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PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Positive Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1511128
Exploring Potential Solutions to the Criticisms of Positive Psychology: Can the Bold, Idealistic Visions of Positive Psychologists Survive Real-World Scrutiny?
Provisionally accepted- 1 Optentia, North West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
- 2 Psynalytics: AI Powered People Analytics, Eindhoven, Netherlands
- 3 Department of Human Resource Management, Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
Positive psychology has faced growing criticism regarding its scientific foundations and applied impact.To encourage constructive dialogue, this study employs a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to co-create potential ways to address the critiques of positive psychology. By engaging positive psychological practitioners and scholars, we investigate their perspectives on addressing the discipline's theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges and critically evaluate the viability of these solutions. Purposive sampling gathered data from 213 positive psychology researchers and practitioners. Participants were familiarized with the main criticisms through a participatory online workshop and then engaged in small group discussions to generate potential solutions to such. Content analysis identified 16 themes and 37 categories of proposed solutions. While the proposed solutions showed promise, some appear idealistic given academic realities. This participatory study empowers positive psychologists to actively shape the evolution of their field through ongoing dialogue, reflective co-creation and knowledge generation.
Keywords: Criticisms of Positive Psychology, Critiques of Positive Psychology, Participatory Action Research, Solutions, Third Wave Positive Psychology
Received: 14 Oct 2024; Accepted: 02 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Van Zyl. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl, Optentia, North West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
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