What Is Positive Psychology, and How Can It Help You as a Firefighter?

By Karen F. Deppa, MAPP, and Michael A. Donahue, Ph.D., CFPS, PilotLight Resilience Resources 

Positive psychology is the scientific study and application of what gives us satisfaction and well-being, that which makes life most worth living. It focuses on identifying and cultivating character strengths and developing behaviors that lead to enjoyment, fulfillment, meaning, purpose, strong relationships, and flourishing in life. 

This emphasis does not and should not replace the focus on identifying and treating mental illness that characterizes traditional psychology. Rather, positive psychology exists alongside the traditional disease model of psychology as an equal partner, and one that has the potential to prevent or mitigate psychological problems and promote mental wellness.

Positive psychology is not about slapping a “happy face” on every situation or eliminating unpleasant feelings. In fact, the term positive psychology is misleading, because it also involves the study of factors that cause us to be resilient in the face of hardship, adversity, and negative experiences. 

Such events are facts of life everyone must deal with at some point. Emergency responders, in particular, are routinely exposed to others’ worst days, and consequently tend to court more hardship, adversity, and negative experiences than most people. 

Indeed, negative events and feelings can be important to our survival at times. We tend to learn most from negative experiences, and dealing with problems and difficult emotions head-on can lead us to be our best selves. 

Sadness, anger, and grief are entirely appropriate in response to certain situations. We all have a “negativity bias” hard-wired into our brains. It makes us notice and respond more strongly to negative events than positive or neutral ones. If these dark emotions swallow us up and color every experience and interaction, we can become miserable and not function productively. Alternatively, positive psychology suggests activities, skills, and practices that help build resilience and lead us back to a more balanced and fulfilling life. 

The Origins of Positive Psychology

At the end of the 20th century, a little-noticed but critical event occurred that would have implications for emergency services and for the world. Psychologist and educator Dr. Martin Seligman initiated this event.

Previously, Seligman had spent his distinguished career studying and identifying “learned helplessness.” This phenomenon can lead to depression when individuals stop trying to control a negative situation they feel they cannot change. 

Seligman had observed that when he treated patients for depression, his greatest successes were clients who, in the end, were psychologically “empty shells.” They did not suffer from depression, but neither did they have access to positive emotions to fill the void. Something is missing, he concluded. 

Another piece of the puzzle emerged one day in the mid-1990s. Seligman had been working in his rose garden. His 5-year-old daughter, Nikki, had gotten in the way, as kids do. So he yelled at her. After walking away in a huff, Nikki returned a few minutes later and lectured him for being grumpy. 

“Daddy,” she chided, “I used to be a whiner. When I turned 5, I decided to stop whining, and it was the hardest thing I ever did. If I can learn to stop whining, you can learn to stop being such a grouch!” 

Seligman, a self-admitted grouch, had a lightbulb moment. It marked the beginning of a decision to shift his career focus 180 degrees.

In 1998, as a newly elected president of the American Psychological Association, Seligman devoted his inaugural speech to a novel idea he called “positive psychology.” He proposed the establishment of a new branch within the field of psychology that would focus on studying and amplifying psychological well-being as a science with a basis in research and data. 

The psychological community embraced Seligman’s proposal, and funding and research projects soon followed. A quarter-century later, a substantial body of research exists that falls under the umbrella of positive psychology. 

Firefighters Can Benefit From Positive Psychology Research

So, what does this mean for emergency services? Skills based in the science of positive psychology can help us develop greater resilience. Resilience skills help make our day-to-day interactions and events go more smoothly, but also prepare us to better handle the inevitable critical incidents. 

Emergency service organizations spend a lot of capital training us to face physical challenges. Should we not also train to have practices and supports in place to help prevent or mitigate the negative consequences of a single traumatic event or the cumulative stressors of a career?

Positive psychology can help us learn to gain control over our reactions to activating events. We may need to be in full-on “expect the worst” mode while responding to a call, or training to respond. But if we carry that mindset home with us, or it comes out at the station when we are not on a call, it can affect our relationships with colleagues and loved ones. 

Worse, such baggage can blunt our ability to find joy. Positive psychology shows us how to recognize and reverse unproductive thought patterns. It teaches us we can choose our mindset and moderate our reactions to events that might otherwise “push our buttons.” It teaches us self-compassion. 

Positive psychology can help us build abilities to cope with the stress of our job. It teaches us to learn about and apply our top character strengths. It reminds us to express key values in our lives, and choose to see stress as a challenge, rather than as a threat. Positive psychology practices can boost our confidence in ourselves, and in the belief we can handle the stresses that come with being a firefighter. 

Ways to Build Social Support

Positive psychology teaches us how to strengthen our social support network. The research points to simple but effective strategies for building social support, a key pillar of resilience in the emergency-response community. 

These include focusing our attention on and responding positively to someone sharing good news; recognizing and calling out the strengths of those we care about; and giving others the benefit of the doubt rather than always assuming the worst. 

The essence of positive psychology is often summed up in three words: “Other people matter.” Choosing to help others on their worst day can be draining, but it also gives us a sense of meaning and purpose that is tremendously satisfying. 

Positive psychology-based approaches can help prevent behavioral health problems in the emergency-responder community. 

Prevention activities are classified into primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention attempts to stop the negative event from occurring. Secondary prevention aims to reduce the impact of a negative event that has already occurred. Tertiary prevention tries to reduce the long-term negative impacts of an adverse event.

Approaches based in positive psychology science fall in the primary prevention bucket. They do not replace the important programs that address emergency responder behavioral health from a secondary or tertiary prevention standpoint; rather, they supplement such programs and potentially can reduce the need for them. Think of positive psychology as recruit school for the mind, where you learn the basic skills to practice your profession and avoid injury.