Mental Health and Happiness

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This course will familiarise students with concepts and ideas from ‘positive psychology’. Positive psychology was introduced by Martin Seligman around 2000 and can be viewed as a supplementary approach to clinical psychology. The positive psychological movement formulated three aims: (1) to focus on well-being and happiness instead of abnormal behaviour and psychopathology, (2) to be concerned with building positive qualities and strengths instead of repairing damage and (3) to prevent future problems instead of correcting past and present problems.

The course starts with a general introduction to the field of positive psychology. The main concepts will be introduced and clarified, and an overview of the results of happiness studies will be presented. In subsequent meetings, various more specific topics will be discussed by means of lectures and group discussions. These topics include positive psychology and physical health, resilience and positive personality traits, positive psychotherapy and resilience-building interventions. The value of positive psychology as an addition to more traditional clinical psychological approaches will be discussed.