About Us

My Senior Colleagues and Colleagues,

I welcome you all to this maiden meeting of Positive Psychology Association of Nigeria (PoPAN).

I am glad that it is dream come through and I am most delighted that 41 of us are part of this historic occasion.

Martin E.P. Seligman introduced and popularize positive psychology. Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play. The science of positive psychology operates on three different levels – the subjective level, the individual level and the group level.

As we all know, psychology is very broad and wide. This is majorly because, the evolving man is dynamic and complex. Traditionally, several branches of psychology addresses metapathologies in humankind but positive psychology focuses more on how to enhance or foster metaneeds.

It is very sad to note that large crop of our graduates in Nigeria with background in Guidance and Counselling, Educational Psychology, Psychology and allied fields are not well equipped with relevant skills to function in public and private practice. This has damaged their self-esteem and career self-efficacy. The good news is, PoPAN recognizes the fact that as good as university degree is in Nigeria today, it has its limits. PoPAN is here to retrain and instill professionalism, to rebuild confidence and activate mentorship among behaviour change experts for optimal performance.

We all belong to other professional bodies such as Nigerian Psychological Society, Counselling Association of Nigeria, Nigerian Society for Educational Psychologists, Nigerian Association of Clinical Psychologists among others. PoPAN is different and unique. Positive psychology has tremendous advantage for humanity. In near future, once we had official registration completed as an association, Associate, Affiliate, Fellow membership courses, examinations and licensure would be introduced for POPAN membership. We will have annual of bi-annual conferences to advance principles of positive psychology. Also, members would be able to network and participate in various programmes and training of IPPA at heavily discounted rates. With the support of International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), some countries have started running B.Sc, M.Sc. and PhD Positive Psychology.

Let me end this speech with three of Seligman’s quotations.

“Authentic happiness derives from raising the bar for yourself, not rating yourself against others.”

 “Curing the negatives does not produce the positives.”
 “Pessimistic labels lead to passivity, whereas optimistic ones lead to attempts to change.”

 “The genius of evolution lies in the dynamic tension between optimism and pessimism continually correcting each other.”

Let join hands to build this Association. Let us own it. It belongs to all of us. I am just a midwife.