Positive Psychology in Health Management

Book excerpt: Positive psychology aims to understand how people can better their lives, and ultimately, flourish. Since Martin Seligman spearheaded this movement of looking for the positives in life rather than focusing on the negatives, substantial research has been conducted. This research indicates that positive psychological resources, such as resilience, self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and self-esteem can help individuals build their personal capabilities, which are associated with higher levels of physical, psychological, social and behavioral health. Health management is also a broad topic, containing management of all health-related issues, involving policy-making, legal regulation, workforce management, healthcare quality, specific disease management, etc. There has been a drastic increase in research on applying positive psychology to health management. The increasing theoretical and empirical studies have revealed that positive psychological theories have positive effects on the patients’ physical and mental health, quality of life and on healthcare workers’ job satisfaction, burnout, and quality of work life. Disease management and health workforce management are two major subjects that involve positive psychology, that have been widely investigated in the past few years. Therefore, by combining positive psychology and health management, this topic aims to facilitate cutting edge ideas and research to explore multidisciplinary approaches of positive psychology in disease management and health workforce management. Our specific aim is to explore how the construct of positive psychology mitigates the negative consequences on patients or family with disease burden, and healthcare workers under job-related stress. Furthermore, we hope to recognize the distinct adaptive trajectories of these areas, on which positive psychological resources may have an effect. Based on these, we want to highlight the efficacy, effectiveness and implementation of positive psychology-based intervention for patients or healthcare workers to promote resiliency. Through the achievement of these aims, we also hope to develop new theories and instruments which are culturally sensitive and contextually innovative.