Martin Seligmon's Article Summary

Since I was young, I have always had an affinity of people watching, and trying to figure out what type of life they lived. Especially, what type of events would cause people to adopt a positive (happy) outlook in comparison to people that dwell on the negatives attributes? Growing up, my mother had a peculiar thought process that would always managed to lead to negative (not happy) thoughts. In the beginning, I too would follow similar thought process, but I quickly realized how exhausting it was to maintain. Before reading Shawn Achor’s book, I wanted to clear my mental database and allow for this new information to be absorbed into my life.

The world of science consistently generates new studies in various fields, yielding results that can revolutionize society and shine light on the world we know so very little about. However, it is easy to get lost in specific studies and view each one as its own, independent discovery. And while each experiment provides an important look into the complexities of this world, science is an amalgamation of many discoveries strung together in complex ways. This way, the merits of each study can interrelate in order to further understand something else. In the realm of positive psychology, it is important that a number of different scientific discoveries work together to explain an overarching topic. For example, two studies that are interrelated are Martin Seligman’s exploration of learned helplessness, and Roy Baumeister’s study on willpower depletion. Both are important in their own rights, but by comparing both Seligman and Baumeister’s experiments, scientists can discuss the overarching concept of willpower as a depletable resource.

Positive psychology serves as a preemptive strategy, helps the development of positive societal institutions, and makes students more successful in life on many levels, both personal and societal. Finally, Seligman would argue that positive education has more of a lasting impact by the way of and constructive changes in student behavior.

In a true clinical setting, a patient is free to express feelings and experiences to facilitate self-healing through positive intervention techniques. With the data available on positive psychology, many clinicians may be tempted to utilize a particular positive intervention with the belief it will make a tremendous impact on the patient. However, this may be unhealthy for the patient who may need to experience negative or difficult emotion to work through the issue they are dealing with. Nonetheless, positive therapy has a definitive useful role in psychological treatment and “adds a deeper dimension to the treatment setting” (p. 404). Therapists who use this type of therapy, however, should remember not to “become a slave to the ‘tyrannies of optimism’” (Seligman, 1990, p. 292; as cited in La Torre, p. 404).

positive psychology” is the human potential that lead individuals to become happier by discovering and promoting the factors of happiness.

Positive psychology, which has emerged recently, is the scientific study of human thriving. Psychology traditionally focuses on dysfunction—on people with mental illness or other psychological problems and how to treat them. Positive psychology, by contrast, is a relatively new field that examines how ordinary people can become happier and more fulfilled. In his 1998 APA presidential address, Seligman, the founder of positive psychology, argued that psychology had become too focused on curing mental illness according to a disease model, and that, for all intents and purposes, it had become a “victimology” (Seligman, 1998). What was needed, he averred, was a new “science of human strengths,” a positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

Dr. Martin Seligman is the founder and leading authority in the field of Positive Psychology. Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living. Dr. Seligman’s work primarily focusses on Positive Psychology, resilience, learned helplessness, depression, optimism, and pessimism. He is also listed as being a leader in interventions that prevent depression, as well as build strengths and well-being. Dr. Seligman is also from my hometown, Albany, New York.

It is argued that the field of positive psychology is relatively new and therefore long term evaluation of applications is not available. Critics suggest that its potential is exaggerated, limiting its relevance in today’s society. However, Seligman argued that psychology was too heavily focused on treating mental illness rather than promoting mental health, and aimed to redress the balance between problem behaviour and mental illness. Using the positive approach, he aimed to use a variety of techniques such as meditation and mindfulness to inoculate individuals against future mental and physical ill health. He argued that positive psychology provides tools which can promote psychological well being and allow the human race to adapt to a range of significant economic, environmental and social challenges. Seligman provided some evidence to support his claims of success. 21 replications of Seligman's schools program found evidence of decreased anxiety and depression in participants.

In Martin Seligman’s TED talk, he explains the values of positive psychology’s impact on creating happier lives. In 2000, Martin Seligman created a new field of psychology called Positive Psychology. This field of positive psychology is the study of positive traits and behaviors that can contribute to a positive “happier” life. In Seligman’s TED talk, The New Positive Era of Psychology, he categorizes positive lives into three categories. The Pleasant life, the life of engagement, and the meaningful life. But before he begins his speech, he explains the negative actions taken by psychology when treating people.

Positive psychology is concerned with three issues: positive emotions, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. The first aspect “positive emotions” examines contentment in terms of the past present and future (Seligman, 2007). The second aspect, “positive individual,” identifies one’s virtues and strengths. Furthermore, where positive individual looks at the person, “positive institution examines the community (p. 75). In terms of happiness, this is considered an emotional state and is achieved when balance occurs between the stresses of life and the person’s ability to let the things that are bogging him or her down. It is interesting to note that because of the large amount of

Positive psychology is a growing field in psychology that focuses on understanding and encouraging personal growth and potential (Kramer, Bernstein, & Phares, 2014). The article, “Why Happiness Isn’t Always Good: Asians vs Americans” published by Time Magazine and written by John Cloud looks at a study done by Janxin Leu, that examines positive emotions. The focus on this paper is to look at how research studies are portrayed in the public sphere, specifically looking at Cloud’s article.

Miller and Duncan (2015), define positive psychology interventions (PPIs) as “tools which have been created to increase happiness or well-being in individuals”

Even many of those well versed in the field of psychology may know very little about the idea and subject of positive psychology. It almost seems as though so much attention and time is focused on human emotional, mental, and overall psychological ailments and woes that one easily forgets that there is a flipside to this. Positive psychology aims to target not the negative feelings or even the circumstantial triggers that set off psychological hot button issues like depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsion.

We began this course with the question “What is happiness? and Can we all achieve authentic Happiness? In our life we are taught many things, but we are not taught how to achieve our own happiness. Over the last five weeks we truly learned what happiness is and I believe we all can achieve authentic happiness in our life. In Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman uses happiness and well being as the terms to describe the goals of Positive Psychology. The desired outcome of Positive Psychology is happiness and well being. We learned from this course how to embrace both our positive feelings and activities to achieve authentic Happiness.

According to World Health Organization (WHO)’s definition, health is a state of complete physical, psychological well-being, optimal psychological functioning and social well-being. And health is “not merely the absence of diseases or infirmity” (WHO, 2000). Contrary to typical understanding of the psychology fields, positive psychology is a science of positive subjective experiences and positive traits, positive institution that promise to improve the quality of life and prevent pathologies (Csikszentmihalyi and Seligman, 2000). There are 3 levels of analysis for positive psychology; subjective level refers to the subjective experiences such as well-being, contentment, and