Pozitivna tehnologija

Abstract

Positive psychology is a scientific discipline within psychology that is directed towards factors necessary for achieving optimal functioning and development of an individual and community. It developed as a rebellion against prior periods within psychology which were aimed at unpleasant and pathological factors of human actions and experiencing. With technological development, a need for such an area within psychology appeared which would study psychological phenomena developed as a result of an interaction between human and technology activity. That type of area is called cyberpsychology. It covers a wide range of interests (e.g. internet psychology, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, intelligence amplification, etc.) and has a numerous directions, but we have decided to look back on two of them, cybertherapy and positive technology. Both fields use the same methods to some extent but they are dedicated to different aspects of human functioning. Cybertherapy concentrates on solving or lessening the existing problems (e.g. therapeutic work with patients in a psychiatric hospital) while positive technology like positive psychology concentrates on encouraging, developing and growth of specific aspects of human functioning with the help of technology. Positive technology has three fields of study which differ depending on what they study including different interests of human functioning and experiencing, so we have hedonic level, eudaimonic level, social and interpersonal level.