Positive Psychology - Criticism

Criticism

Sample (2003) notes that it is argued by Steven Wolin, a clinical psychiatrist at George Washington University in Washington DC, that the study of positive psychology is a reiteration of older ways of thinking in positive psychology.

Lazarus (2003), writing in Psychological Inquiry, wrote an important early critique as well as a follow-up response to critics.

Snyder and Lopez (cited in Held 2004, p. 17) warn of possible damage to the field of positive psychology through the scientific community becoming caught up in the media’s claims of positive psychology. Warning researchers of the field, Snyder and Lopez suggest that they remain within the parameters of scientific professionalism and utilise any research or studies appropriately.

Pulitizer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges has written scathingly about the social dangers of what he calls "positive psychology", both in his column for Truthdig and, more extensively, in his 2009 book Empire of Illusion. Hedges stated that corporations appeal to "positive psychology" to force employees to be happy at all times. In a similar vein, Hedges is critical of "positive psychology's" law of attraction. Hedges is sharing in a common misunderstanding however: notions of permanent happiness (like those, allegedly, of the corporations), or the law of attraction in the popular media are not taken seriously by psychologists.

Barbara Ehrenreich extensively critiqued "positive psychology" in her book Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America as well as in her interviews and lectures. Ehrenreich discusses how obsessive positive thinking impedes productive action, causes delusional assessments of situations, and that people are then blamed for not visualizing hard enough and thus "attracting" failure even in situations when "masses of lives were lost." All of these criticisms are valid to psychologists, however. Ehrenreich is actually confusing the positive branch of psychology with the popular positive thinking movement - the law of attraction, which is not taken seriously by professionals.

Some negative attributes of positive psychology as described by Held (2004) include the movement’s lack of consistency towards the aspect of negativity. She raised issues with the simplistic approach taken by some psychologists in the application of positive psychology. A ‘one size fits all’ approach is not seen by Held to be beneficial to the advancement of the field of positive psychology, and she suggested a need for individual differences to be incorporated into its application.

Held (2004) argued that while positive psychology makes contributions to the field of psychology, that it is not without its faults. Her 2004 article in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, vol.44, no.1. offered insight into topics including the negative side effects of positive psychology, the negativity that can be found within the positive psychology movement and the current division inside the field of psychology caused by the differing opinions held by psychologists on positive psychology.

Zagano and Gillespie (2006) demonstrate the similarities between contemporary positive psychology as a secular phenomenon and the spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola, which is traced to the 16th century in Phyllis Zagano and C. Kevin Gillespie, "Ignatian Spirituality and Positive Psychology", The Way, 45:4 (October 2006) 41-58.

Philosophical objections may also be raised to the approach. For example, Arthur Schopenhauer and his followers would likely accuse followers of a "positive" approach to human thought and human persons to be showing a preference to delusion and denial, as life is ultimately utterly meaningless. Marxist theorists would likely point to the development of positive psychology as a function of alienation. These objections highlight the difference between philosophy (which generally recommends that one has true beliefs, even if such beliefs have negative of unpleasant consequences), and psychology, which believes in human "wellness" or "functioning" as the field conceives it.