---- CHARACTER STRENGTHS POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
---- CHARACTER STRENGTHS POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Optimum Psycho-Social LifeSkills
for college and university
Strongly academic
This is a textbook for college, perhaps for persons minoring in psychology. This book prepares persons for
optimum living. It is "skills" oriented. It can beused either
before or after Introductory Psychology. Currently, The
course deals with 50+0 identified skills and their originators
or major spokes persons. The textbook has 14 chapters
covering traditional concepts and materials, but from a
"skills" point of view, rather than a research and theory
point of view. It is designed to give the student a broad
and comprehensive knowledge of the psychological
"tools" available to organize one life, prevent problems,
and resolve problems. It is the basis for the entire
LifeSkills Training Center philosophy.
Special features of this textbook and
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. This textbook slices traditional psychology in a new way. This textbook teaches more academic information on how to solve problems than teaching how people become victims of problems. To accomplish that, some of the traditional material has been condensed, and other material expanded. Traditional subjects like intelligence, memory, sensation, perception, thinking, learning, motivation, emotion, theories of personality, sexuality/intimacy, mental disorders, therapy, etc., are in this textbook. However, these topics are imbedded within the framework of how people suffer, and how they learn skills to stay well or feel better. This textbook teaches what the great psychologists taught about problem-solving in addition to their theories and models about problem origins. Freud, Adler, Jung, Watson, Maslow, Rogers, Seligman, Ellis, and another 2000 major psychological researchers cited in the textbook, have delivered strong state-of-the-art affirmations about certain helpful behaviors (skills). Their research contributions involve perception, thinking, learning and the bio-chemistry of mental and physical mechanisms, as well as motivation, therapy and social support to transcend earlier deficiencies. This textbook is focused on an academic understanding of preventive maintenance.
This textbook takes advantage of a dedicated band of researchers who have validated the theories of the more renowned psychologists by devising programs (with skills) that show how the theories work. The cutting-edge researchers have been labeling the skills that have come out of some previously debated issues for the past two or three decades. The newness of this course is the angle of the perspective: less emphasis on how a person becomes dysfunctional, and more emphasis on dealing with problem forces. The text helps people learn about psychological dynamics and deficiencies. It identifies about 18 generally recognized core psychodynamic issues that are problematic It teaches 90 psychological skills, now identified and named by psychology, to handle and change those deficits in learning and consequent behavior.
2. This text operates from the belief that instruction and learning (cognition) are important for behavior growth and change. This book is a wedding between academic research in psychology and practical application of psychology. The student learns about the fundamentals which past and present great persons -- Freud, Jung, Skinner, Maslow, Erickson, Rogers, Ellis, and others -- believed were needed to remain sane, happy, and healthy. While this text is not counseling, it incorporates the behavioral change influences of key psychological dynamics. Cognitive restructuring is showing statistical higher levels of behavior change than older forms of psychotherapy. In a sense, much education is "cognitive restructuring." Persons who study this complete college semester (or possibly two semesters in high school) course may ultimately find it helpful to achieve what they expect to achieve but haven't been able to figure out how.
3. This book is not intended to replace any other psychological approach or component. It stands by itself. The book fills a niche in that it teaches the skills found in hundreds of books and thousands of research projects. The student can use the information to affirm his/her behaviors or make the changes, or combination of changes, that have some promise of being better. This textbook is not argumentative or combative; not seeing one psychologist's view as better than another.
4. The overarching philosophic base of this book centers on truth and education. It uplifts persons to understand that people can change with education. What, truthfully, are those healthier and happier psychological lifestyles? How can people teach/learn them? This textbook extends an invitation to people to examine options for themselves, for others, and perhaps for other options for our culture.
5. Key issues in emotional health and personal relations were initially identified when the author synthesized 342 factors of 39 published personality tests around 13 basic concepts (and their opposites. If 39 professors, from 39 universities show some common agreement about what personality factors are problematic, and which are more helpful, then it is legitimate to offer some of this for public education. Key issues were also identified by systematically cutting apart 20 psychology textbooks, identifying the problem-solving material, sorting and compiling the information, so that it would be comprehensive. Key issues were also identified by Psychlit, the compact disk of abstracts published by the American Psychological Association.
