Validating the positivity projective technique

• Main Author: Meiring, Elsmie
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Positive psychology; Projective techniques; Mind and body; Embodiment theories; Positivity
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4909

M. Comm. === The assessment and measurement of positive psychology have been largely survey driven, given the way in which this domain’s focus areas have been operationalised. The disadvantage of using surveys in the measurement of positive psychology is that measurement is to an extent ‘disembodied’ in this approach, meaning that positive psychology is reduced to a mental activity – something which implies the negation of the physical. The purpose of the study was therefore to explore to what extent an alternative instrument, the Positivity Projective Technique (PPT), based on embodiment theory, serves as a valid projective technique for eliciting positivity. Data were collected by means of a sentence completion technique (SCT) whereafter it was quantitatively (to a limited extent) and qualitatively analysed by means of a content analysis. The results were similar to, but greater in number than, the variables proposed by formal theories/models of positivity. Given the results, the PPT seems to be a valid projective technique of positivity and may be applied for positive developmental purposes within individual, organisational and consumer contexts.