A Positive Approach to Career Practice

Julia Yates

Senior Lecturer

University of East London

When you are at your work best, what are you hoping for?

I hope that through their relationship with me, my clients

end up………..

Where will your clients end up?

despair adequatetotal

fulfilment

Positive subjective

experience, positive

individual traits and positive

institutions(Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

Positive Psychology

Subjective

well-being

Flow

Flourishing

Mindfulness

Strengths

Post

traumatic

growth

Emotional

Intelligence

Self-

actualization

Fully-

functioning

person

Hedonism

Eudaimonic

happiness

Meditation

Goal setting

Motivation

theories

Confidence

Hope

Optimism

Enhanced personal qualities

Fulfilling careers

Fulfilling lives

Positive

Career

Psychology

Yates, 2015

Enhanced personal qualities

Fulfilling careers

Fulfilling lives

Positive

Career

Psychology

career

social

community

financial

physical

Rath and Harter, 2010

Five Pillars of Well-being

In fact…

‘People with high career

wellbeing are more than twice

as likely to be thriving in their

lives overall.’

Rath and Harter, 2010: 16

Enhanced personal qualities

Fulfilling careers

Fulfilling lives

Positive

Career

Psychology

SWB

Creativity

Social support

PersistenceAdaptability

Resilience

Deiner, 2001

Fredrickson, 2001

Bonniwell, 2012

Careers

Creativity

Social support

PersistenceAdaptability

Resilience

Kanfer et al., 2001

Bimrose and Hearne, 2012

Enhanced personal qualities

Fulfilling careers

Fulfilling lives

Positive

Career

Psychology

Enhanced personal qualities

Fulfilling careers

Fulfilling lives

Positive

Career

Psychology

Work Fulfilment

Rath, 2007

Rath and Harter, 2010

Littman-Ovadia & Davidovitch, 2010

Money, Hillendrasand and Da Camara, 2009

Positive psychology in career practice

• Strengths

• Solution focused coaching

• Appreciative Inquiry

• Career Confidence

A healthy dose of

pessimism is a good

thing

We should be a bit

sceptical about the

evidence

Resources

www.authentichappiness.com

www.positivepsychology.org.uk

www.cambridgewellbeing.org

www.centerforappreciativeinquiry.net

• Positive Psychology in a Nutshell by Illona Bonniwell

• Wellbeing: the five essential elements by Rath and Harter

• Positive psychology: theory, research and applications by Kate

Heffron and Illona Bonniwell

References• Bimrose, J., & Hearne, L. (2012). Resilience and career adaptability: Qualitative studies of adult career

counseling. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 81, 338-344.

• Bonniwell, I. (2010) Positive Psychology in a Nutshell London: Open University Press

• Diener, E., Lucas, E.L. and Oishi, S. (2001) Subjective well-being in C.R. Snyder and S.J. Lopez

Handbook of Positive Psychology New York: Oxford University Press

• Fredrickson, B.L. (2001) The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden and build

theory of positive emotions American Psychologist 56 218 - 226

• Kanfer, R., Wanberg, C.R. and Kantrowitz, T.M (2001) Job search and employment: a personality

motivation analysis and a meta-analytic review Journal of Applied Psychology 86(5) 837 – 855

• Littman-Ovadia, H., & Davidovitch, N. (2010). Effects of congruence and character-strength

deployment on work adjustment and well-being, in International Journal of Business and Social

Science, 1, 3, 138-146.

• Money, K, Hillenbrand, C. And da Camara, N. (2009) Putting positive psychology to work in

organisations, in Journal of General Management, 34 (3) 21 – 36

• Rath, T. (2007) StrengthsFinder 2.0, New York: Gallup Press

• Rath, T., & Harter, J. (2010). Wellbeing: The five essential elements. New York: Gallup Press.

• Stajkovic, A. D. (2006). Development of a core confidence-higher order construct. Journal of Applied

Psychology, 91(6), 1208-1224.