is relatedness. All excpect one interviewees regarded themselves as part of some community (family, friends, social media, virtual networks). Hobbies were the way to reinforce the feeling of competence. It appeared that the personal success and for the sporty ones ”looking good” were even more significant than the teamwork. Instead of being forced to do something, they have possibility to make decisions independently. Participants built up their well-being subconsciously longlasting way. In addition of Self Determination -theory they for example have also personal targets in future which role to well-being is mentioned by Seligman and Csikszentmihály among others.
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(2016)In my study I researched work load and work engagement of day-care managers in Helsinki. This research is quantitative with 39 participants and query material was collected 2014. The work load was studied by means of questions, with the added bonus of two questions according to the Karasek job demands and control model of job demands and job opportunities for influence. Work engagement was studied by using work demand-work resources model translated in Finnish by Hakanen. Answers about open questions are elaborated with content analysis. In this study the biggest single work load factor was haste. It was reported the most often as a disadvantage factor for work load The research of the kindergarten managers job requirement factors, it can be said that when the job demands level increases, work engagement is reduced The higher the impact on the possibilities for the day-care center managers is, the higher they perceive the work engagement. Also open questions highlighted the haste, which forces to prioritize their work. It also reduces the leaders' possibilities to face the workers and to reduce the share of the pedagogical work. Prioritization also reflects the complexity of work experienced by managers and their limited opportunity to influence. One of the main reasons of this study was to find a day-care managers concrete tools to be able to cope with the work load. For the managers the most important way is the separation of work and leisure.
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(2019)Social debate and a number of studies take care of children’s and adolescent’s well-being; approximately 10–20% of children of all ages suffer from mental health problems. Supporting the well-being of children is also included in the national curriculum, which assigns schools a teaching and educational role to support students’ positive identity, development and well-being. Particularly important is the recognition of pupils’ own strengths and specialities. Over the past decade positive psychology and character strength interventions have been seen as one of the possibilities to support pupil’s well-being in schools. However, there is still little research on student experiences. The aim of this study was to describe the experiences of 6th and 9th grade pupils about their own strengths and success and the encouragement of another. In order to understand the pupils’ experiences, the second theoretical framework of this study is the development of the self as a part of identifying one’s own strengths. The purpose of this study is to give an indication of how necessary the use of positive pedagogy can be seen. A total of 175 pupils participated in the study, of which 107 were 6th graders and 9th graders 68. The study material was secondary and part of a broader research project at the University of Helsinki. The material consisted of three open questions that explored pupils’ experiences of their own strengths and success. Also the encouragement of others was investigated. The material was analysed by qualitative content analysis. Recognizing the strengths of children and adolescents, the experiences of their success and the encouragement of the other came to the fore in school and leisure contexts. However, about one-third of the students were unable to tell about a situation where they had succeeded or used their strengths. One of the strengths mentioned was the need to help others. Success was felt especially in school work. Pupils encouraged others to succeed. Pupils know more often about the situation in which they have encouraged others, rather than their own strengths and experiences of success.
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(2020)Objectives. My study examines whether boys of primary school age are familiar with their own character strengths, whether they use their own character strengths to support their learning and whether positive pedagogy strengthens the mindset and self-esteem of these boys, as is its goal. Positive pedagogy is currently a very popular pedagogical trend in Finland. It is also well discussed in the Finnish basic education curriculum, which considers it important to take well-being and the strengths of character into account. Teaching and pedagogy are being carried out to teach children, which is why I wanted to study children in my study and to highlight their perspective in relation to a positive pedagogical and whether positive pedagogy works. Methods. This study is a qualitative long-term study and has been conducted as a half-structured theme interview. In the study, I interviewed one-class students from a school in the capital region twice. The first-time boys were in 2nd grade and the second time they were in 4th grade. The first time I interviewed seven (n=7) boys and the second time interviewed all the boys from the class (n=16). As an analysis method, I used themes. The results and conclusions. According to the results of my research, positive pedagogy has taught boys to know their own character strengths and made their self-concepts and self-esteem strong. Boys feel character strengths as individual character strengths, but they do not feel character strengths in a broad sense. These boys think it's important to give positive feedback and they like it at school. Compassion became an important strength of character in boys' answers. Self-concepts and self-esteem are strong for boys, because boys thought of themselves positively, they think they do many things well, and they believe that they have a good future ahead of them.
