This relatively new approach of psychology aims to develop the individual by utilizing his/her full psychological potential and therefore focuses on the following topics of psychology and aims to increase the psychological competency and well-being of clients.
Authenticity; It aims to clarify one's values, personality traits and goals, identify ways to express them to the world and to be in full and harmony with one's choices, cultural background, talents and skills.
Character Strengths & Virtues; Each individual has virtuous characteristics that are called strengths. The more one can show these characteristics to the outside world and live integrated with these aspects, the more balanced and happy life one can lead. Similarly, the more one moves away from these character strengths and fails to integrate them into their life, the more alienated one begins to feel. In positive psychology, there are tools where character strengths can be identified for each individual, thus gaining awareness will lead to effective use of strengths.
Psychological Resilience; It is a topic that has been studied with an increased interest. We can develop resilience against negative life experiences, losses and traumatic events that are inevitable in life. The concept of "posttraumatic growth" has gained importance as much as "posttraumatic stress disorder". The dark and challenging times we face force us to grow and develop. "Recovery”, which describes a person's capacity to return to their previous level of functioning after a period of distress. In addition to this, "reconstruction" describes the person's psychological gains and development compared to the previous situation. In this context positive psychology studies, the background of resilience and how to apply resilience building.
Self-Efficacy; Self-efficacy is an individual's belief in personal capacity to achieve certain goals. It especially affects the person's encounter with obstacles, problem-solving capacity and the decision making in life. Therefore, it can be very effective on personal success and well-being. Especially when self-efficacy is slightly higher than actual ability, it is decisive for success. Reviewing and strengthening beliefs in personal capacity is a very important step for success.
Flow is the mental state in which a person completely immerses one’s self in their work with a high level of focus and changes the perception of time. During flow, the self-awareness disappears and this experience has an intrinsic rewarding feature. It is about being involved in a project for its own sake that requires a demand slightly above what one can deliver in terms of skill set. It is highly related to the concept of engagement that is an essential part of psychological wellbeing.
Gratitude; is a feeling of appreciation for a favor shown by someone else. This can be a gift, help or some other act of generosity. Gratitude has been found to have very positive effects on psychological well-being. Research has shown that individuals with high feelings of gratitude have higher positive affect, lower negative affect, lower levels of depression and lower levels of stress. There is a large body of literature in psychology on the study of gratitude and its benefits.
Mindfulness refers to a mental state achieved by focusing one's attention on the present moment. Attention can focus on internal states such as thoughts, emotions, body sensations or external sensations. Mindfulness is a skill that can be trained. It is increasing one's cognitive and behavioral control to enable a more meaningful interaction with the environment. Research shows that mindfulness exercises increase self-regulation and creativity capacities and cognitive performance.
Meaning; Research shows that meaning in life is directly proportional to psychological well-being, quality of life, resilience to stress, and inversely proportional to depression and anxiety. Although theories of meaning have different approaches to this issue, they generally focus on two dimensions: the cognitive dimension, where we understand who we are and how we fit into this world, and the motivational dimension, where we have an understanding and meaning of our goals, aspirations and what is important to us. Doing work focused on meaning in our lives is a comprehensive work that includes values, priorities, aspirations and plans.
