Empowering Interns:

A Positive Psychology Approach to Self-Advocacy

Jeffrey Volkmann Ph.D.The Catholic University of America

Why I am presenting on this topic

• Personal philosophyo I think it is important

• Experiences with internso Interns who have struggled finding jobs

• Work is more enjoyable for me when interns are happy

• Often a lot of focus is placed on “growth areas”o Remediation Plans

• The importance of a well rounded intern• Interns need to be able to effectively

communicate their strengths

What is Positive Psychology

• Positive Psychology:• Is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable

individuals and communities to thrive (Selgman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

• The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.

o Popularity • 2000 and 2010

o Over 1000 research articles• Pop Culture

o Time Magazine Covero BBC Six part Serieso Washington Post

• US Military o Comprehensive fitness program

Clinical Popularity• Private PracticeoClients increasingly interested in a

strengths based perspectiveoLGBTQ

• Flourishing GroupoMost Successful Group at the

Counseling Center for the past 4 years

Flourishing• Flourishing, in positive psychology, refers to optimal

human functioning. It comprises four parts:o Goodnesso Generativity o Growtho Resilience (Fredrickson & Losada, 2005).

• According to Fredrickson and Losada (2005), o Goodness is made up of: happiness, contentment, and effective performanceo Generativity is about making life better for future generations, and is defined

by “broadened thought-action repertoires and behavioral flexibility”o Growth involves the use of personal and social assetso Resilience reflects survival and growth after enduring a hardship

• A flourishing life stems from mastering all four of these parts.

Why Flourish• Benefits from living a flourishing life emerge from

research on the effects of experiencing a high ratio of positive to negative affect. o The studied benefits of positive affect are increased responsiveness,

“broadened behavioral repertoires”,o Increased instinct, and increased perception and imagination

(Fredrickson & Losada, 2005).o Improvements to immune system functioning, cardiovascular recovery,

lessened effects of negative affect, and frontal brain asymmetry (Fredrickson & Losada , 2005).

o Other benefits to those of moderate mental health or moderate levels of flourishing were: stronger psychological and social performance, high resiliency, greater cardiovascular health, and an overall healthier lifestyle (Keyes, 2007)

Core Virtues• Thought of as an alternative to the DSM (Peterson and

Selgman, 2004)• The organization of the 6 virtues and 24 strengths is as

follows:o Wisdom and Knowledge:

• creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective, innovation

o Courage: • bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality

o Humanity: • love, kindness, social intelligence

o Justice: • citizenship, fairness, leadership

o Temperance: • forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self control

o Transcendence: • appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

Self-Advocacy• According to American Psychological Association

(APA) advocacy is defined as the act of pleading or arguing in favor of something, such as a cause, idea, or policy; active support.

• Disability Researcho Self-advocacy is an individual’s ability to effectively communicate,

convey, negotiate or assert his or her own interests, desires, needs, and rights.  It involves making informed decisions and taking responsibility for those decisions. (VanReusen et al., 1994)• Self-knowledge is the first step towards advocating for your rights. 

You need to know your strengths, needs, and interests before you can begin to advocate.

• Self-advocacy skills should be learned as early as possible.• There are many opportunities to practice self-advocacy regardless

of your age or communication abilities.

The importance of Self-Advocacy

• Internshipo Working with clientso Working with supervisorso Working with liaison relationshipso Outreach

• Post-Internshipo Job interviewso Negotiating salary o At the workplaceo Life Satisfaction

What does Positive Psychology have to do with

Self-Advocacy• A major component of self-advocacy is knowing

ones strengths.• How well do you know your own strengths?

o Short Exercise

• Why have you advocated for yourself?o Did it help to know your strengths?o Personal Reflection

• What do you like to hear when interns advocate to you?o Areas of weakness or areas of strength

