JYOTI NIVAS COLLEGE AUTONOMOUS
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
SYLLABUS FOR 2023-24 BATCH AND THEREAFTER
II SEMESTER
Core Paper 3: POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Program: Integrated B.Sc-M.Sc in Psychology (Specialization in Clinical Psychology)
Number of Hours: 45 Credits: 3
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
● To enable students to understand the basic concepts of positive psychology.
● To help students to identify and explain key scientific theories on positive
emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal domains within the discipline of positive
psychology.
● To train students to identify the strengths in oneself and in others.
● To have an awareness of applications and implications of positive psychology
concepts in daily lives.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
● Students would be equipped with the ability to understand and appreciate the
basic concepts of positive psychology.
● Students would be able to identify and explain key scientific theories within the
discipline of positive psychology.
● Students would be able to apply the psychological principles in their personal life.
UNIT I: INTRODUCTION 12 Hours
Goals; Assumptions; History and conceptualization of positive psychology; Perspectives on
positive psychology: Western and Eastern; Classification and measurements of Character
Strengths and Virtues; VIA Strengths Survey.
UNIT II: POSITIVE EMOTIONAL STATES AND PROCESSES 14 Hours
Defining emotional states: affect, emotion, happiness, subjective wellbeing;
Distinguishing the positive and the negative; The Broaden-and-Build Theory, Positive
emotions and wellbeing: happiness and positive emotions, success and positive
emotions, flourishing and positive emotions; Cultivating positive emotions (Flow
experiences and Savoring); Ryff’s Psychological well-being model and Keyes and
Lopez’s complete mental health model.
UNIT III: POSITIVE COGNITIVE STATES AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
12 Hours
Resilience: developmental and clinical perspectives, sources – in children and in
adulthood, Resilience among disadvantaged youth, ABCDE model to build
resilience (Seligman); Optimism: learned optimism and dispositional optimism,
How optimism works, variety of optimism and pessimism; Wisdom: developing
wisdom, correlates of wisdom – age, intelligence and happiness, characteristics of
wise people; Altruism: definition, the egotism motive, the empathy motive, the
empathy-altruism hypothesis, cultivating altruism; Gratitude: definition, cultivating
gratitude; Forgiveness: meaning, cultivation forgiveness.
UNIT IV: PERSONAL GOALS, CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS AND LIFE ABOVE
ZERO 12 Hours
Personal goals: definition, goal orientation, The search for universal human motives: goals
and basic human needs, goals and fundamental values, personal goals across cultures,
Materialism and its discontents: materialism and unhappiness, people and materialistic
values, affluence and materialism; Close relationships: characteristics, exchange and
communal relationships; Mindfulness and well-being: meaning of mindfulness, attributes
of mindful awareness; mindfulness meditation.
UNIT V: APPLICATIONS OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 10 Hours
Positive schooling: meaning, components; Positive workplace: gainful employment - meaning
and characteristics; Having or being a good boss; The strengths-based approach to work;
Capital at work; Hope as a primary psychological capital; The dark side - workaholics,
burnouts, job lost; The Me/We balance: Building better communications - moving from ME to
WE to US; Individualism - the psychology of ME; Collectivism - the psychology of WE;
ME/WE balance - the positive psychology of US.
References:
Primary References:
1. Baumgardner, S.R. Crothers M.K. (2010). Positive psychology. Upper Saddle
River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
2. Snyder, C.R., & Lopez, S.J. (2007). Positive psychology: The scientific and practical
explorations of human strengths. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Additional Reading
1. Carr, A. (2004). Positive Psychology: The science of happiness and human
strength.UK: Routledge.
2. Hefferon, K. & Boniwell, I. (2011). Positive psychology: Theory, research and
applications. Open University Press.
3. Kumar, S., & Yadav, S.B. (2011). Positive Psychology. New Delhi:
Global Vision Publication House.
4. Lopez, S. J., Pedrotti, J. T., & Snyder, C. R. (2015). Positive Psychology. New Delhi:
Sage Peterson, C. (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford
University Press.
5. Seligman, M. E. P. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American
Psychologist, 55, 5-14.
6. Snyder, C. R., & Lopez, S.J. (Eds.). (2002). Handbook of positive psychology.
New York: Oxford University Press.
7. Snyder, C.R., & Lopez, S.J. (2011). Positive Psychology. (2nded.) New
Delhi: Sage Publications.
8. Snyder, C. R., Lopez, S. J., & Pedrotti, J.T. (2014). Positive psychology. (2nd ed.).
New York: SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd.
