Positive Psychology
as a Tool for Developing Healthy Musicianship
What it is, what it looks like in education, and how it applies to music
Feel free to start where you need
What is Positive Psychology?
For so long, the field of psychology was dedicated to the understanding and reduction of human suffering. Psychologist Martin Seligman wanted to explore the opposite of that: the understanding and addition of human enjoyment and life satisfaction. A large focus of positive psychology is how external experiences impact one’s personal goals and values, and vice versa. Rather than focusing on the idea of “happiness” (since happiness is different for everyone) positive psychology uses the terms well-being and “flourishing.”
When Seligman became the President of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1998, he popularized positive psychology by making it the theme of his presidency. The field focuses on the proactive development of characteristics necessary to achieve happiness, rather than the retroactive deconstruction of negative characteristics and habits. A large focus of positive psychology is the relationship between external experiences and one’s goals and values. This article explores the basics of the field of positive psychology and ways those principles may be helpful in music and music education.*
Definitions
Positive Psychology: a field of psychology founded by Martin Seligman that focuses on the conditions and processes that contribute to wellbeing, fulfillment, hope, and general happiness
Emotional Intelligence: the ability to recognize, understand, and manage your own emotions and the emotions of people around you
Flourishing: thriving in life through the dimensions of the PERMA model of well-being; used in the field of positive psychology instead of “happiness”
Motivation: the act or process of having a reason for doing something (as a verb); the state of being eager to work or act on something (as a noun)
PERMA Model of Well-Being: a model introduced by Martin Seligman to measure well-being. The model defines terms of well-being as:
Positive emotion
Engagement
Relationships
Meaning
Accomplishment
Resilience: the ability to thrive or adapt to adversity
Self-Efficacy: one’s personal belief of their ability and capacity to be successful at a particular task
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): the way children acquire social and emotional skills such as managing large emotions, making decisions responsibly, and managing stress. Generally includes five main skills:
Self-awareness
Social awareness
Responsible decision-making
Self-management
Relationship skills
Positive Psychology
in Education Settings
Many educational programs rooted in positive psychology that have been studied in published research apply principles in the form of activities, rather than solid curriculum changes. Several principles often mentioned in this research include resilience, autonomy, conflict management, and empathy. While these programs still focus on learning subjects such as math or music, there is opportunity to intentionally model, and help develop, emotional intelligence in students.
Traditional classrooms are the most commonly studied settings for positive psychology, but music education settings are becoming more frequently studied. These programs are often aimed at young children and use music and music intelligence to develop and enhance emotional intelligence (or the ability to manage and understand one’s emotions). Studies have supported the idea that implementing principles of positive psychology into their curriculum positively impacts a student’s belief that they can succeed at a task (or their self-efficacy), as well as improves their ability to rely on themselves and act independently.
Positive Psychology
For Musicians
The research done in traditional educational settings can arguably be transferred (quite easily) to group music learning settings such as group classes or ensemble rehearsals, but is trickier and less commonly transferred to the individual learning settings such as private music lessons or personal practice sessions. Understandably, because of the unique nature of individual music learning, more research must be done to deeply understand how applications of positive psychology may change in these settings. Concepts can still be implemented and modeled by the teacher (or the learner, in the case of individual practice), but understanding the efficacy of these changes requires more data than what can be provided subjectively.
Understanding the use of positive psychology principles is vital as a musician to understanding how to improve and maintain a positive relationship with music and your instrument. For example, the characteristics of the PERMA model (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement) can be directly linked to the negative characterizations of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feeling like you’re lacking personal accomplishment).
Additionally, gaining and understanding of SEL skills like social awareness, conflict-resolution, and self-management allows you a chance to implement them in your practice room and in social music-making settings such as rehearsals and lessons. All of these skills are tied to one’s self-efficacy of certain tasks. Self-efficacy can impact the types of opportunities or activities you engage in throughout your career, and having a generally higher self-efficacy leads to the engagement in more activities and expansion of knowledge and experience. Aside from focusing on self-efficacy, these skills also help create a more enjoyable experience while playing and learning an instrument and may be critical to setting up a life full of healthy music-making.
Additional Reading and Material
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“If positive psychology teaches us anything, it is that all of us are a mixture of strengths and weaknesses. No one has it all, and no one lacks it all.”
—Christopher PetersonDon’t Feel Like Reading?
Reading to learn is not for everyone and sometimes it is difficult to put the effort and energy into reading an article. Instead, here is a short video that goes over the topics discussed in this article.
*Positive psychology has many criticisms including poor replicability, issues with measurement and methodology, and capitalistic motives. It is difficult to replicate and measure the effects of positive psychology applications due to the subjectivity of wellbeing and this is a main criticism of the field. However, the general themes and ideas of positive psychology are valuable to know, understand, and implement into one’s musical endeavors.
References
Ackerman, C. E. (2025, July 7). What is Flourishing in Positive Psychology? PositivePsychology.Com. https://positivepsychology.com/flourishing/
Artino Jr., A. R. (2012). Academic self-efficacy: From educational theory to instructional practice. Perspectives on Medical Education, 1(2), 76–85. https://doi.org/10.1007/S40037-012-0012-5
Baylis, N. (2004). Teaching Positive Psychology. In P. A. Linley & S. Joseph (Eds.), Positive Psychology in Practice (pp. 210–217). John Wiley & Sons.
Linley, P. A., Joseph, S., Harrington, S., & Wood, A. M. (2006). Positive psychology: Past, present, and (Possible) future. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760500372796
Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5
Souza, J. (n.d.). What Is Social and Emotional Learning? Child Mind Institute. Retrieved https://childmind.org/article/what-is-social-and-emotional-learning/
Van Zyl, L. E., Gaffaney, J., Van Der Vaart, L., Dik, B. J., & Donaldson, S. I. (2024). The critiques and criticisms of positive psychology: A systematic review. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 19(2), 206–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2023.2178956
What is emotional intelligence and how does it apply to the workplace? (n.d.). Mental Health America. Retrieved April 26, 2026, from https://mhanational.org/resources/what-is-emotional-intelligence-and-how-does-it-apply-to-the-workplace/