Background research and analytical comparison:
The Reclaim project promotes a philosophy to encourage individual growth and personal development throughout the lifespan. The approach of reclamation aims to guide individuals towards greater self-awareness, happiness and success in life. The underlying philosophy expands upon early commercialised puband amateur folk theories for success. Inspiration was drawn from the 1994 publication “How to win in life by unlocking your super mind power” by Rocco Oppedisano. The directorial framework for the Reclaim project was based upon this work and is supplemented by parallel principles and exercises to improve mental well-being. Complimentary values and attitudes which expand upon the primitive works of Oppedisano have been derived from critical evaluation and analysis of contemporary psychological theory and research analysis.
Rocco Oppedisano wrote the book 'How to win in life' 4 years prior to the presidential address to the American Psychological Association of Martin E. P. Seligman, in 1998. Seligman urged psychologists to pay attention to psychology’s forgotten mission: to build human strength and to nurture genius.
Seligman embarked upon the mission of creating a new direction and a new focus for psychology. Seligman’s new discipline of positive psychology utilises psychological theory, research, and intervention techniques, to understand the positive, adaptive, creative, and emotionally fulfilling aspects of human behavior.
Kennon Sheldon and Laura King (2001) state in their introduction to a special edition of the American Psychologist on Positive Psychology, that positive psychology examines the potential for doing what is right, is accessible, with assistance, individuals can actualize in their lives. “Positive Psychology is the scientific study of what enables individuals and communities to thrive” (International Positive Psychology Association, 2009), according to the mission statement of the International Positive Psychology Association. In studying what people do well and how they manage to achieve it, Positive Psychology underpins what individuals do for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Positive psychology involves the scientific investigation of positive human functioning and flourishing, across multiple dimensions, that include biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and global aspects of life (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).