Acknowledging and Appreciating the Full Spectrum of the Human Condition: School Psychology’s (limited) Focus on Positive Psychological Functioning

This study is a content analysis of a random selection of 20% (N = 1, 168) of articles from School Psychology Quarterly, Psychology in the Schools, the Journal of School Psychology, and School Psychology Review. Across the four journals, 27% of the articles had a positive focus, and the percentage of articles focused on the positive has been between 25% and 33% for the past 50 years. Of the 76 positive constructs/processes we coded for, 51% were not discussed/operationalized. Furthermore, topics that have received much recent research attention with adults and much attention in the media were rarely studied, if at all. For example, happiness was the topic of four articles, optimism was the topic of three, and purpose/meaning was the topic of none. Although studying pathology is important, we urge school psychologists to devote more attention to making contributions to a science and practice that give equal attention to positive well-being. C © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.