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(2018)This master's thesis is a case study during Positive CV intervention in two ninth grades in Southern Finland. The purpose of this study is to find out what kind of thoughts ninth grade students have about positive education, dealing with character strengths, positive CV, and their own strengths. The material of my research was collected in September 2017 at the end of Positive CV intervention with focused interview from selected ninth grade students. I interviewed four ninth grade students from both schools. In total, eight ninth grade students participated in the study. The theoretical framework of the thesis familiarizes the concepts of positive psychology, positive education, character strengths, strengths-based education, and youth. In addition, the theoretical framework examines other earlier results of research and research interventions related to positive education and character strengths. The theoretical framework also introduces the link between strengths-based education and the national curriculum 2014. According to the results of the study, seven of the eight interviewed ninth grade students considered positive education classes positive. Seven of the eight ninth grade students said that dealing with character strengths is important for the future career and the career choice. Each of the interviewed ninth grade students felt happy when making Positive CV. Six of the eight students found that making Positive CV would be useful for other students as well. All the ninth grade students found their own character strengths and expressed their own strengths in a positive way in the interview. The results of this thesis are compatible with the results of earlier positive psychology interventions based on character strengths. That confirms the reliability of the thesis. As a conclusion, the classes of positive education, dealing with character strengths and Positive CV had more positive than negative effects on ninth grade students. It can also be concluded that positive education, dealing with character strengths and Positive CV would help ninth grade students especially with their career and career choices in the future, as well as in building up their own identity and positive self-image.
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(2023)In this thesis, I examine the construction of the ideal subject in positive psychology learning materials. My research is based on post-structuralism, and my purpose is to examine how the ideal subject is constructed and what kind of control it entails. The material for the thesis consists of the book "The Power of Positive Psychology" (2014), which is used as a positive psychology learning material, approached from the perspective of discourse production. Since I am examining the discourses that appear in the material, I am not interested in individual authors and their thoughts. The broader context for this study is societal, and in the context of education the concepts of therapisation and neoliberalism, and the relationship between them. I approach positive psychology in the material as a discursive practice, so my aim is to ask what is possible to say and do within the discourse. I ask how the ideal subject is constructed in the material and how the school participates in constructing this ideal subject and what kind of control it requires. Based on my analysis, the material constructs a positive ideal subject who is flourishing and active. In these discourses, the subject is constantly developing themselves with various mind-controlling techniques. The key factors in the discourses are continuous self-development, positive thinking, and strengthening emotional and strength-based skills. The ideal is constructed in schools under the guidance of an expert teacher, whose task has also become to guide students towards the good life defined by positive psychology. However, the continuous demand for self-improvement and the pursuit of the good life exclude some individuals, as it is not possible for everyone despite its promises.
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(2021)This research focuses on 4th–6th graders pupils from southern Finland and their own opinions on their own happiness, factors that would increase their happiness and does global happiness explain school-related happiness. Research was executed with #uuttakoulua-project. Happiness has been wondered through the ages and people has tried to find answers to achieve happiness. Western thoughts on happiness roots in ancient Greek and to Christian views of happiness. According to positive psychology happiness has been risen to be one of the scientifical research subject, even though it has been research quite little in Finland. Positive psychology has reached also school world where meaning of happiness has also been researched. One of the researchers in Finland is Lotta Uusitalo-Malmivaara who’s research has shown that pupils are generally happy. For example, success in school and positive relationships has been proved to be key factors that increase happiness. 543 pupils took part on this study of which 47,1% were boys, 49,0% were girls and 3,9% were other genders. Study was made as survey where questions were related to pupil’s well-being, school satisfaction and character strengths. For my own study I chose three questions about happiness which were: “How do you usually feel?”, “What have you been thinking about school?” and “My happiness would increase”. My research questions are: 1. How happy 4th–6th graders from southern Finland feel themselves? 2. What factors 4th–6th graders define to increase their happiness? and 3. Does global happiness explain school-related happiness? First two questions were analyzed by means and standard deviation. Third research question was analyzed by regression analyze. Global happiness explains 28,4% of school-related happiness was the most important outcome of this study. Pupils who took park to this study felt themselves generally happy. Intervene to climate change, improvement of animal rights and fulfilment of equality had the highest means within the answers as a factor to increase one’s happiness. As a conclusion if one is happy globally is one most likely happy also in school. Results cannot be generalized to whole population but gives an idea of how participants view their own happiness and the factors that could increase it.
