Positive Psychology: Positive Effects on Emotional Education

Positive Psychology has a salugenic approach that focus on the strengths, resources, and existing skills in the people and together with the Emotional Education has preventive nature, for this purpose it is necessary the development of emotional skills through the design and implementation of programs of emotional learning.

In recent years there was a great proliferation of empirical work focused on the study of the role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the psychological well-being of the students (Extremera Pacheco & Fernández Berrocal, 2004).

The concept of EI proposes a functionalist view of emotions and unifies the affective and cognitive processes (Mayer, Salovey & Caruso, 2001). This conjunction implies a better adaptation and resolution of conflicts through the daily use of the intellectual abilities and through additional information that provide the affective states (Salovey, Bedell, Detweiler & Mayer, 2000).

Bisquerra (2010) defines Emotional Education (EE) as an educational process in a continuous and permanent that has the aim of encouraging the development of emotional skills as an essential element of the comprehensive development staff. The EE pursues the development of emotional competencies. Its objectives are: acquisition of a better knowledge of one’s own emotions, identification of the emotions of others, development of the ability to control of the own emotions,  prevention of the harmful effects of negative emotions, development of the ability to generate positive emotions, development of greater emotional competence, development of the ability of self-motivation, a positive attitude to life, learning of the flow.

In accordance with Bisquerra (2003), competition refers to the set of knowledge, abilities, skills and attitudes that are necessary to carry out various activities with a certain level of quality and effectiveness.

The main idea is to enhance the emotional competence in a systematic manner through educational processes. A learning program socio-emotional should be taught how to apply skills, competencies and strengths of the student within and outside of the classroom; learning environments create effective and attractive to the student; provide activities and exercises for improving the skills and strengths and evolutionarily adapted culturally; work dimensions cognitive, affective and social learning; facilitate generalization of skills and virtues to other environments such as family, of friendship; include systematic evaluations and protocols for improvement and updating of the exercises(Brackett et al., 2008).

It is important to build well-being. Studies carried out by Bermúdez, Teva Alvarez & Sanchez (2003) conclude that the greater EI, greater psychological well-being. Fernandez Berrocal & Extremera Pacheco (2009) present data that demonstrate that the emotional skills are related to happiness, social functioning and well-being of children and adolescents.

There is evidence that young people who experience greater welfare staff possess lower probability of implication to risk behaviors, and at the same time, it is more likely to seek to maintain good health, good academic performance, care of themselves and of the other, overcoming adversity (Scales & Leffert, 1999). The EI is not only a factor of protector of negative emotional states, but that is related in a direct way with the positive emotions and psychological well-being (Fernández Berrocal & Extremera, 2009).

The results of research on the relationship between the EE and the welfare, they stress the importance of the implementation of the first variable in the student curriculum. It suggests its inclusion under the format of optional subjects which included knowledge about emotions and EI.

Bermúdez, M. P., Teva Álvarez, I. & Sánchez, A. (2003). Entre Inteligencia Emocional y bienestar Psicológico. Universidad Psicológica Bogotá. 2(1), 27-32.

Bisquerra Alzina, R. (2010). Educación emocional y bienestar. España: Wolters Kluwer.

Brackett, M. A., Patti, J., Stern, R., Rivers, S., Katilak, N., Crisholm, C & Salovey, P. (2008). A sustainable, skill-based approach to building emotionally literate schools. En M. Hugjes, J. Terrell & R. Thompson (Eds). The handbook of developing emotional and social intelligence: Best practices, case studies and tools (pp.329-358). Pfeiffer: Wiley.

Extremera Pacheco, N. & Fernández Berrocal, P. (2004). El papel de la inteligencia emocional en el alumnado: evidencias empíricas. Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa. 6 (2).

Fernández Berrocal, P. & Extremera, N. (2009). La inteligencia emocional y el estudio de la felicidad. Revista Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado. 66,(23,3), 85-108.

Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P. & Caruso, D. (2001). Technical Manual for the MSCEIT v.2.0. Toronto: MHS Publishers.

Salovey, P., Bedell, B., Detweiler, J. & Mayer, J. (2000). Current directions in emotional intelligence research. En M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds) pp.504-520, Handbook of Emotions. Nueva York: Guilford Press.

Scales, P.C. & Leffert, N. (1999). Development assets: A synthesis of the scientific research on adolescent development. Minneapolis: Search Institute.

About the Author: Marina Galimberti born in Argentina. She is a Clinical Psychologist specialized in Behavioral-Cognitive Therapy, Mindfulness and Positive Psychology and holds a PhD in Psychology focused on Positive Psychology. Marina is currently researching in positive emotions, emotional education and resilience. centrocppa.org

‘We Are The Positive Psychology People’