Toxic Positivity and Its Role among Young Adult Workers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/jcshd.6437.2024Keywords:
toxic positivity, challenges, risk factors, coping strategies, young adult workersAbstract
The pandemic-fuelled rise of the “Good vibes only” has raised concerns about toxic positivity, fostering unrealistic expectations of constant happiness. This qualitative study explored the role of toxic positivity among young adult workers in Malaysia. Six Malaysian participants, aged 18 to 25 years old, were purposefully selected for a semi-structured interview to explore the challenges, risk factors, and coping strategies related to toxic positivity encounters. Three themes and seven subthemes were identified using Thematic Analysis. The study findings underscored the importance of recognising toxic positivity as a critical issue that affects the emotional well-being of young adult workers. Future research is recommended to explore similar themes in different study contexts, incorporating multiple perspectives to gain deeper insight into the issue.
References
Achmad, Z. A., Lubna, P. N. C. (2023). Toxic positivity content uploads on Instagram in encouraging the growth of hustle culture Gen Z. Journal of Students Academic Research, 8(1), 72-89. https://doi.org/10.35457/josar.v9i1.2730.
American Psychiatrist Association. (n.d.). Literature review: Young adult worker mental health. https://workplacementalhealth.org/employer-resources/guides-and-toolkits/literature-review-young-adult-worker-mental-health
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
Brito, R. (2021). Personality divide: The truth about extroverts and introverts. https://greatist.com/grow/extrovert-vs-introvert
Böckler, A., Herrmann, L., Trautwein, F. M. (2017). Know thy selves: Learning to understand oneself increases the ability to understand others. Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, 1, 197–209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-017-0023-6
Castro, F., Gatus, S. L., Guerra, L. D. (2021). The influence of toxic positivity on the purpose in life and environmental mastery of laid-off young adult workers during the pandemic. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Data_Integrity_Notice.cfm?abid=4094808
College of Cognitive Behavioural Therapies. (2024). Unhappiness is normal: Why the pursuit of happiness can make us sad? https://www.cbttherapies.org.uk/2022/06/16/unhappiness-is-normal-why-the-pursuit-of-happiness-can-make-us-sad/
Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Sage Publications, Inc.
Davis, T. (2022). Toxic positivity: Definition, research & examples. Berkeley wellbeing. https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/toxic-positivity.html
Dejonckheere, E., Rhee, J. J., Baguma, P. K. (2022). Perceiving societal pressure to be happy is linked to poor well-being, especially in happy nations. Scientific Reports, 12(1514). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04262-z
Devi, R. (2020). The introverts trap Toxic positivity. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introverts- trap-toxic-positivity-romica-devi-prasad/
Elkfrawy, E., Ibrahim, S. (2021). Social support and its relations with positive thinking of mothers with autistic children. Egyptian Journal of Social Work, 11(1), 171–188. https://doi.org/10.21608/ejsw.2020.44949.1111
Ellis, A. (2002). Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy, 2, 483-487
Feltner, M. E. (2023). Toxic positivity and perceptions of mental health. Senior Theses, 607, 1-37.
Hartanto, A., Kasturiratna, K. T. A. S., Soh, X. C. (2022). Cultivating positivity to achieve a resilient society: A critical narrative review from psychological perspectives. Knowledge, 2, 443-451. https://doi.org/10.3390/knowledge2030026
Javier, N. (2021). Decoding “positivity” and its dreaded cousin “toxic positivity”. The Bridge Chronicle. https://www.thebridgechronicle.com/lifestyle/self-optimisation/decoding-positivity-and-its-deaded-cousin-toxic-positivity
Jindal, M., Gupta, A., Sharma, K., Gill, E. (2022). Study of toxic positivity among teenagers and its relationship with personality. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Educational Research, 11(3), 35–41.
Kojongian, M. G. R., Wibowo, D. H. (2021). Toxic positivity: Sisi lain dari konsep untuk selalu positif dalam segala kondisi. Psychopreneur Journal, 6(1), 10-25.
Lazarsfeld, P.F. (1972). Qualitative analysis: Historical and critical essays. Allyn & Bacon.
Lee, J. E., Goh, M. L., & Yeo, S. F. (2023). Mental health awareness of secondary school students: Mediating roles of knowledge on mental health, knowledge on professional help, and attitude towards mental health. Heliyon, 9(3), e14512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14512
Pangestu, Y. P. D. A., Aliifah, J., Jati, P., Amalia, C., & Situmorang, D. D. B. (2022). Analysis of Generation’s Viewpoint from Faith-based Educational Institutions on the Toxic Positivity Phenomena: How and Why? Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling, 76(2), 97–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/15423050221090861
Pastwa-Wojciechowska, B., Grzegorzewska, I., Wojciechowska, M. (2021). The role of religious values and beliefs in shaping mental health and disorders. Religions, 12, 840. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12100840
Putra, P. R., Ramadhanti, A., Rahajeng, A. S., Fadil, A., Salsyabila, N. (2023). Toxic positivity in adolescents: An attitude of always being positive in every situation. Journal of Psychology and Instruction, 7(1), 11-21.
Quintero, S., & Long, J. (2019). Toxic positivity: The dark side of positive vibes. The Psychology Group. https://thepsychologygroup.com/toxic-positivity/
Quinto, K. L., Villarez, A., Bermejo, M., Eleazar, E. (2021). Toxic positivity and its role on college students’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic [Bachelor’s thesis, Rizal Technological University].https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357157451_Toxic_Positivity_and_Its_Role_on_College_Students'_Mental_Health_during_the_COVID-19_Pandemic
Seligman, M. E. P. (2019). Positive psychology: A personal history. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 15, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050718-095653
Thomas, C., Zolkoski, S. (2020). Preventing stress among undergraduate learners: The importance of emotional intelligence, resilience, and emotion regulation. Frontier in Education, 5(94). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00094
Travers, M. (2021). Why “Toxic Positivity” is a dangerous idea? Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-instincts/202102/why-toxic-positivity-is dangerous-idea
Upadhyay, I. S., Srivatsa, K. A., Mamidi, R. (2022). Towards toxic positivity detection. Proceedings of the Tenth International Workshop on Natural Language Processing for Social Media (SocialNLP, 2022), pp. 64 – 71.
Van Zyl, L. E., Gaffaney, J., Van der Vaart, L., Dik, B. J., & Donaldson, S. I. (2023). The critiques and criticisms of positive psychology: A systematic review. Journal of Positive Psychology, 19, 206–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2023.2178956
Vishkin, A., Ben-Nun Bloom, P., Schwartz, S. H., Solak, N., & Tamir, M. (2019). Religiosity and emotion regulation. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 50(9), 1050–1074. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022119880341
Wibowo, R. S. (2020). The answers are not always optimism: Overcoming toxic positivity during the COVID-19 outbreak. National Essay Competition “EVAG2020”.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
4) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
5) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.