School Psychology: A Positive Psychology Approach

Abstract

The ultimate goal of schools is to educate young people to become responsible, critically thinking citizens who can succeed in life. Understanding the factors that stimulate them to become active agents in their own learning is critical. Positive psychology is a relatively new field of psychology.Positive psychology can be used to unravel factors that facilitate a student’s sense of agency and active school engagement. Positive psychology is an emerging applied science that is just beginning to have a significant impact on schools and school-based interventions. Positive psychology is also used in school-based interventions from the point of view of public health. Interventions are given to students at different levels based on their individual needs. An inordinate number of students report high levels of boredom, anger, and stress in schools. This scenario often leads to their disengagement from critical learning and school development. Positive psychology has gained immense popularity within many areas of the behavioural sciences, including applied psychology. Most of the interest in positive psychology, however, has been disproportionately focused on adults. (Diener & Diener, 2009). Child development and the structures that support that development have received less attention within positive psychology. The attributes of interest to positive psychologists are Optimism, Hope, Creativity, Self-Efficacy, Virtues of various types like Forgiveness and Gratitude, and Subjective Well-being are likely to begin in childhood. It is, therefore, imperative that childhood and those organisations that are most pertinent to the developing child-family, child, peers, and school—be of high interest to positive psychologists. The development of a child is facilitated by primary group and secondary group socialization processes.