Student Wellbeing Matters! Use Positive Psychology Interventions to Help Your Students Achieve and Succeed.

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

Andrea A. FrancisFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Marietta City Schools

Second Presenter's Institution

NA

Third Presenter's Institution

NA

Fourth Presenter's Institution

NA

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Session 3 (Ballroom E)

Strand #1

Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

This Positive Psychology Interventions (PPI) workshop aligns directly to the “Heart” strand of the conference. The strategies focus on robust bolstering of the social and emotional well-being of our young people.

Brief Program Description

Positive Psychology Interventions (PPI), grounded in the psychological theory of Wellbeing (Seligman, 2002) are pathways to a life of purpose and meaning. Each intervention is proved to not only reduce anxiety and increase optimism, but to create protective factors needed to cope with stress, anxiety and trauma.

Summary

Positive Psychology Interventions (PPI) workshop will provide the tools critical for fostering “authentic happiness” and life satisfaction (Seligman, 2002). The interventions are research based, applicable across culture, cheap, easy to use and very effective in changing ways of thinking and being. In addition, PPI provide both protective and re-bound strategies to cope with life’s challenges. The theory of Wellbeing is summed up by PERMA – (positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning and accomplishment). Positive Psychology Interventions explored in this workshop align to the achievement of PERMA and focus on the practical actions to increase optimism, reduce feelings of disconnection and hopelessness, identify character strengths and link these to purpose. Participants will learn the Seven Keys to Resilience, Hunt the Good Stuff and the power of Gratitude. Participants will also have the opportunity to find their own character strengths and learn how to guide young people to use character strengths to thrive. In addition, Mindfulness, Wellbeing Assessment tools, Motivation and Goal Setting Strategy WOOP (Oettingen, 2014) will be discussed. The ease with which Positive Psychology Interventions strategies align with other therapeutic models will also be highlighted using the genogram and narrative therapies.

Evidence

Evidence

Positive Psychology Interventions are embedded in the Theory of Wellbeing, the fundamental framework for positive psychology. Positive Psychology is a now well known cutting edge approach to foster flourishing (Sin and Lyubomirsky, 2009). In addition the following evidence based research confirms the value of Positive Psychology Interventions to human flourishing and Wellbeing.

The value of Gratitude:

Froh, J. J., Selfick, W.J. & Emmons, R.A. (2008). Counting Blessings in Early Adolescence: An Experimental study of gratitude and subjective well-being. Journal of School Psychology, 46(2). 213-233.

http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2007.03.005

Walker, J., Gilovich, T., & Kumar, A. (2016). Cultivating Gratitude and Giving through Experiential Consumption. Emotions, 16(8), 1126-1136.

Character Strengths

Park, N. & Peterson, C. (2009). Character Strengths: Research and Practice. Journal of College and Character, 10(4) https://doi.org/10/2202/1940-1639.1042

Life Satisfaction Scale

Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.

Mindfulness and Deep Breathing

Reynolds, Gretchen (2017). Why Deep Breathing May Keep us Calm. New York Times.

Li, P., Janczewski, W., Yackle, K., Kam, Kaiwen, Pagliardini, S., Krasnow, M. & Feldman, J. (2016). The Peptidergic Control Circuit for Sighing. Nature, 539, 293-297.

Motivation and Goal Setting

WOOP, There It Is! 4 Steps To Achieve Your Goals - NPR

https://www.npr.org/2016/05/10/.../woop-there-it-is-four-steps-to-achieve-your-goals

Ottengen, G. (2014). Rethinking Positive Thinking. Inside the New Science of Motivation. Gildan Media.

Optimism

Turning Negative Thinkers Into Positive Ones - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/.../turning-negative-thinkers-into-positive-ones.html

Aspinwall L.G., Richter, L. & Hoffman,III, R.R. (2001). Understanding how optimism works: An examination of optimists’ adaptive moderation in belief and behavior. In E.C.Chang (Ed.) Optimism & pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice (217-238.) Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Carver et al., Optimism Chapter 28, Oxford Handbook of PP, Edition 2 (2011.)

Peterson and Steen. Optimistic Explanatory Style Chapter 29, Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology, Edition 2 (2011.)

Reference

Seligman, M. (2002). Authentic Happiness. Atria. NY

Sin, N. and Lyubomirsky, S. (2009). Enhancing Well-being and Alleviating Depressive Symptoms with Positive Psychology Interventions; A Practice friendly meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65. 467-487. http://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20593

Biographical Sketch

Andrea Francis is both a school counselor and counseling psychologist with over twenty years’ experience working with children and their families. She holds a Master of Arts and a Master in Education for Columbia University in New York, where she specialized in children and adolescent behavior. Her doctoral work at Walden University focused on the relationship between adolescent girls and their nonresident fathers. Dr. Francis works in a middle school, supervises interns and conducts workshops for practitioners in the field. She also has her private practice where she works with young people suffering grief and loss, children in foster care and children born of traumatic circumstances. In addition, Dr. Francis holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature, from the University of the West Indies. Her current research interests are in adolescent identity states, especially the influence of online fantasy play and fan fiction. She lives with her family in Georgia.

Keyword Descriptors

positive psychology interventions, resilience, well-being, character strengths, optimism, gratitude, life satisfaction, hope

Presentation Year

2019

Start Date

3-4-2019 3:00 PM

End Date

3-4-2019 4:15 PM

Recommended Citation

Francis, Andrea A., "Student Wellbeing Matters! Use Positive Psychology Interventions to Help Your Students Achieve and Succeed." (2019). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 20.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2019/2019/20