Stress reduction strategies/Positive psychology I

===Lecture Details===
Jo Mitchell; Week 1 MED1022; HEP
===Lecture Content ===
Positive psychology is the study of optimal wellbeing and optimal functioning. Negativity bias is where people are attentive to negative emotions and stimuli. Mental health is a state of wellbeing where an individual recognises own abilities, can cope with the stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and can make a contribution to community. Wellbeing can be hedonic or eudaimonic. Hedonic is pleasure attainment and pain avoidance; eudaimonic is being true to ones inner self. Mental wellness and illness are seperate, correlated dimensions. There are both work, personal and social benefits of wellbeing.
Determinants of happiness are set range (50%), intentional activity (40%) and circumstances (10%). Roughly half of personality is genetically determined. Circumstances can be age, gender, income, education, social class, ethnicity, intelligence or attractiveness. Adaptation and social comparison reduce the amount material possessions have on happiness.
===Readings===