6. This textbook takes advantage of recent research information on skills that solve problems. Historically, psychology spent larger amounts of time and energy trying to understand problem origins than it spent on solving the problems. While this has been necessary and is certainly important, this text has included much larger amounts of material which focus on solving the problems, than on dissecting systems and understanding theory.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The Psyche, fed by Love, Libido, Positive Strokes
Chapter 2 Uncovering emotions, Attention to Feelings
Chapter 3 Defense Mechanism that get us into trouble
Chapter 4 Moving from aggression to assertion
Chapter 5 Shifting from a lot of fear to mostly trusting
Chapter 6 Multiple skills for higher self esteem
Chapter 7 Skills of self disclosure moving toward intimacy
Chapter 8 Maintaining and mobilizing our hoping
Chapter 9 Discovering autonomy as we battle peer pressure
Chapter 10 Guarding against addictions and winning
Chapter 11 Transcending rejection and finding acceptance
Chapter 12 Cognitive Restructuring to optimum living
Chapter 13 Conquering shyness and improving communication
Chapter 14 Skills for optimum fulfillment
Most of the following psychological
lifeskills are taught.
THERAPEUTIC SKILLS ORIGINATOR OF THE SKILL
(For character development) or a semi-famous user or promote
(Arranged alphabetically from Chapter 1 through the last Chapter.)
Acceptance (“unconditional positive regard” (Ch. 11) Rene’ Spitz, Carl Rogers
Active Listening (Ch. 14) Thomas Gordon
Affirmation (self) (Ch. 8) Emil Coue’
Aggression Replacement Training (Ch. 4) Barry Gick & Arnold Goldstein
Assertiveness Training (Ch. 4, 6, 12, 15) Wolpe, ‘58, Alberti & Emmons, ‘71
Autogenic Training (relaxation) Ch. 5 Johannes H. Schultz
Behavioral desensitization (Ch. 2) John B. Watson
Belief Becomes Biology (in his book Head First) (Ch. 18) Norman Cousins
Bibliotherapy (read self-help books) (Ch. 6, 9, 12) Maxie Maultsby, Albert Ellis
Biofeedback (Ch..5) Elmer and Alyce Green, (many more)
Catharsis (Ch. 2, 4) Freud and Breuer
Cognitive Restructuring (Ch.6' 12) A. Ellis, A. Beck, M. Seligman,
Communication Training (Ch. 12, 14) (See Social Skills Training)
Compensation (Ch.4) (One of the 20+ defense mechanisms)
Confession, Owning (Ch. 5) (Many, from the dawn of history)
Conversation Skills Training (Ch. 14) (Unknown persons)
Focusing (Ch.2) Eugene T. Gendlin
Forgiveness Skills Training (Ch. 16) (No primary spokesperson)
(Sub-skills of confrontation (owning), remorse, apology, reparation (restoration or fair repayment)
Free Association (Ch.3) Sigmund Freud
Humor (Ch. 4) Norman Cousins
Hypnosis (Ch. 3) Martin Charcot
Imagery (imagination, hoping) (Ch. 8, 9, 12)) Shaman, Coue’, Seligman, Achterberg
Intensive Journal (written catharsis) (Ch. 9) Ira Progoff
Negotiation (Ch. 4) (Became legal with Wagner Act, 1935)
Networking (Ch. 10) Galanter, Maguire, Sage, Sirkin
Operant Conditioning (Ch. 12) B.F. Skinner
Problem-Solving Training Skills (PSTS) (Ch. 15) Alan Kazdin and others
Owning of feelings (Ch. 2, 5, 9, 14) Many psychologists, & Marriage Encounter
Psychoanalysis (not self-help) (Ch. 2, 5) Sigmund Freud
Refuting Irrational Ideas (Ch. 2, 5, 6, 9, 12) Albert Ellis, Maxie Maultsby
Reframing (Ch. 2) Popularized by Jay, Haley, et al.
Relaxation Exercises (Ch.5, 12) Edmond Jacobson
Self-actualization (Ch. 6) Abraham Maslow
Self-disclosure of feelings (Ch. 2, 5, 7) Sidney Jourard
Self-hypnosis (Ch. 12) (Ancient)
Self-talk (Ch. 6, 12) Albert Ellis, and others
Social Skills Training (SST) (Ch. 11, 14, 15) (Many contributors)
Question-asking, suggestion-making, verbal support, grooming, smiling, greeting,
joining, conversing, sharing, complimenting, etc.
Stage-step Self Analysis for Trust (8 stages) (Ch. 5) Erik Erikson
Stroking (Positive Strokes) (Ch. 2, 5, 9) Eric Berne
Support Group (Ch. 2, 3, 5, 10) Alcoholics Anonymous
Systematic Desensitization (Ch. 5, 6) Joseph Wolpe
Time Out (Ch. 11) (Unknown)
Visualization (See Imagery)
Written Rational Self-Analysis (Ch. 2, 8, 9, 12) Progoff, Maultsby, Seligman
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