ABSTRACT

A person's healthy, physical and mental attributes can become a basis for alleviating difficulties as well as providing a source of gratification and enrichment of life. Special care must be taken to avoid overemphasis on the pathologic that leaves one inadequately sensitized to stabilizing and maturity inducing factors. Indeed, rehabilitation psychology's positive perspectives on both congenital and acquired disability have recently been codified. These foundational principles are designed to help professionals and laypersons better understand the experience of disability and how to meaningfully engage with people with disabilities. This chapter outlines positive psychology's three levels of analysis in terms of disability and rehabilitation. It discusses research related to each level and focuses on the importance of intentional activities. Resilience, which is an increasingly popular trait within positive psychology (and the discipline more generally) and within rehabilitation psychology, can also be seen as a psychosocial asset.