1. Psychology

2. What is Psychology?
What is the purpose of studying Psychology?
Who can be helped by a Psychologist?

3. What is Psychology?
• Psychology is the study of the brain and
behaviour

4. Positive Psychology
The Science of Happiness

5. Groups of 3 to 4.
Time: 15 minutes
Answer the following questions
1. What is happiness?
2. Is happiness necessary?
3. Can you influence how happy you are?
4. List five things that would make you happier.

6. What makes a person happy?
• Genetics?
• Life circumstances?
• Personality Traits?
• Money?
• Things?
• Family?
• Friends?

7. What makes a person happy?
• Discuss in groups.
Rank the list in order
in the most important
to the least important
factors that influence
happiness.
• 5 minutes
• Genetics?
• Life circumstances?
• Personality Traits?
• Money?
• Things?
• Family?
• Friends?

8. Can unhealthy thinking make us sick?

9. When people experience stress, they show
increased heart rate, higher blood sugar,
immune suppression, and other adaptations
optimized for immediate action.

10. If individuals do not regulate these changes
once the stress is past, they can lead to illness,
coronary heart disease, and heightened
mortality.

11. Contentment

12. What makes you happy?

13. Are you happy with your lot in life?

17. Are you happy with your lot in life?

23. How rich are you on a world scale?
The average male wage in Australia is $66,664
per annum. (USD$ 57,107 )
The average female wage (ordinary time
earnings) in Australia is $55,037 per annum.
((USD$ 47,150)
Guess where this stands in against global
standards – write down your guess.
Eg top 50%, top 20%.

24. Go to http://www.globalrichlist.com/
Use these figures to determine how rich the
average Australian is on a global scale.

25. The Global Rich List calculations are based on
figures from the World Bank Development
Research Group.
Percentage of
world population
Percentage of
world income
Yearly individual
income
Daily individual
income
Bottom 10 percent 0.8 $400 $1,10
Bottom 20 percent 2.0 $500 $1,37
Bottom 50 percent 8.5 $850 $2,33
Bottom 75 percent 22.3 $1,487 $4,07
Bottom 85 percent 37.1 $2,182 $5,98
Top 10 percent 50.8 $25,400 $69,59
Top 5 percent 33.7 $33,700 $92,33
Top 1 percent 9.5 $47,500 $130,14

26. It is human nature to compare our lives with the
lives of others.
Question: How do magazines, television and
advertising promote dissatisfaction in our
lives?

27. Have you ever been:
Homeless?
Hungry for more than a day?
Thirsty with no clean water to drink?
Very ill without medical treatment?
Held against your will?
Enslaved?
It is important to maintain perspective that we
have the amongst the very best living
standards in the world.

28. GRATITUDE

29. Gratitude
Gratitude is one of the ways we can enrich our
lives to make us happier.
There are many people that help us on a daily
basis, siblings, parents, coaches, teachers,
neighbours, friends. Your task is to write a
letter of gratitude to someone significant in
your life.

30. • Write a gratitude letter to the person you pick,
expressing your gratitude and why you are
grateful in specific and concrete terms. If at all
possible, deliver it personally and ask the
person to read the letter in your presence. If
personal delivery is not possible, mail, fax, or
email the letter and follow up with a phone
call.

31. 1. Write letter, let the person read it in your
presence.
2. Write a reflection – describe briefly what the
letter is about, how the person responded
and how it made you feel

32. • In research studies, both initiator and
recipient of the gratitude letter report positive
outcomes. Those who are habitually grateful
are found in studies to be happier than those
who are not. Use your gratitude letter to
reinforce the benefit of continual gratitude
expression.

33. Personal Character Strengths and Virtues
Six main virtues are considered good by the vast
majority of cultures and throughout history
and that these traits lead to increased
happiness when practiced.

34. The organization of these virtues and strengths is as follows:
1. Wisdom and Knowledge
2. Courage
3. Humanity
4. Justice
5. Temperance
6. Transcendence
Go to “authentic happiness” site and do the brief
strength test. You must first make an account.

35. UNHELPFUL THINKING STYLES

36. Unhelpful Thinking Styles
Black and white thinking: thinking in an all- or-
nothing style, extreme thinking.
Words like always and never come into most of
these thoughts.
“I will never get all this work done”
“I always end up having a bad time”

37. Unhelpful Thinking Styles
Mental filter: when you pick out a negative
detail and focus on that exclusively and
overlooking anything positive.
For example you might dwell on one negative
comment from some feedback and forget
about all the other positive comments.

38. Unhelpful Thinking Styles
Mind Reading : Guessing at what others are
thinking, usually negative.
“They must think I am a real idiot” Or “The
teacher thinks I am stupid”

39. Unhelpful Thinking Styles
Predictive Thinking: Predicting a negative future
without waiting to see what will happen.
“I bet when I get up in front of the class I won’t
be able to speak and I will fail my oral
presentation.”
"I won't be able to cope with year 12.“

40. Unhelpful Thinking Styles
Personalisation: taking total responsibility for
external events occurring, ignoring all other
factors.
“If I had gone to my friends place she woouldn’t
have been in that car accident”

41. Unhelpful Thinking Styles
Catastrophising: jumping to a worst case
scenario, often unrealistically.
"I have a chest pain... I might be having a heart
attack”
“If I don’t get good grades my parents won’t love
me”

42. Unhelpful Thinking Styles
Labelling: globally putting yourself (or others
down).
For example you might make a mistake and think
"I'm a failure". You cannot be a complete failure
in every aspect of your life therefore it is irrational
to call yourself an failure.
Alternative: I have failed at this task but there are
so many other things I can do. I need to move on
and learn from this mistake.

43. Unhelpful Thinking Styles
Should statements: having a fixed view on what
you think you (or others) should be doing or
behaving.
Also includes: ‘musts'; ‘ought to's'; and have tos'.
For example "I should have gone to that lecture"
Alternative: It would have been beneficial to have
gone to that lecture- I'll have to go to the next
one.

44. Diary of a negative thinker
Read the negative thinker’s diary. Underline and
identify unhelpful thinking styles.
Rewrite the diary entries to be more positive. It
is important to be realistic.

45. KINDNESS

46. Questions for Discussion
1) What is your definition of kindness?
2) Have you ever felt disappointed or cheated
because you did something nice for another
person,but he or she did not return the favour?
3) If you expect to get something back, are you
then performing a kind act or are you really
trading favours for favours?
4)Has anyone ever done something for you
anonymously, without expecting something in
return?

47. Random Acts of Kindness
Get into groups of 4. Brainstorm a list of as many
nice things that you could do for others. It
may be at home or at school or elsewhere.