Health Realization: a Principle-Based Psychology of Positive Youth Development
Health Realization: A Principle-Based Psychology of Positive Youth Development Thomas M. Kelley Wayne State University ABSTRACT: While we have numerous research-based programs for youth aimed at curbing drug use, violence, suicide, teen pregnancy, and delinquency, we lack a rigorous principle-based psychology of positive youth development. Instead of focusing on fixing what is assumed to be missing or broken in at-risk youth, we need a psychology grounded in fundamental causal principles that reveal clearly how such children and adolescents can become self-motivated, socially competent, compassionate, and psychologically vigor- ous adults. While the emerging field of positive psychology has attempted to shift the field’s emphasis from understanding and treating youthful dysfunction to facilitating well-being and resiliency in young people, it lacks a principle-based foundation and continues to mistakenly endorse external causes of positive affect and prosocial behavior. This paper offers a unique, principle-based psychology of positive youth development commonly known as health realization (HR). The underlying principles of HR are deline- ated, contemporary research that supports its major assumptions cited, and the results of applied HR research with at-risk youth in clinical, educational, and community empow- erment settings described. KEY WORDS: health realization; positive youth development; positive psychology; psy- chology of mind. This paper proposes that adolescent boredom, frustration and alien- ation are not typically signs of psychopathology, but rather, indicators of the absence of well-being, self-esteem, and other qualities of positive youth development. The same is assumed to be true for youthful prob- lem behaviors, such as drug use, teen pregnancy, and delinquency— that they too are more parsimoniously described not as responses to emotional disturbance, but rather to the absence of contentment, com- mon sense, and other positive qualities of healthy child development.
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