Fortalezas, virtudes personales y salud mental. Diseño y aplicación de un programa preventivo

Abstract

The objective of this research was to design and implement a mental health prevention program aimed at the university population, in order to promote their subjective well-being through the reflective mobilization of personal strengths and virtues, such as wisdom, justice, love, courage , temperance and spirituality To this end, thirteen (13) sessions of encounter groups were structured, from the perspective of Positive Psychology (PP), which was attended by 35 students, most of them students from the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, with a minimum of thirty attendees. In order to monitor the process, notes were taken in each session of the main interventions of the participants, reflective documents were collected and three months later, an evaluation of the experience was collected The meeting groups facilitated the change in the participants through communication and sharing. The main results are found; most of the participants took up the contributions for their lives according to their difficulties, managed to do a process of introspection and review the aspects that can be taken into consideration to enrich those strengths they possess. Likewise, they were mobilized to evaluate aspects that they had not examined before, such as their attitude towards situations, decision making, self-knowledge and their potential. They reevaluated the importance that they assign to each space of their life, recognizing those that provide them well-being and mental health, that have strengths and virtues that help them to face their life, but that they need to be recognized in order to exploit them. However, it is necessary to promote reflection spaces that allow not only self-evaluation but also the incorporation and appropriation of the strengths reflected in everyday life.