[MUSIC] So we've discussed the substance of PERMA. Well being, from my point of view, is having more positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment in life. There is a controversy in literature, since PERMA is just a theory, and it's a work in progress, is there anything else besides PERMA that free people pursue for its own sake and not in the service of having more P or more R and the like? And there have been two candidates proposed. One is H, health. So do people pursue physical health in and of itself, or only because it brings more positive emotion, better relationships, and the like? So health is an open question. And the other one is freedom and responsibility. So an argument has been made, and when I talked about the white footed deer mouse, that human beings want freedom and responsibility in and of itself, whether or not it brings you more positive emotion, better relationships, and the like. So having talked about PERMA, the question is, can you have more of it in your life? Now, the literature on having more of good stuff in your life is pretty discouraging in many ways. And I think I mentioned in the first lecture the lottery winner literature, in which when people who won the lottery, they got happier for about three months, and then went back to where they were. And so, that said, well, maybe there's no way to make people happier. Well, that turns out to be wrong. And a lot of what I, my graduate students, my post-docs, and my colleagues do is ask the question, are there exercises for having more PERMA in life that actually bring more well being? [MUSIC] >> Positive psychology is important because it can provide us with new knowledge about positive emotions, engagement, meaning, character strengths, healthy relationships, fulfilling work, and thriving communities. Most of us, though, are attracted to positive psychology because we want to move beyond mere knowledge to its application. We want to experience more positive emotions, greater engagement, deeper meaning, healthier relationships, more fulfilling work, and thriving communities. One way to apply positive psychology research to achieve these outcomes is through positive interventions. Now intervention may seem kind of a strange word to use in positive psychology. It may make you think of the television series by that name on the A&E channel. In each episode of that series, a family gathers with a therapist to confront a family member with an addiction to try to convince them to get help. But interventions don't have to be that drastic. In psychology, they simply refer to actions that are taken to help people change. In positive psychology, they are most often thought of as activities, typically undertaken by the persons themselves to cultivate positive emotions, thoughts, or behaviors. So what counts as a positive intervention? There are lots of voices telling us to engage in all kinds of activities that they promise will help us feel, think, or act better. Marketers tell us that buying that new car, computer or pair of shoes will make us feel great. Self-help gurus claim that their program is just what we need to think positively and attract good things into our lives. And we frequently make New Year's resolutions in the hope that they will improve our behavior. Are these positive interventions? Well, one distinctive feature of positive interventions is that they are based on scientific evidence. Positive interventions are developed and tested by researchers using scientific methods to see what activities actually work. They're not devised by salespeople trying to get you to buy their product, or by motivational speakers trying to get you to buy their book or sign up for their seminar. This doesn't mean that a particular positive intervention will be equally effective for all people in all contexts, nor does it mean that it is guaranteed to make you happy once for all. What it does mean is that it has been effective across a large number of participants in scientific studies. As effective as positive interventions can be, they are not always appropriate. And not all positive interventions are appropriate in all contexts. For example, we shouldn't expect to feel giddy with joy all the time, and continually trying to boost our mood to those levels is just not wise. There might be times when we should cultivate serenity instead. Or when we shouldn't try to cultivate any positive emotion, but should instead be open to experiencing unpleasant emotions like anger, fear, or guilt, to help us get insight into changes we need to make in our lives. And, in some cases, these emotions are connected to underlying mental illnesses that should be treated by a professional. I like to think of positive interventions as tools. It's possible to misuse tools. I've certainly misused a hammer plenty of times in my life. And no single tool is the right one to use across all situations. Still, when used correctly, tools can be enormously helpful and can increase the quality of our lives in countless ways. Although we want to be mindful about how we use positive interventions, they tend to be quite easy to use, and are appropriate in most circumstances. The results can be quite powerful when they're approached with an open mind. But it's best not to try to force them on someone who doesn't want to do them. When you're trying out positive interventions, I suggest you begin by following the given instructions carefully. But as you become more familiar with them, you should also feel free to tweak them in ways that you think might make them work better for you. The initial instructions are stated in a way that has worked well for many people, but in your circumstances, there may well be ways to modify it that will make it work even better for you. Indeed, one of the most effective ways to grow the current set of positive interventions may well be through modifying current positive interventions, or even through new activities developed by people for cultivating positive emotions, thoughts and behaviors in their own lives.