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(2014)The aim of this research was to describe the work engagement that Finnair cabin attendants experience and those factors, which generate and prevent work engagement. Due to the nature of cabin attendants work it was also studied how work engagement appears in the interaction of changing teams. The concept of work engagement is relatively new on the field of work well-being and it is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Work engagement is based on positive psychology, which focuses on researching strengths and resources instead of weaknesses. The main research questions were: 1. How do the cabin attendants describe the work engagement they experience? 2. What generates and what prevents work engagement? 3. How does work engagement come true in the interaction of changing teams? The data was collected through theme interviews involving 12 cabin attendants. In addition participants filled out the UWES-inquiry, which measured three elements of work engagement numerically. The purpose was to achieve information about the intensity of work engagement. As a research method the theme-analysis was used. Research findings pointed out that cabin attendants did experience work engagement and the conclusion was based on the interviews and the "work engagement"-inquiry. Work engagement occurred as energetic and professional customer service. The employees had a positive attitude towards work and working in general. The factors that generated work engagement were such as shift work and colleagues, preventive factors in turn were broken or missing tools and the lack of respect by the organization. Changing teams were mostly regarded as a positive thing. Interaction of teams was mentioned to be good in general, but also problems in teams were recognized. A negative team member or neglect of rules were some of those problems. As a conclusion of the research, it can be said that work engagement occurred with high quality and professional customer service. Job resources affect work engagement more than job demands. From the employees perspective changing teams were a positive thing, but the challenges in feedback and supervising lead to study the need for more permanent teams.
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(2017)Goals. The intention of my research was to analyze and increase understanding of the well-being theory by PhD Martin Seligman. Seligman is one of the leading characters and contributors of positive psychology and his theories and insights are widely cited among the researches and articles discussing positive psychology. Positive psychology has raised a lot of attention as a novel field of research and it is reasonable to take an analytical review at the theoretical elements it is built on. Hence the aim of this research is to further analyze the content and foundation of Martin Seligman's theory. Methods. My research was theoretical-conceptual in nature and the chosen research method was systematic analysis. Systematic analysis enables theoretical investigation and interpretation of the literary material. The aim is to get a deeper understanding of the research object through clarification and reconstructuring of the logical entity of the theory. The object of research and primary research material of this study was Martin Seligman's publication Flourish, A Visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being (2011). The analysis focuses on clarifying Seligman's well-being theory. The most essential concepts, their relations and theoretical coherence are examined in the study together with Seligman's argumentation. Results and conclusions. As the result of my research I will represent a reconstruction of the well-being theory based on the conducted analysis. The reconstruction describes the essential concepts of the theory together with their relations. The results of the research also indicate, that even though Seligman's theory contains a new and interesting conceptual point of view for observing positive psychology and well-being, it also contains some incoherence and even faults. These shortages weaken the credibility and reliability of the theory. Firstly, the theory's essential concept "flourishing" has not been defined explicitly. Secondly, Seligman indicates two separate roles for flourishing, which seems incoherent. Thirdly, Seligman describes his theory as descriptive although it seems to be normative. Consequently, it seems uncertain whether Seligman is aiming at a neutral description of decisions leading to well-being or giving recommendations of what people should choose for being well. The fourth problem is how Seligman argues the comprehensiveness of the well-being theory by comparing it to his preceding Authentic happiness -theory (2004). This comparison of the two theories seems however bias. The fifth problem in the theory is how Seligman describes whether the engagement-element can be evaluated only subjectively or both subjectively and objectively. As a conclusion, it may be stated that Seligman's theory should be further critically analyzed and developed to enable its utilization as the foundation for positive psychology.
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(2023)Global problems and a fast-paced and stress-filled society can undermine well-being and resilience in everyday challenges. The concept of resilience has been discussed a lot in recent years, for example due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the war situation in Europe. Resilience and the associated sense of self-efficacy are important to support even young children in finding ways to cope with the challenges they face throughout life. Previous studies have shown a variety of protective and promoting factors (e.g. po-sitive peer relationships and good self-esteem) that can be associated with different character strengths (e.g. sense of humor and self-regulation). When supporting resilience and self-efficacy, the roles of the family and the school are emphasized. The aim of this thesis is to explore the challenging situations, coping mechanisms and the use of strengths experienced by students, as well as beliefs about one's own abilities in challenging situations. The purpose is to examine whether there are similar features in the coping mechanisms that students tell us about in terms of the factors that promote and protect resilience. The thesis aims to bring more understanding to the connections between strengths and resilience and to highlight the importance of the thoughts and perspectives of small students about different challenges and coping mechanisms. The material for the thesis was produced by interviewing second graders from a primary school in the Helsinki Metropolitan area. 20 students were interviewed with semi-structured theme interviews. The material was analyzed by theory directed content analysis with common themes. The results of the thesis showed that students experience challenging situations in different ways and use a lot of different coping mechanisms. The results showed that the use of strengths is a natural part of coping. The coping mechanisms described by the students were compatible with previous research. In general, the students felt they could cope well in different challenging situations, but there were also those who felt they could cope less well. Based on the results, it can be concluded that even small students can have problem-solving and reflection skills in challenging situations. Especially students who cope less well and who are vulnerable need more support to develop resilience.
