Kelley, Thomas M. (2004.) \"Positive

¶ … Kelley, Thomas M. (2004.) "Positive psychology and adolescent mental health: false promise or true breakthrough?" Adolescence. Summer 2004. Retrieved 18 May 2007 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_154_39/ai_n6364175/pg

According to Thomas Kelley, the discipline of psychology first focused on human cognitive dysfunction. Positive or humanistic psychology emerged to counteract this overemphasis. Positive psychology is primarily interested in understanding and optimizing normal human functionality. Kelley believes this rubric of analysis can be used as a way of helping otherwise well-adjusted individuals in maximizing their ability to get the most from their lives, but he believes it needs to take a more systematized approach. Kelley calls his model the Health Realization model of positive psychology. He believes that its stress upon present mindfulness and working from the inside rather than the outside in will make it uniquely helpful in addressing the problems of adolescents today.

Kelley notes that honor students reported higher rates of boredom than other students. For many, more than 50% of their random moments are spent feeling bored (Kelley, 2004:1). Kelley sees a lack of purpose in these adolescents' lives, a lack of a sense of having a meaningful moral goal to achieve to give significance to their external accomplishments. This is not their fault alone, but society's fault as well, because modern society is so externally motivated. Also, it overemphasizes the value of analytical thinking, to the exclusion of what Kelley calls natural, creative, childlike free-flow thinking (Kelley 2004:3). This stress upon formal or learned thinking processes encourages adolescents to think that their sense of self-worth is tied to their external accomplishments, possessions, looks, and behavior alone. Instead of focusing on changing a youth's external environment, teaching him or her to enjoy being 'in the moment' is the only way to counteract an adolescent's sense of boredom. Boredom has its roots in societal materialism. Kelley cites examples of how he helped one adolescent client, a professional ice skater, bring the sense of childlike joy and flow she gained only when practicing into others spheres of her daily life (Kelley 2004:4). Adolescents need to retain the sense of being like spontaneous children and connecting to the world.

Some of Kelley's definitions, such as mind, consciousness, and body, particularly at the beginning of his article, seem needlessly complicated. However, first and foremost, his pinpointing of a common profile amongst high-achieving adolescents -- namely the overcommitted, intelligent, but insufficiently creative and internally motivated student is important. Creativity and having a sense of internally-created purpose makes life feel meaningful, and makes one's sense of self seem less determined by awards and being a part of the right social group. Society has accepted such stress on conformity and angst as normal in adolescents, but boredom, self-doubt, and unhappiness may have more to do with society and less to do with the adolescent stage itself.

Secondly, Kelley stresses that negative events are inevitable, from unpleasant chores to national tragedies, but adolescents need ways of dealing with the emotions stirred by these events. He cites the example of another type of adolescent, a young man confined in juvenile detention assigned to cleaning latrines who finally found a sense of 'purpose' in his life by doing physical labor with a clear goal and a positive attitude. His inner attitude shifted, although is exterior circumstances were unpleasant. 9/11 motivated some adolescents to find a higher purpose in life.