Martin Seligman on Positive psychology

Positive psychology, the study of optimal human functioning, is an attempt to respond to the systematic bias inherent in psychology's historical emphasis on mental illness rather than on mental wellness. Humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers developed theories along these lines, but without solid empirical support. The pioneering research of a new generation of psychologists has led to a renewed interest in this approach, providing a firm scientific foundation for the study of human happiness and optimal function, thus adding a positive side to the predominantly negative discipline of psychology.

Martin Seligman worked with Christopher Peterson to create the 'positive' counterpart to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). While the DSM focuses on what can go wrong, Character Strengths and Virtues looks at what can go right. In their research they looked across cultures and across millennia to distill a manageable list of virtues that have been highly valued from ancient China and India, through Greece and Rome, to contemporary Western cultures. Their list includes six character strengths: wisdom/knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Each of these has perhaps a half-dozen sub-entries - for instance, temperance includes forgiveness, humility, prudence, and self-regulation. One of their key points is that they do not believe that there is a hierarchy for the six virtues – no one is more fundamental than or a precursor to the others

Dr. Martin Seligman: Martin Seligman on Learned helplessness

Dr. Martin Seligman started to research about Learned helplessness at University of Pennsylvania in 1967, as an extension of his interest in depression, when almost by accident Martin Seligman and his colleagues discovered that the conditioning of dogs led to outcomes that were opposite to the predictions of the then leading psychological theory of B.F. Skinner's behaviorism,

Martin Seligman developed the theory further, finding learned helplessness to be a psychological condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to act or behave helplessly in a particular situation - usually after experiencing some inability to avoid an adverse situation - even when it actually has the power to change its unpleasant or even harmful circumstance. Seligman saw a similarity with severely depressed patients, and argued that clinical depression and related mental illnesses result in part from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.




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Dr. Martin Seligman: Martin Seligman positive psychology, Martin Seligman on authentic happiness and learned optimism

Dr. Martin Seligman together with Christopher Peterson is one of the founders of positive psychology. Martin Seligman conducted several studies on authentic happiness and learned optimism. Martin E. P. Seligman is the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Seligman is the Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Psychology. Previously, he was the Director of the Clinical Training Program in the department, and was elected President of the American Psychological Association by the widest margin in its history. Founding editor-in-chief of Prevention and Treatment Magazine, and is on the board of advisers of Parents. Seligman has written about positive psychology topics such as The Optimistic Child, Child's Play, Learned Optimism, and, in 2002, Authentic Happiness.

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Martin Seligman Video: Martin Seligman talks about positive psychology

 

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