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(2020)Abstract The topic of this study is strength of character education applied to pre-school education. The purpose of this study was to examine, did understanding of the concepts perseverance, self-regulation and compassion increased during strength of character education intervention. Analysis and interpretation sought to clarify, whether these character strength concepts can be used as a tool in preschool everyday life. For example, the abstractness of character strength words, subjects young age and poor Finnish language skills can pose challenges to the use of character strength words. There were several Finnish speakers who spoke a second language and children with special developmental and learning characteristics. Children's age also influences linguistic development, the construction and understanding of concepts. Character strengths are based on positive psychology. Positive pedagogy is the application of positive psychology in practice. The goal is individual and meaningful teaching that supports the holistic development, personality and happiness of the individual. Character strengths are among many other qualities and abilities that have a positive impact on learning. They can be taught and learned just like any other skill. Studies show that positive psychology increases well-being and happiness. Most strength research, such as identifying strengths and influencing strengths on happiness and success, focuses on adults. In the work of fostering learning and well-being in kindergarten and school, the examination of strengths and resources are now limited. There is a clear need for positive education and pedagogy, but the debate about strengths, and especially the conscious and systematic teaching of these concepts, has been little. This study was conducted (executed) as a qualitative action study. The baseline for the three-week intervention was Uusitalo-Malmivaara´s and Vuorinen´s (2016) research and Huomaa hyvä! character strength teaching material, which they have developed for a Finnish school. The strength of character education intervention was used to test the teachability of Huomaa hyvä! character strengths in pre-school education. Efforts were made also to change the culture of the preschool group into a philosophy of positive pedagogy. The data was collected by interviewing six 6-year-old children. The research material collected in the semi-structured interview was analyzed by means of theory-based content analysis. The results showed that the understanding of each subject increased with each of the three concepts during the character education intervention, regardless of language and cultural background or learning challenges. The amount and quality of definitions and examples given by children vary to some extent. In practice, children learn to recognize strengths so well that they can be used as a tool in everyday life in preschool and systematically practiced. They identified strengths more in their everyday lives outside of preschool after the intervention. Thus, they were able to apply the new knowledge they learned in the preschool to different contexts in practice which indicates that understanding learning has happened. The concept of compassion was best adopted by children and self-regulation was the most challenging to adopt. Authentic learning environments and hands-on exercises positively influenced on learning.
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(2020)Goals. This study investigates the application of positive pedagogy in one Finnish kindergarten. In addition, it finds out early childhood educator’s views on positive pedagogy in that particular kindergarten. Since positive pedagogy is a relatively new orientation in the world of education, it has not yet been studied much. Thus, a general overview of this operating culture is in place. The objective of positive pedagogy is to move away from problem-oriented thinking and move towards discovering strengths (Seligman, Erns, Gillham, Reivich & Linkins, 2009, s. 294). Methods. Interviews with six educators from the same kindergarten were collected for this qualitative study. The material was analysed with data-driven content analysis. Results and conclusions. The early childhood educators described positive pedagogy favourably and with very little criticism. The main criticism that came up was the lack of knowledge of positive pedagogy and resulting slightly negative attitude towards it from other educators working in the field. All the early childhood educators who were interviewed described the operating culture of positive pedagogy in a very similar way and the responses showed that the unit has worked hard on the issue. The impressions of early childhood educators about what positive pedagogy entails were remarkably alike and the descriptions of how to implement positive pedagogy were very similar. The benefits of positive pedagogy in the work community and in the staff's own development were also strongly highlighted in the interviews. The application of positive pedagogy in the unit was reflected in everything starting from the year plan. Positive pedagogy was at the heart of all activities and featured in the educator’s interactions with both the children and their guardians. The language of strength, which is an integral part of positive pedagogy, came up on several occasions during the interviews. The active use of the language of strength in everyday life seemed to help the children to perceive strengths and even to learn the use of the language of strength in their own speech while communicating with other children.
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