Essay About Signature Strengths And Maureen Henwood

Positive Psychology
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Positive PsychologyIn the article “Signature Strengths in Positive Psychology,” the authors, Maureen Henwood and Terry Molony, justify their opinion on the topic of Positive Psychology.   The authors believe that “positive psychology can be thought of as a scientific study of what is “right about people” as opposed to the traditional focus on the healing of psychological pain or trauma” (Henwood and Molony 2010). Henwood and Molony are also big believers in core virtues also known as, signature strengths, which are: courage, justice, humanity, temperance, wisdom, and transcendence. The authors also think “Being able to measure human strengths will not only facilitate an understanding of those strengths but will also help in efforts to increase them in individuals and groups of people” (2010). Positive psychology can be traced back to ancient times, and is a complex framework that mixes themes and values with time periods and cultures and tests the theories with scientific tools to “discover not only the elements of human well-being, but also the means by which that well-being can be experienced by all individuals” (2010). The authors give teachers suggestions on how signature strengths can be used in several areas of the classroom they include: classroom management, language arts, history, arts, transitions, everyday activities, service and community. They give specific examples on how the teachers can incorporate the signature strengths in their classroom. Henwood and Molony say school psychologists should incorporate positive psychology and signature strengths to help children cultivate and identify their own. The authors believe encouraging children to work on their signature strengths inside and outside of school can help improve “academic achievement, happiness, a sense of self-efficiency, gratitude, and improved school climate” (2010). School psychologists are essential to promote positive psychology because they work with teachers, administrators, and students on a daily basis, at least Henwood and Molony think is. I personally agree with the article on most points. I work with my school psychologist as her clerk and she is constantly working with a teacher, student, or some administrator either on our campus or from the district. It is amazing how many people she reaches out to on a day to day basis. I also think it would be essential to the school to have the campus councilors to also reach out to students and help them learn positive psychology and signature strengths. This article is something I will hold on to for when I have my own classroom so I can used some of the examples to use on my students and I will incorporate the signature strengths into my lesson plan. One of the examples Henwood and Molony gave that I liked was having students recognize their signature strengths, figure out how they do or how they can incorporate them into their daily lives and then have the students write about their signature strengths. Also they could write a letter to someone that exemplifies specific signature strengths that the student has in common with. I want to teach kindergarten and writing lesson are difficult for them but with the right amount of helping the students they could write a letter to someone they look up to.  Another lesson the authors gave was a way to help the community and that was by raising money for a family in need and that would be a good thing that the school as a whole could do. Maybe instead of a family in need the school could pick a local shelter to donate the money. My school last year had 2 current families that needed help and all of us teachers gathered over a thousand dollars for the 2 families. I think positive psychology is something that everyone needs to learn about. I had never heard of it until I read this article and I feel like I have already been using it with students I get to work with. I also agree that the core virtues or signature strengths as Henwood and Molony call them are extremely important for students to learn because it can even help them with their self-esteem. I grew up being taught about signature strengths as values and my parents have always expressed how important these are to use and follow everyday no matter what.  I liked how they broke up each of the signature strengths into even more virtues. Courage can be bravery, perseverance, or authenticity.  Justice can be fairness, leadership, or citizenship or teamwork. Humanity can be love or kindness. Temperance can be forgiveness, humility, prudence, or self-control. Wisdom can be creativity, curiosity, judgment, or perspective. Last but not least transcendence can be gratitude, hope, or spirituality. Seeing them broke down this way made me realize that they are just my normal values. Not only does Henwood and Molony give examples of how to use the signature strengths by different subjects they also give you ways to use the words of the signature strengths. For example “Courage: the students can use their bravery to reach out to others and to help them become aware of the inequities” (2010). All the ideas they give teachers are excellent ways to incorporate positive psychology and signature strengths in the classroom. They are awesome ways to use them in your everyday life and to teach your students to use them outside of school also. With the way things are in the classroom some school district might have strict rules on raising money or donations for anything other than school related profits so it would be nice to teach your students it is ok to raise money to help other people besides themselves or families. I know I personally have been helping families in need for the past year. My husband and I are just now in a position to be able to give money to cancer patients and or charities and it feels great to be able to help others. I have always tried helping in other ways besides money. I had never thought about passing these types of things on to my students. Some other ways Henwood and Molony suggested passing on the traits of signature strengths was to just simply have students go home and examine a sunset. The students reported back to their teacher how it made them feel relaxed and at peace. This is a homework assignment I am sure any student would not mind doing, it sure beats any essay or worksheet. I personally enjoy watching the sunset and rise but it is something I never stopped to do until my dad recently passed away in April. I was always too busy in my eyes to stop but really it is not like it takes hours to enjoy them. Now I stop and take pictures of them every chance I get and I think of it as my dad painting the sky for me to enjoy. Henwood and Molony also gave a website for your students to go on and help the teacher and students determine what their signature strengths are. I liked how each lesson suggestion the authors gave tied in to the previous lesson. If a teacher had a week where they needed a whole lesson plan for this would be a perfect fit. It can be written so the teacher is still teaching to the test a saying that is sadly becoming all too popular in all schools anymore.  It is very rare for me to read an article and actually agree with everything they said. I actually picked this topic thinking I would disagree with everything and it would be an easy paper to write but that simply was not the case.