Positive psychology focuses on the traits, behaviors and emotions that promote living a fully satisfying life. It is the study of what makes people happy, resilient, satisfied, etc.

Watch this following TedTalk by Lucy Hone about three strategies that resilient people use to overcome adversity. Note that this TedTalk discusses death and grief, and briefly mentions several adverse life experiences such as suicidality, miscarriage, natural disaster, among others.

Consider the following discussion questions:

1. What are the three strategies? What are your initial thoughts and reactions to these strategies?

2. Do you have experience using any of these strategies? If comfortable, describe your experience.

3. Are there any cultural or contextual considerations regarding use of these strategies?

4. We have focused on cognitive/neuro/personality/mental health assessments, but there are many kinds of assessments – trauma assessments, psychological assessments, capacity assessments (parenting, stand trial, insanity, ability to live independently, etc.), to name a few. In these other kinds of assessments, there is much more of an emphasis on assessing resiliency factors and more in depth strength-based personality traits.

Why do you think these other assessments have such a focus on resiliency factors?

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