Below notes are from Harvard Open Course: Positive Psychology Chapter 3.

• Why choose to research positive psychology?
  1.what we focus on rather create reality. last decades, too mush researches on the dark force in mental.
  2.Getting rid of the negative emotion doesn't guarantee us the positive.
  3.prevent bad emotions is actually by focusing on and cultivating the positive.

• Cultivate the capacity.

  • It seems like a physical immune system.we get ill less often, and we recovery fast if we are ill.
  • like an engine. If we get a big engine, it's pretty easier to climb up.

• You are ill because you're not focusing enough on your health.

• 5 premise:

1.bridge building：combine research with practice
2.change:believe the change is possible
3.happiness is primarily depend on our inner world.
4.Human nature needs to be obeyed.
5.happiness is not the ultimate end which we pursue， but contributing a positive circumstance through helping others.

• Idealism(e.g.The desire to make the world a better place) is not good enough. We need to mate the research with the practice.

• Self-esteem as indiscriminate praise, ultimately hurting more than helping.

• Why study the elites, rather than the average ("Growing-tips" statistics 成长尖端统计学)?
  1.it is not the exclusion of the average. Study the average, also study the best.
  2.everyone benefits from study the elites, especially for normal people.

• How to study?
  1.study what works
  2.study what works best.

Summary: Believe that change is possible, that we can become more happier. And we can achieve our goal, through learn from the average, especially the best.