You are encouraged to take the first four courses of the Foundations of Positive Psychology Specialization before starting this course and completing the Specialization Project. This course, taught by Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman brings all the key concepts from the first four courses to practice as you develop and test a new positive intervention for an audience of your choice. You identify opportunities in your daily life to increase the wellbeing by using knowledge you developed in the first four courses of the Specialization. In this final project, you evaluate the efficacy of a positive intervention based on subjective and objective measures. Then, you compare how empirical and non-empirically-based positive interventions can be applied to influence a person's wellbeing. Lastly, you reflect on how the fundamental elements of research methods are important in the everyday application of positive psychology.
This course is part of the Foundations of Positive Psychology Specialization
Offered By
Foundations of Positive Psychology SpecializationUniversity of PennsylvaniaAbout this Course
Learner Career Outcomes
11%
26%
What you will learn
Identify your five signature strengths
Describe the character strengths that promote well-being
Craft a positive intervention using a signature strength
Share your work by writing a post-intervention assessment
Skills you will gain
Learner Career Outcomes
11%
26%
Offered by
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn) is a private university, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. A member of the Ivy League, Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and considers itself to be the first university in the United States with both undergraduate and graduate studies.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Character Strengths: One Concept to Rule them All
Module 1 of the Positive Psychology Capstone reviews the VIA Character Strengths Classification and in particular asks the learner to identify his or her five signature strengths and assess if they are authentic.
Peterson Theory on Psychological Mental Illness as defined as an Excess, an Absence, or an Opposite of a Character Strength rather than by the Presence or Absence of a Symptom in the DSM
Module 2 presents Chris Peterson's unfinished theory on mental illness. Specifically his belief that the absence of strengths, the excess of strengths, and the opposite of strengths might define 72 conditions of character weakness, and that these shortcomings might be a better framework than the DSM which uses a checklist of symptoms.
Developing a Positive Intervention using a signature strength to bolster a strength absence or strength opposite. Hypothesis & Experiment Design for Personal Positive Intervention
Module 3 has the learner target an area for remediation from among Peterson's inventory of 72 deviant strengths and craft a positive intervention using a signature strength.
Putting the Positive Intervention into Action
Module 4 has the learner put the positive intervention into action, assess and the share the results, and finally reduce the positive intervention to writing so it can be shared.
Reviews
TOP REVIEWS FROM POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY SPECIALIZATION PROJECT: DESIGN YOUR LIFE FOR WELL-BEING
A thought provoking workshop. How mental illness can be the lack, opposite or excess of our strengths. I enjoyed delving more into strengths and also having to come up with a positive intervention.
I would first all love to thank all my course lecturers and professors, I am able to understand how the design process of an intervention in positive psychology work
Please next time for the peer assessment, make the peer-review 5/5 or something. 2 is quite a low number. And some people can be quite prejudiced with their response
This is a very good course in an excellent specialisation. Granted, the material could be organised a little better, but the results are something to behold anyway.
About the Foundations of Positive Psychology Specialization
Frequently Asked Questions
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
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- The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.
What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free.
What is the refund policy?
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Is financial aid available?
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