Understanding the Chinese dream

How can psychology contribute to the Chinese dream? The answer is "positive psychology", a new branch of psychology launched under the leadership of Martin Seligman (University of Pennsylvania) in 1998. Positive psychology uses science-based intervention to build thriving individuals, families, and communities. As such, positive psychology aligns with the Chinese dream.

Seligman argues that positive psychology stresses well-being, the content of people's dreams, and the methods that can help them to realize their dreams. In his book Flourish, Seligman outlined five pillars of well-being: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishments.

Importantly, well-being is broader than happiness, though both ideas correspond to the same Chinese word xingfu. A person with higher well-being also has higher engagement, accomplishments, meaning and relationships, which contribute to achievements, innovation, spirituality, and harmony.

Consider the positive emotion of optimism. Optimism not only prevents depression, but also makes people more successful. Seligman and colleagues rated the optimism scale of new Metropolitan Life insurance agents. The more optimistic half performed 20 percent better than the less optimistic half, and the most optimistic quarter performed 50 percent better than the least optimistic quarter. Since optimism is so important, Seligman's team developed methods to teach people optimism.

In education, Seligman's team showed that a positive psychology curriculum could improve learning strengths by about 40 percent in 18 months, boost social skills and cooperation at home, reduce behavioral problems, and improve academic achievements.

Even the military benefits from positive psychology. In 2009, the US Army launched a program to teach positive psychology to its 1.1 million soldiers and their families. The program was found to improve the resilience and psychological health of the soldiers, lower the incidence of depression, anxiety, post-trauma stress disorder, and substance abuse.