A brief introduction to positive psychology

1. Martin Seligman - Positive Psychology
“Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D., works on positive psychology, learned
helplessness, depression, and on optimism and pessimism.
Seligman's foundational experiments and theory of "learned
helplessness" began at University of Pennsylvania in 1967, as an
extension of his interest in depression. “
http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/bio.htm

2. MENTAL ILL HEALTH
• “The DSM-IV is a categorical classification system. The categories are prototypes,
and a patient with a close approximation to the prototype is said to have that
disorder.
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published by
the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard
criteria for the classification of mental disorders.
• It is used in the United States of America and in varying degrees around the world,
by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, health insurance
companies, pharmaceutical companies, and policy makers.
• The DSM is a legitimating document and provides legal, medical, and ethical
justification for physicians to diagnose and treat, judges to incarcerate and excuse,
insurance companies to pay.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-IV#DSM-IV_.281994.29

3. MENTAL WELL BEING &
FLOURISHING
“Seligman worked with Christopher Peterson to create what they
describe as a 'positive' counterpart to the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
While the DSM focuses on what can go wrong, Character Strengths
and Virtues is designed to look at what can go right”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Seligman

4. The practice of Positive Psychology “will make the world a happier
place, in a way that parallels clinical psychologists having made the
world a less unhappy place.”
The reseearch of positive psychology has found that the good life
consists of five elements:
• P(ositive) emotion - tunable by writing down, every day at bed
time, three things that went well, and why
• E(ngagement) - tunable by preferentially using one's highest
strengths to perform the tasks which one would perform anyway
• R(elationships) - tunable, but not in a way that can be explained
briefly
• M(eaning) - belonging to and serving something bigger than
one's self
• A(chievement) - determination is known to count for more than
IQ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Seligman

5. LEARN MORE
F i n d Yo u r S t r e n g t h s A p p l y Yo u r S t r e n g t h s
http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu http://www.actionforhappiness.org/media/52
/Default.aspx 486/340_ways_to_use_character_strengths.pd
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