Positive Psychology's A Priori Problem. (May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Held, Barbara S.
• Other Names: Friedman Harris L. guest-editor.; Brown Nicholas J. L. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of humanistic psychology. Volume 58:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 313
• Page End: 342
• Publication Date: 2018-05
• Subjects: positive versus negative characteristics -- a priori versus a posteriori knowledge -- constitutive versus causal relations -- broaden-and-build theory -- hedonics versus eudaimonics; Humanistic psychology -- Periodicals; 150.192
• DOI: 10.1177/0022167817739409
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-1678

Abstract

The positive/negative distinction works well in many fields—for example, in mathematics negative numbers hold their own, and in medical pathology negative results are usually celebrated. But in positive psychology negativity should be replaced with positivity for flourishing/optimal functioning to occur. That the designation of the psychological states and processes deemed positive (good/desirable) and negative (bad/undesirable) is made a priori, independent of circumstantial particularity, both intrapersonal and interpersonal, does not seem to bother positive psychologists. But it should, as it results in conceptual muddles and dead ends that cannot be solved within their conceptual framework of positivity and negativity. Especially problematic is an ambiguity I find in positive psychologists' a priori and a posteriori understandings of positivity and negativity, an ambiguity about constitutive and causal relations that pervades their science and the conclusions drawn from it. By eliminating their a priori dichotomy of positivity and negativity, positive psychologists might well find themselves in a better position to put back together the psychological reality that they have fractured in their ontologically dubious move of carving up psychological reality a priori into positive and negative phenomena. They then might find themselves better placed to "broaden and build" their own science of flourishing.