LEARNED OPTIMISM
How to Change Your Mind and Your Life (with a new Preface)
Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D.
Vintage Books, 2006
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES The reader will be able to:
• Describe optimistic and pessimistic explanatory styles
• Be familiar with exercises to increase optimism
• Review evidence that optimism is important in overcoming defeat, promoting achievement, maintaining or improving health, and improving quality of life
• Determine the degree of negative and positive explanatory style
• Develop techniques to change negative styles into positive ones
Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., is Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He has authored many books, including Flourish, The Optimistic Child, and Authentic Happiness.
Known as the father of the new science of positive psychology, Martin E.P. Seligman draws on more than twenty years of clinical research to demonstrate how optimism enchances the quality of life, and how anyone can learn to practice it. Offering many simple techniques, Dr. Seligman explains how to break an "I--give-up" habit, develop a more constructive explanatory style for interpreting your behavior, and experience the benefits of a more positive interior dialogue. These skills can help break up depression, boost your immune system, better develop your potential, and make you happier.
With generous additional advice on how to encourage optimistic behavior at school, at work and in children, "Learned Optimism" is both profound and practical-and valuable for every phase of life.
Editorial Reviews
Vaulted me out of my funk. . . . So, fellow moderate pessimists, go buy this book. --The New York Times Book Review
One of the most important books of the century--an absolute must-read for all persons interested in genuinely understanding and helping our fellow human beings. --Dr. Robert H. Schuller, author of Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do
Dr. Seligman makes an optimistic case for optimism: you can learn it, you can measure it, you can teach it, and you will be healthier and happier for it. --Dr. Aaron T. Beck, author of Love is Never Enough
A system for reforming the most entrenched pessimist. --Philadelphia Daily News