• Summer Group Therapy Example• Student Life Liaison Relationship

Internship Exercise I• Best Day Exercise

o Tell me your best recent moment as a training director and your role in it• Cannot down play the event• Story must have a beginning and an end• Personal reflection

o Professional Development Seminar• Best internship moment of the week• Best clinical moment of the week• What personal strengths facilitated these moments• Helping interns both see their strengths and get used to

talking about them

Internship Exercise II• Savoring

o Being aware of pleasures and purposefully paying attention to the experience of pleasure (Bryant & Veroff, 2007)

o Four kinds of savoring • Basking (receiving congratulations or praise)• Thanksgiving (i.e expressing gratitude for positive experiences)• Marveling (i.e. getting caught up in the experience of wonder or awe)• Luxuriating (indulging the sense)

o Techniques to improve Savoring• Share experience with others• Memory-building (Focus on senses or make mental note)• Self-congratulation• Sharpen your perceptions (Block out distractions/killjoy thinking

o Kill-joy thinking (how something could have been better, not as good as someone else could do it)

• Absorption (totally absorbed in event)

Internship Exercise III• Savoring Continued• Professional development seminar

o Focusing on positive moments from the week• What just went well in a session?• What just went well during my outreach?

o What did it feel like when it went well?

• In the moment activitieso Focus on the positive in between sessionso Reduce Kill-joy thinking

• Tell people about it!o Focus on what you are doing wello Communicate with your fellow interns and staff members.

Cultural Considerations

• It may be difficult for certain cultures to feel comfortable speaking about themselves in a positive mannero Suh, E. M., & Oishi, S. (2002) findings:

• People living in individualistic, rather than collectivist, societies are happier

• Psychological attributes characterizing the self (e.g., self-esteem, self-consistency) are more relevant to the happiness of Western individualists than to the happiness of collectivists

• The self-judgment of happiness is anchored on different types of cues and experiences across cultures

Cultural Considerations

Continued• Chang (2000)

o Asian Americans and White Americans• Similar levels of optimism• Asian Americans tend to be more pessimistic than White Americans• No significant differences in depression rates• Pessimism is positively linked with problem solving for Asian Americans• Pessimism is negatively linked with problem solving for White

Americans

• What does this meano Culture is going to impact the use of Positive Psychology with an intern

cohort o It is important to be up front with interns about what you are doing and

why you are doing ito Every intern will go at their own pace

• Consider the unique cultural considerations that may be impacting an interns’ ability to speak about her/his self in positive terms

Exercise• Cultural Self-Study

o Relation to positive psychology o Family of Origin

• Who are your people• What is your family saga

o Completing Demanding Journeyo Fighting for countryo Sacrificingo Worshiping in their own wayo Enduring historical change or traumatic events

o Family Strengths Exercise• Family Tree• Common strengths• Unique strengths

Conclusion• Why use positive psychology

techniques o Learning to self-advocate is an important

component of an intern’s developmento Understanding and knowing one’s strengths

can be an important tool when self-advocatingo In my experience interns often struggle when

asked to speak about their strengthso Adding positive psychology techniques to your

internship program will generally be very rewarding and FUN!

Questions

References• Bryant, F. B., & Veroff, J. (2007). Savoring: A new model of positive

experience. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.• Chang EC ( 2000) Cultural influences on optimism and pessimism:

Differences in western and eastern construals of the self. In: Chang EC (ed.) Optimism and Pessimism: Implications for Theory, Research and Practice. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 257-280.

• Fredrickson, B. L., & Losada, M. F. (2005). Positive Affect and the Complex Dynamics of Human Flourishing. American Psychologist, 60(7), 678-686

• Keyes, C. L. (2007). Promoting and protecting mental health as flourishing: A complementary strategy for improving national mental health. American Psychologist

• Seligman, M.E.P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive Psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5-14.

• Suh, E. M., & Oishi, S. (2002). Subjective Well-Being Across Cultures. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 10(1)

• Van Reusen, A.K., Bos, C.S., Schumaker, J.B., & Deshler, D.D. (1994). • The self-advocacy strategy. Lawrence, KS: Edge Enterprises.