Child, Adolescent and Family Psychology
THE OPTIMISTIC CHILD
A Proven Program to Safeguard Children Against Depression and Build a Lifelong Resilience
Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D.
Houghton Mifflin, 2007
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES The reader will be able to:
• Describe a program to prevent depression in children
• Describe the link between pessimism and depression
• Describe how to teach children the skills of optimism, achieving more and improving their physical health
• Teach children how to create positive strength and a positive future-mindedness
• Describe the foundation of success and vitality
• Describe the development of mastery in the infant or child
• Describe the Children’s Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ)
• Recognize the traits of a developing pessimist
• Describe the ABC Cognitive Therapy Model
Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., is Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He has authored many books, including Flourish, Learned Optimism, and Authentic Happiness.
In "The Optimistic Child," Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman offers parents, teachers, and coaches a well-validated program to prevent depression in children. In a thirty-year study, Seligman and his colleagues discovered the link between pessimism -- dwelling on the most catastrophic cause of any setback -- and depression. Seligman shows adults how to teach children the skills of optimism that can help them combat depression, achieve more on the playing field and at school, and improve their physical health. As Seligman states in his new afterword for this edition, "Teaching children optimism is more, I realized, than just correcting pessimism . . . It is the creation of a positive strength, a sunny but solid future-mindedness that can be deployed throughout life -- not only to fight depression and to come back from failure, but also to be the foundation of success and vitality."
Editorial Reviews
The Optimistic Child could be the most significant parenting book in years.--Dallas Morning News
In clear, concise prose peppered with anecdotes, dialogues, cartoons and exercises, Seligman offers a concrete plan of action based on techniques of self-evaluation and social interaction...this encouraging volume moves beyond popular self-help tomes and ideology to offer hope and practical suggestions; it will be of great value to teachers as well [as parents]. --Publishers Weekly