积极心理学在旅游学研究中的应用

积极心理学是心理学研究的一个新思潮。它关注人类的积极品质,探索人类的美德,主张用开放的、欣赏的眼光去看待人类的潜能、动机和能力等。积极心理学不仅契合社会发展背景,而且迎合民众追求幸福的心理,因此其在学术研究和普通民众中的影响力日渐增加。在澳大利亚旅游心理学家菲利普·皮尔斯等(Philip Pearce,et al.)的引荐下,旅游学,一门致力于提升个人和社会的和谐发展与幸福指数的学科,也开始关注积极心理学的应用。文章首先阐述积极心理学的基本主张,注重条理化归纳,然后对积极心理学与旅游学的融合研究做重点述评,注重客观的应用性拓展研究介绍,最后结合国内外的研究现状和国内实情,认为积极心理学在旅游学研究中具有广泛的应用和提升空间,创新的核心是融合中国传统与当代文化,做有深度的研究。结合国内外研究现状,文章提出三个创新提升方向:关注旅游社区的居民福祉,聚焦旅游与游客个人发展、社会和谐的关系,关注日益庞大的老年旅游群体。

Positive Psychology and its Applications in Tourism Studies

Positive psychology is an area of study that seeks to highlight the role of positive emotions, character strengths and positive institutions serving human happiness and well-being. There has been a rapid rise in the prominence of this area of psychology since the year 2000. Due to its consistency with the social economic concerns of the contemporary era, as well its accordance with ordinary people＇ s pursuit of happiness, positive psychology has been increasingly adopted by a range of disciplines. Its application in tourism, however, has been very slow. It was first introduced to tourism studies by Dr. Philip Pearee, a tourism psychologist based in Australia, in 2007. This article initially addressed the core ideas about positive psychology. Its background, its differences from the traditional clinical psychology, and its distinctive ways of doing research were reviewed. More importantly, the three core research areas, positive emotion, positive personality, and positive institutions were addressed in detail. The relationships among these three elements were also presented. In addition, positive interventions, which help to achieve the three afore-mentioned outcomes were considered. The highlight of this overview lies in the introduction of earlier positive psychology studies to tourism. The work of Pearce and his colleagues＇, especially Sebastian Filep, has been thoroughly reviewed and acknowledged. Their work, together with others, fully supports a consistency between the goals of tourism and the aims of positive psychology. For example, tourist behaviour as a case study, the benefits of travelling for individuals can fit in all the elements proposed by Martin Seligman＇ s （2011 PERMA model （e. g. pleasure, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement）. The existing literature which underpins positive psychology and its adoption in tourism is helpful m enriching our understanding. Research in this area, however, can be more insightful and useful if we take the Chinese context into consideration. A critical issue is to incorporate the Chinese cultural issues, especially the influential Confucianism, the Buddhism, as well as the modern communist cultures. These cultural contexts offer insights in exploring the distinctive characters of both Chinese tourist behaviour and the tourism community development. Considering the broader cultural issues and the research in and about China tourism, we proposed three areas for further research. Firstly, there is a paucity of positive psychology studies in tourism community research. As far as China is concerned, where many provinces and regions are using tourism as a tool to enhance local livelihoods, studies about how tourism can improve tourism community＇ s well- being are both timely and important. Secondly, the thinking in positive psychologies can also be applied to the extraordinarily growing Chinese tourist market and consumer studies. Examples include what issues will influence Chinese tourists＇ positive on-site emotional experiences, and what are the learning outcomes of travelling, especially those for non-traditional travel （e. g. independent overseas travel, gap year, couch surfing, and self-drive tourism）. The last but not the least point is concerned with the well- being of China＇ s aging population and its increasing mobility. The kinds of tourism styles and benefits for this group in China may be very different from snowbirds and grey nomads in the western world. Research about how travel and serious leisure contribute to tourism communities and their own well-being is of particular help to both the policy makers and tourism industry in China.