The Major Contribution aims to provide interrelated articles that examine how counseling psychology's past and the complex world we live and work in bear on our professional understanding of human strengths and positive life outcomes. In this article, the authors examine the historical underpinnings of the positive in psychology, analyze the focus on the positive in counseling psychology scholarship through the decades (via a content analysis), and review scholarship that has shaped the strength-based work of professionals throughout applied psychology. The content analysis of a random selection of 20% (N = 1,135) of the articles published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP), The Counseling Psychologist (TCP), the Journal of Career Assessment (JCA), and the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development (JMCD) revealed that about 29% have a positive focus. This article calls attention to the positive in counseling psychology, and the authors encourage its members to reaffirm its unique positive focus by focusing more on strength in practice and research. Downloaded from tinct streams of influence: (a) the vocational guidance initiative, (b) advances in psychometrics and psychological testing, and (c) the growth of the psychotherapy movement (Super, 1955;Watkins, 1983). During the field's transition from vocational guidance to counseling psychology, Super (1955) commented that counseling psychology's hallmark was its concern with "hygiology, with the normalities of even abnormal persons" (p. 5). Over the course of its development as a specialty, counseling psychology has held to a philosophical focus and a professional emphasis on identifying and developing personal and social resources and on helping individuals more effectively use these resources. "This emphasis, in contrast to a focus on weakness and pathology, has remained constant in the profession over the years and still underlies the work of counseling psychologists" (Fretz, 1985, p. 48). Perhaps more than any other factor, this enduring philosophy of counseling psychology-its deliberate focus on individual strengths and assets-has helped maintain and ensure its integrity and identification as a specialty within professional psychology. ) developed a process of focused, goal-oriented counseling to help college students with their needs-one that related measured traits and factors with students' educational and career aspirations. During the same time, Carl Rogers developed his phenomenological, client-centered approach to counseling, which helped direct the attention of the emerging specialty of counseling psychology from assessment and diagnosis to one of counseling and psychotherapy, which Rogers viewed as facilitating the unfolding of natural, positive human tendencies toward enhanced development and self-actualization. Rogers's view of the development of persons and of the role of counseling and psychotherapy was strikingly different from those characterizing clinical psychology at the time, attending to the facilitation of human develo...

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It is not enough to know how man reacts: we must know how he feels, how he sees his world, . . . why he lives, what he fears, for what he would be willing to die. Such questions of existence must be put to man directly.-Gordon Allport (quoted in Severin, 1965, p. 42).Social scientists have devised many tools to tap people's perceptions of their existence-their subjective view of their life experience. From this, two general lines of well-being research have evolved. Evaluations of the degree of positive feelings (e.g., happiness) experienced and of perceptions (e.g., satisfaction) of one's life overall constitute the first line of research, the examination of emotional well-being

This article provides an integrated review of positive psychological assessment and conceptualization methods and tools currently available to practitioners within the framework of a new assessment model-the Comprehensive Model of Positive Psychological Assessment. Cultural considerations stemming from the Culturally Appropriate Assessment Model were incorporated into the Practice Model of Positive Psychological Assessment to provide a comprehensive positive psychological assessment model. Furthermore, practice recommendations grounded in the positive psychological literature are provided to enhance the implementation of this model at various assessment stages. In addition, specific tools are provided to fill the gaps within the literature and guide clinicians in the formulation of a balanced assessment and conceptualization, including the Comprehensive Model of Positive Psychological Assessment Intake-Adult and Child/ Adolescent Forms, the Comprehensive Model of Positive Psychological Assessment Semistructured Clinical Interview, the Comprehensive Model

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