Watchology

Laura King, PhD, in her introductory text, The Science of Psychology: An Appreciative View, introduced me to a new term, "watchology." I do not know if she coined it or not, but I like it. It is a single-word nutshell of a relatively young field of psychology known as Positive Psychology.

Historically, psychology has learned about human behavior and mental processes by studying what goes wrong. Positive psychology says, "Why not study what goes right?" Its view of human nature is that it is positive. By nature we want to grow, develop, become more than we are. It is only when something gets in the way that doesn't happen.

Dr. King explains "watchology" by saying (and this is a paraphrase), If we drop two watches in a bucket of water, and one stops working but the other one "keeps on ticking" (my apologies to the old Timex commercials), why not study the one that keeps functioning instead of the one that stops functioning?

Let's find out what makes resiliant people resilient. Let's find out what makes "emotionally mature" people (Dr. William Menninger's term) emotionally mature. Let's find out what makes "fully functioning" people (Dr. Carl Rogers' term) fully functioning.

And so, an entire field of psychology has committed itself to that end - Positive Psychology.