Positive Approach

What Positive Approach covers

Positive Approach is examined on Component 1 of Eduqas Psychology, Psychology: Past to Present. 104 recall questions across 9 subtopics.

The 9 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Assumptions and evaluation of the approach: Acknowledgement of free will and Focus on 'the good life'Recall questions on Acknowledgement of free will and Focus on the good life.Open →
• Assumptions and evaluation of the approach: Strengths of the approach and Weaknesses of the approachRecall questions on Strengths of the approach and Weaknesses of the approach.Open →
• Therapy derived from the approach: MindfulnessRecall questions on Therapy derived from the approach: Mindfulness.Open →
• Therapy derived from the approach: Quality of life therapyRecall questions on Therapy derived from the approach: Quality of life therapy.Open →
• Classic research: Methodology and ProceduresRecall questions on Methodology and Procedures.Open →
• Classic research: Findings and ConclusionsRecall questions on Findings and Conclusions.Open →
• Classic research: Ethical issues and social implicationsRecall questions on Ethical issues and social implications.Open →
• Contemporary debate: the relevance of positive psychology today — the argumentsRecall questions on Contemporary debate: the relevance of positive psychology today — the arguments.Open →
• Contemporary debate: the relevance of positive psychology today — the evidence and conclusionRecall questions on the relevance of positive psychology today — the evidence and conclusion.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Positive Approach further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Positive affect vs Life satisfaction

  Positive affect: the emotional component of subjective well-being. Life satisfaction: the separate cognitive judgement about one's life as a whole.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Which three assumptions is the positive approach built on?

   Model answer

   The acknowledgement of free will, the authenticity of goodness and excellence, and a focus on 'the good life'.

2. 2

   What does the positive approach mean by free will?

   Model answer

   It assumes people are able to make genuine choices about how they act and how they respond to events, so they carry personal responsibility for their own happiness rather than being driven by genes, unconscious conflict or conditioning.

3. 3

   How does the free-will assumption change the relationship between therapist and client?

   Model answer

   The client is treated as an active agent who can choose to change, so the therapist works alongside them rather than administering a treatment to a passive patient.

4. 4

   Seligman's early work on learned helplessness looks like determinism. How did his later thinking reconcile it with free will?

   Model answer

   He argued that if helplessness can be learned then optimism can be learned too, so people can deliberately adopt a more optimistic explanatory style and regain a sense of control.

5. 5

   Explain the assumption that goodness and excellence are authentic.

   Model answer

   It holds that qualities such as courage, kindness, hope and integrity are real states in their own right, not illusions, defence mechanisms or by-products of hidden pathology.

6. 6

   Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) argued that psychology had become unbalanced. What was their argument?

   Model answer

   They argued that after the Second World War psychology concentrated on repairing damage under a disease model and largely stopped studying the qualities that make life worth living.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Positive Approach revision questions

What does Positive Approach cover in Eduqas A-Level Psychology?

9 subtopics: assumptions and evaluation of the approach: acknowledgement of free will and focus on 'the good life', assumptions and evaluation of the approach: strengths of the approach and weaknesses of the approach, therapy derived from the approach: mindfulness, therapy derived from the approach: quality of life therapy, classic research: methodology and procedures, classic research: findings and conclusions, classic research: ethical issues and social implications, contemporary debate: the relevance of positive psychology today — the arguments and contemporary debate: the relevance of positive psychology today — the evidence and conclusion. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Positive Approach organised?

By the Eduqas A290QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.