Poster Presentation International Positive Psychology Association 8th IPPA World Congress 2023

Think like a superhero (#617)

Luiza Belkova 1
  1. Joy of Life Coaching, Fife, WA, United States

Background

Think like a superhero is a workshop where the participants are asked to imagine that they are their favorite superhero from a movie or a computer game and helps them detach from the actual situation in their life and see the situation from a meta perspective and be creative in a safe environment when dealing with challenges. Hope intervention conducted with a group of students showed increase in measures of hope and inspired the Think like a superhero workshop. 

Aims

This workshop helps participants detach from everyday problems and get a "helicopter view" and exercise and strengthen their pathways thinking in a safe environment by imagining they are a superhero and can take on any challenge. This will strengthen their hope as well as build confidence in their ability to pursue the pathways and strengthen their agency.

Method

Using the Hope Mapping method the participant is asked to think of potential or actual obstacles and possible pathways of overcoming them when addressing daily challenges as if they were their favorite superhero. This allows them to detach from the situation and look at things with an outside perspective. It ignites creativity and encourages pathways thinking. Adult hope scale is used to measure hope pre and post intervention. 

Results

By detaching from the actual challenge and imagining they are a superhero, the participants are able to think more creatively and think of more various pathways to overcoming challenges and obstacles in their lives. Building pathways thinking will also increase their agency thinking and increase their hope and optimism for a better future and help deal with daily challenges in a healthier way. 

Conclusion

This workshop provides safe and playful way of exploring pathways to overcome daily challenges. It allows the participant to broaden their perspectives and also strengthen their hope for a better future when they see a number of possible pathways.  

  1. B. Feldman, David & Dreher, Diane. (2011). Can Hope be Changed in 90 Minutes? Testing the Efficacy of a Single-Session Goal-Pursuit Intervention for College Students. Journal of Happiness Studies. 13. 10.1007
  2. Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A., Irving, L. M., Sigmon, S. T., et al.(1991). The will and the ways: Development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 570-585.
  3. Snyder, C. R. (1994). The psychology of hope: You can get there from here. New York: Free Press.
  4. Snyder, C. R. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind. Psychological Inquiry, 13, 249-275.
  • Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Coaching, Creativity, Gamification