DaveShearon

Masters in Applied Positive Psychology Interest from India

I received an e-mail the other day from a young woman in India who's interested in the MAPP program.  She's given me permission to share, and I thought it might be of interest.  Looks like the next MAPP class could be pretty amazing!

Hi Dave,

How are you doing? Great to read all your blog postings and especially those on positive psychology! Let me start by introducing myself - have a lot of curiosity and interest in positive psychology and have completed my masters in Applied Psych & Bachelors in Psych as well! Currently working in HR (have about 3 years of professional work ex), in Bangalore, India. Infact my masters thesis was on searching a taxonomy for good life or happiness.

The reason I am writing to you (and hoping you mail back :) is coz I am really keen on the program at UPenn and am planning to apply for the same within the next month! (FYI - I had applied last year as well, but my application wasn't successful). So, through sheer curiosity & determination :) I am hoping things work out for the next batch. Just had a couple of basic questions - how has the program been so far? (is the 3-4 days a month model working for you? What do you do the rest of the days?), what are you or others in your batch planning to do afterwards (in terms of career/further studies), research interests and any tips at all on the application itself..

I know this is a really busy time for you - but would love to hear more about the program, your (and others) interests & experiences...

Thanks Dave - look forward to your email :)

Cheers

Radhika

My reply:

I am so glad you wrote!  I'll be glad to share my experiences with you.

Let's see .... where to start?

Well, first, the program is very high quality.  We are meeting and learning from some of the real leading folks in the field, and I am finding that the "UPenn" and "Seligman" names open doors when we want to talk with folks about Capstone projects.

Second, the workload is challenging for me, and I think others in the class with full-time careers and families are finding it similarly challenging.  I can't address how those who are approaching it as full-time students find it, but I'll see if a couple of them might share their experiences with you.

I think individual plans for afterwards depend on the current position of each person.  I want to use my knowledge to help get the CLE Commission I work for here in TN (see www.cletn.com) to put some effort into using the knowledge to improve the lives and performance of TN attorneys, though after a Commission meeting I had yesterday, that's going to be a longer project than I had hoped.  Some of the younger students are planning to go on to a PhD program.

Tips on the application:  share what it means to you, why it excites you, what your dreams are.  Also share what your thoughts are as to how this degree would enable you to do things that matter to you in your profession (what is that, btw?).

Again, thanks for writing.  Hope it goes well for you.

Jon Haidt, UVA, & Positive Psychology

I'm adding Jon Haidt's new book, The Happiness Hypothesis, to my book log.  It is excellent.  Much of it was assigned for the MAPP session this weekend, and I'm reading the rest out of interest.  He's a great writer and was even better as a teacher.  If you know any current Wahoos, encourage them to take Jon's class.

Dr. Haidt introduces an extraordinarily useful metaphor throughout the book that captures a significant recurring theme in what we have been studying.  The metaphor is of a rider on an elephant.  The theme is that we have mental processes (often associated with brain systems) that we experience as intuitive or non-rational.  They are fast, parallel, virtually effortless and almost entirely automatic.  They are the elephant.  Then there is conscious, rational thought -- the rider.  The elephant has been evolving for far longer and is much smoother and more powerful.  The rider is newer and often functions to serve the elephant, rather than to guide it.  The rider cannot stop the elephant once it engages and can only guide it where it is willing to go.  But, over time and with attention and effort, the rider can train the elephant, and the resultant teamwork can be astonishing.

Some examples of the elephant at work:

• Approach/avoidance - the like-o-meter is registering all the time and it has no need for reasoned input, we just know
• Negativity bias -- we are far more attuned to threats than to opportunities.  Missing a single opportunity was not usually fatal, missing just one threat usually was.  So, we evolved with exquisite sensitivity to the negative
• Reciprocity -- we play tit for tat naturally and well.  See also, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Cialdini.
• Haidt argues from his research that much of our moral judgment-making is handled by the elephant, though shaped in its expression and, to some extent, the domains on which it draws by culture.

Here's a passage on the elephant and the rider:

The automatic system was shaped by natural selection to trigger quick and reliable action, and it includes parts of the brain that make us feel pleasure and pain (such as the orbitofrontal cortex), and that trigger survival-related motivations (such as the hypothalamus). The automatic system has its finger on the dopamine release button. The controlled system, in contrast, is better seen as an advisor. It’s a rider placed on the elephant’s back to help the elephant make better choices. The rider can see farther into the future, and the rider can learn valuable information by talking to other riders or by reading maps, but the rider can not order the elephant around against its will. I believe the Scottish philosopher David Hume was closer to the truth than was Plato when he said, "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them."