Positive Psychology in a Secular Age: Exploring the Influence of Secularization on the Ideological Underpinnings of the Positive Psychology Movement

Abstract

Psychologists’ assumptions about the world influence theory creation, hypothesis testing, and practical applications. In A Secular Age, Charles Taylor describes how the historical process of secularization has shaped the worldviews of those living in the modern West, and how the particularities of that process have influenced our (implicit or explicit) theories of the human condition. Within this worldview, human nature is seen as understandable and describable without transcendent referents, and human flourishing is described in terms of authenticity and personal satisfaction. In this article, I continue the ongoing discussion regarding the ideological underpinnings of the positive psychology movement by connecting them to the process of secularization in the West. I argue that Western secularity influences the vision of flourishing that shapes theory, research, and application within the positive psychology movement. Psychologists and mental health professionals should be aware that our empirical and practical work runs the risk of imposing a vision of human flourishing that is particular to our current historical and geographic milieu, rather than being necessarily true of all of humanity.