Giving

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Giving Positive Psychology Away Ten Teaching
Strategies that Promote Student Engagement
Shane J. Lopez sjlopez_at_ku.edu University of
Kansas Presented at the 2006 Annual Convention
of the APS
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Presentation Objectives
Describe major developments in positive
psychology research, practice, and
education Share 10 teaching strategies for
engaging students in the science and practice of
positive psychology Invite you to incorporate
positive psychology lectures into existing
courses, and to create a positive psychology
course at your institution
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Major Developments in Positive Psychology
POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH Psychological
Strengths - On-line Measures www.strengthsfinder.
com www.positivepsychology.org Positive Emotions
- Broaden and Build Theory Gallup World
Poll POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY PRACTICE Strengths
Quest College Programming Happiness
Interventions Well-being Therapy POSITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY EDUCATION Masters of Applied Positive
Psychology Gallup Universitys Executive MBA and
Ph.D. Over 100 Positive Psychology Courses
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Ten Teaching Strategies

• Exploring positive psychology phenomena in real
  time
• Engaging students in enhancement activities
• Creating a positive psychology curriculum
• Discovering personal strengths
• Expressing moral emotions and documenting effects
  
• Putting positive psychology into action
• Using Tals teaching tips
• Photographing the positive
• Sharing artists expressions of positive and
  negative phenomena
• Conducting a positive psychology experiment
  with younger students

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C. R. Snyders Legacy
Show much, tell some Teach to the
heart Give and get feedback
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Positive Phenomenon in Real Time Courage
Courage! What makes a king out of a slave?
Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave?
Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk
in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes
the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes
the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What
makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage!
What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the
"ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't
got?
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Enhancement Activity Hope Imagery
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Creating a Positive Psychology Curriculum for a
Penguin?
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Discovering Your Strengths A View of the
Positive You
My favorite exercise is one I do after I have
the students take a strengths measure and have
them share their results in class. I have them
come up with some ways in their life that they
can do things to enhance their strengths or just
use them regularly. If a fellow student knows
them, they can add in their comments about how
they might do this, or how they may have seen
them do this in the past. As an added piece, I
sometimes ask students to go home and talk to
someone they know well about these strengths and
to ask them for examples of how they (the other
person) see the student use these in daily life.
The times that this has worked the best are with
classes where students know each other to some
extent -- they are very caring toward each other
in these cases and offer many compliments to one
another -- builds a lot of positive affect too.
Jennifer Teramoto Pedrotti Cal Poly
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Expressing Moral Emotions Remembering Gratitude
Night
The student who expressed gratitude but who did
not bring a guest was a 65 year old gentle man
who had returned to school nine years after his
life was shattered to pieces by a near fatal car
accident in which his wife suffered traumatic and
irreversible injuriesI had him in an earlier
sophomore class and now he was in my senior
seminar in Positive Psychology. Shortly after the
student stood up to read from a prepared text, he
really took me by total surprise when he
announced that he wanted to express gratitude to
me (Dr. Hart). I am getting a lump in my throat
as I write about his words. The student spoke
about how the class in Positive Psychology had
transformed and uplifted his life to such a high
quality, and he disclosed what had happened to
him and his wife all those years ago and what his
life use to be like. He said it was like night
and day, and I teared up and had to ask a student
from tissue. I had to turn my back to the class
as I cupped my face with my hands. I had such a
swelling in my chest and lump in my throat. It
was powerful and wonderful to feel this sense of
gratitude. I felt grateful. I felt thankful. Of
all the many thousands of lectures I've given
over the past 20 years, that one class last
semester on the topic of gratitude will always be
remembered. Ken Hart University of
Windsor
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Putting Positive Psychology into Action
Students took chocolates and hand written thank
you cards to every custodian on our campus and
another group did this for all of the secretarial
staff members. A student group went into a
kindergarten class room and taught the kids about
character strengths by reading them stories and
discussing the main character strengths of the
people in the stories. Then they tried to
identify at least one strength in each child and
sent home info to the parents on the strengths
and what they thought they observed in their
child and asked if the parent had seen this as
well. They got some great feedback from the
parents on this. Another group went into nursing
homes and spent time with the residents and
engaged them in various activities. Another group
compared the gratitude of folks in a nursing home
with the gratitude shown by preschoolers in a
head start program. Students went into a daycare
setting just before thanksgiving and taught about
gratitude and had the kids write gratitude
letters to their parents to be read on
Thanksgiving day. One group brought chocolates
to people waiting in various waiting rooms and
airport terminals to try to increase positive
emotions and start the feel-good-do-good
phenomenon in those settings. Jeana
Magyar-Moe University of Wisconsin-Stevens
Point
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Tals Teaching Tips

• 1. I start my positive psychology class by saying
  that "This is the class I wish I had as
• undergraduate." Meaning, I identify the topics
  and ideas that I would have wanted to know
• about as an undergraduate student. Carl Rogers
  says that "What is most personal is most
• general" and I agree--which is why, I believe,
  the class has wide appeal.
• 2. I tell a lot of personal stories, or stories
  about other people, that relate to the material.
• Students remember stories, not theories--unless
  there is an interesting story that goes along
  with
• the theory.
• 3. I use video clips, usually humorous, that
  relate to the topics I'm teaching. Humor keeps
• students engaged, not to mention the broaden and
  build mechanism that kicks in.
• Tal Ben-Shahar
• Harvard University
• http//my.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?coursefas-psy150
  4pageidtk.page.psy1504.video

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More Teaching Strategies

• Photographing the positive
• Sharing artists expressions of positive and
  negative phenomena
• Conducting a positive psychology experiment
  with younger students

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Giving Positive Psychology Away
Incorporating Positive Psychology Lectures into
Existing Courses Introduction to Counseling and
Clinical Psychology Counseling and Consultation
for Teachers Counseling Practicum Measurement and
Evaluation Individual and Group
Assessment Diagnosis and Psychopathology Psychodia
gnostic Assessment Collaborating with University
Offices and Local Agencies Hope for
Grandparents Using Your Strengths at
Work Capitalizing on Positive Events at Home and
Work Creating a Positive Psychology
Course Positive Psychology for Psychology,
Education, Social Welfare, and Business
Majors Positive Psychology Graduate
Seminar Optimal Human Development Applied Optimal
Human Development