Flourish: Post #11 - Army and Positive Psch.

Big Brains enter to help out the Army’s Online Curriculum Ken Pargament (Bowling Green) and Pat Sweeney for spiritual fitness
a. Emotional Fitness (Barbara Frederickson/UNC) centers around focusing on positive emotions like joy, gratitude, pride, hope, interest, accomplishment, etc. The effect of recognizing these builds a filter to see the world as broadening your perception and building your capacity as a direct adjunct. Also, the Losada line of 3:1 positive interactions is taught as a centerpiece.
b. Family Fitness (John and Julie Gottman/emeritus, U. of Washington) focuses on high ratios of positive-to-negative interactions in a marriage. Gottman suggests levels of 5:1. This module of the online program hones in on developing and maintaining trust, friendship, intimacy; managing stress; soothing a partner; and, avoiding escalation of conflict and managing it.
c. Social Fitness (John Cacioppo/U. of Chicago) teaches the importance of understanding social resilience—how our connections with others can protect us from anxiety, anger, and especially depression and loneliness. He offers that loneliness is easy to slip into but it causes grave injury to us, even at the cellular level. As humans, we reach our potential and protect ourselves from “enemies” by becoming socially cohesive. He also notes that optimistic people and teams fare much better than their pessimistic brethren.
d. Spiritual Fitness [Pargament (Bowling Green) and Sweeney]: The Army determined that spiritual fitness made for more moral and ethical decisions, coupled with greater well-being that resulted in more stable marriages, less drug abuse, and less mental illness.