Positive Psychology: Goodness as a Habit

Friday, April 29, 2011

Goodness as a Habit

"My goodness now requires no thought but has become habit and I cannot act but rightly."

- Seneca, Roman Philosopher

"It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it."
- Joseph Joubert

"If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out."
- Rabindranath Tagore

"Whenever the world throws rose petals at you, which thrill and seduce the ego, beware."
- Anne Lamott

"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the right to be free."
- Charles Evans Hughes

Positive Psychology given credence by Academia:

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Commentators on the subject Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, note that:

"The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present).

At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom.

At the group level, it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation,tolerance, and work ethic."