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Positive psychology in disruptive times
4 October 2022
Psychological approaches to tackling life's challenges
Positive thinking is often promoted as the panacea of our times, with ideas of wellbeing and positivity flooding social media and corporate leadership programs. But can positive psychology really solve life's challenges?
Mindfulness, gratitude and wellbeing are concepts which have聽experienced a boom in recent years. Even before the turbulent years of COVID-19, natural disasters and global conflict, people sought 鈥榥ew age鈥櫬爏olutions to聽navigate life's challenges - in the quest to perform better and reach higher levels of inner harmony and happiness.
On the face of it, these ideas聽form part of聽鈥榩ositive psychology,鈥� a relatively new school of thought which features a shift from focusing on the clinical 鈥榩roblem鈥� to the promotion of wellbeing.聽But not everyone is positive about positive psychology.聽Some critics disapprove of its simplistic interpretations and aren鈥檛 convinced that its research findings are聽strong enough to move so quickly聽towards practical interventions.聽
鈥淥ne of the things that I see a lot, in terms of the 鈥業nstagram application鈥� of positive psychology, is this idea around intentional thoughts and how we can just 鈥榤anifest鈥� things into our lives,鈥� says聽Dr Sean O鈥機onnor, Director of the University of Sydney鈥檚 Coaching Psychology Unit. 鈥淭he idea that if we just think positively we can manifest a Ferrari in the driveway or somehow drastically change our experience - it doesn't work like that.鈥澛�
Organisations have started to recognise over the last decade, how important the fields of coaching and positive psychology are.
Dr Sean O'Connor
Dr Sean O'Connor,聽Director of the University of Sydney鈥檚 Coaching Psychology Unit
Dr O鈥機onnor applies positive psychology techniques to his work as a leadership and executive coach. At the University his research focuses on coaching psychology, which seeks to extend wellbeing, performance and growth beyond the individual, into organisations and workplaces.
鈥淥rganisations have started to recognise over the last decade how important the fields of coaching and positive psychology are,鈥� Dr O鈥機onnor says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e realising the significance of values and purpose, and their relationship to wellbeing and performance, and we鈥檙e seeing the integration of positive psychology and coaching principles into policy and practice.鈥澛�
Dr O鈥機onnor says his聽life had always聽pointed him, in聽some ways, towards psychology and coaching. He grew up in Western Sydney with his family who supported over 200 foster kids, cared for by his parents from around the time he was 12 years old.聽
鈥淥n reflection there was this perspective that聽I built up from quite a young age of thinking about how other people were thinking,鈥� Dr O鈥機onnor says. 鈥淏ecause the foster kids came from such diverse backgrounds and experiences, some of them quite shocking and very different from my own, and this led me to think a lot about other people's experiences and the relation to who they were becoming.鈥�
He did an undergraduate degree聽in psychology, then worked in various leadership roles across government and business, before backpacking and working in the UK. While there, he heard about a new coaching psychology unit being set up at the University of Sydney. Spearheaded by alumni, the late Professor Anthony Grant (BA Hons 鈥�97) and Dr Michael Cavanagh (BA Hons 鈥�97)聽it was the first of its kind worldwide when it was set up 22 years ago. Dr聽O鈥機onnor applied and was among the University鈥檚 early cohorts for its Master of Science in Coaching Psychology.
鈥淭he University of Sydney really set the foundations for what coaching is today,鈥� Dr O鈥機onnor says. 鈥淏efore that, it was a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants industry. Tony and Michael produced some of the early research to support it as an evidence-based approach to leadership development, emerging from a psychological evidence base.鈥�
Dr O鈥機onnor coined the term 鈥榯he coaching ripple effect鈥�, after his PhD research found聽a聽significant increase in the psychological wellbeing of employees and the attainment of their goals in organisations聽where leaders had participated in coaching psychology methods.聽He is now the Coaching Psychology Unit鈥檚 Director, a position he has held for聽nearly three years.
He warns, however,聽that the popularity of positive psychology has taken some approaches way beyond the science.聽鈥淲e often discover interesting聽聽aspects through research, then this gets exaggerated beyond the evidenced claims. Most solutions and change require time and effort, and not all strategies widely promoted have a strong evidence base.鈥�
Get out into the green space, walk through a park. We鈥檝e seen that change of place and space through connecting with nature, can help reduce stress, reset attentional capacity and provide an opportunity to envisage the bigger picture.
Dr Sean O'Connor
Dr O鈥機onnor says that connecting with nature is one idea that does have substantial scientific support. 鈥淥ne of the techniques I often use with business executives, is to ask, 鈥榃hat do you do in your break?鈥� If you want to think more strategically, you need to refresh your attention. Get out into the green space, walk through a park. We鈥檝e seen that change of place and space through connecting with nature, can help reduce stress, reset attentional capacity and provide an opportunity to envisage the bigger picture.鈥�
His current research involves exploring the psychology of 鈥榩lace in space鈥�, and he has engaged in an industry partnership with the International Tower Sydney at Barangaroo. His team is researching how the physical environment and sense of community can impact wellbeing and performance. 鈥淲e鈥檙e asking questions like, 鈥楧oes the work environment support autonomy and competence? Does it allow people to use their strengths? Does it allow people to connect with others?鈥欌��
Dr聽O鈥機onnor says research also indicates that goal-setting can increase聽people鈥檚 wellbeing and chances of reaching their goals. 鈥淗owever, often, we inadvertently set what's called 鈥榓voidant goals鈥� which actually increases your attention towards the very thing you might be trying to avoid, increasing the likelihood of failure,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 best to focus on the thing you want to move towards, versus the thing you're trying to get away from. Evidence supports that if we think about positive emotions and look more towards possibilities, rather than problems, we can support performance and wellbeing.鈥�
鈥淭here鈥檚 also a whole area of study around 鈥榝low鈥� - the idea that when we engage in certain activities, in which our skill level meets the challenge required, we can lose a聽sense of time. This聽tends to impact our performance and wellbeing positively, and there are techniques that you can try, to have more flow in your experiences.鈥�
Positive affirmations can also support self-efficacy and wellbeing. 鈥淪ome research shows that affirmations can increase self-confidence and lead to improvement in performance, but it鈥檚 not simply about manifesting your desires and the universe聽delivering,鈥� Dr O鈥機onnor says. 鈥淚n some cases, for those low in self-efficacy or confidence, positive affirmations can actually be more harmful and work in the opposite direction.鈥�
With the COVID-19 pandemic re-shaping the workplace landscape, Dr O鈥機onnor is now in the early stages of research exploring the聽connection of employees to their workplace, how it affects their identity and how working from home has changed this.
鈥淲e鈥檙e focused on how we help leaders adapt to flexible workforces, how we can help them to view working flexibly, not just as a problem to be solved but as an innovative way to look at what our sense of self means in that environment. Then we can start to help people identify what performance and wellbeing look like in this new form of working, and perhaps even finding higher levels of satisfaction and engagement.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to require quite a lot of adaptation and innovation to transform workplaces and to support leaders and employees in the new way of thinking,鈥� Dr O鈥機onnor says.聽
鈥淚n this field, we need to think about聽how we can best be critical of new research, so we can give a clear message as academics around what we support and what can be helpful.聽There鈥檚 a lot we can do at both individual and group levels, and leadership coaching - supported by evidence-based positive psychology - is one very strong approach that could benefit individuals, workplaces, organisations and society more broadly.鈥�
Written by Cassandra Hill for Sydney Alumni Magazine. Illustration by Pete McDonald.