Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman

Learned Optimism

Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman explains a new science of Constructive Psychology that he refers to as flexible optimism. Seligman addresses to his readers that optimistic thinking can lead to a more productive, healthier, and happier life. As well underlines how optimist Learned Optimism

Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman explains a new science of Constructive Psychology that he refers to as flexible optimism. Seligman addresses to his readers that optimistic thinking can lead to a more productive, healthier, and happier life. As well underlines how optimistic thinking can destroy depression out of your life. Seligman emphasizes that pessimistic thoughts, believes, opinions, and feelings are the essential elements that cause depression. He explains that there are three fundamental forces that cause depression and make it an epidemic that sweeps America. First is biological disorder second is individual failure and the third and the biggest reason why depression affects so many lives is because of their self-esteem movement affecting numerous people everyday.

When Seligman graduated from Princeton University with bachelor's degree he was keen young man who wanted a deeper understanding of psychology and learned helplessness. Seligman had conducted an experiment on his own where he did an experiments with several dogs where some undergone escapable shock in containers, some suffered inescapable shock, while others suffered no shocks at all. He realized that the dogs who suffered inescapable shock they cannot control or stop these dogs will learn helplessness. However a dog that had escapable shock that had full control of their shocks and had the knowledge to stop these shocks where essentially immunized from helplessness. When dogs that agonized through inescapable shock and have learned helplessness was given an escapable shock where all they had to do to stop the shock was jump over a barrier the dogs layer motionless taking the shock. They did this because they believed that nothing they did mattered and nothing they did would stop the shock. The dogs that were immunized against helplessness when shocked were energetic and eager to stop the shock and had no problem to cross the barrier and to stop the shock.

With the assistance of Psychiatrist John Teasdale, Seligman elucidates whether or not someone is susceptible towards helplessness based on their explanatory style. Explanatory style has three components and is one of the fundamental reasons why depression affects so many people. Explanatory style is the way a certain person explains a positive or negative event or experience to him or herself. Permanence, pervasiveness, and personalization are the components of explanatory style. Permanence questions whether you consider negative events permanent or temporary and would you characterize positive events as permanent or temporary. Seligman addresses that in permanence everyone that experience a failure will have at the very least a moment of helplessness. Permanence sees how fast you recover from these failures. Different people recover at different rates. Some recover promptly however some require a lengthy time to recover and in some extreme cases they may never recover. In order to stop depressive thoughts be a part of your life you have to believe that bad events are temporary and that good events are permanent. Pessimistic way of thinking will translate good events as temporary eventually making a person give up after they succeed and it will translate bad events as permanent causing someone never to recover from failure and fall into depression. Pervasiveness questions whether you consider negative and positive events as universal or specific. Pessimists tend to make universal explanations for events usually being negative. Doing this makes them relinquish on everything when a failure only strikes in one extent while optimists make specific explanations have a possibility of facing helplessness in that one area, in any other area they will feel no helplessness whatsoever in any other area present. The last element of explanatory style is personalization. Pessimistic way of thinking externalizes good events and internalizes bad events on themselves causing very low self-esteem and depression. In order to truly have learned optimism must encounter situations with Adversity, Belief, Consequences, Disputation, and Energized. Doing this will translate good events as permanent causing them to try even harder for even more success and it will translate bad events as temporary to help them quickly recover from failure and avoid depression. It will give specific explanations for positive and negative situations and it will internalize good events on themselves and externalizes bad events giving high self-esteem and eliminating depression from their lives.

Depression studies have found that woman are about twice as likely to suffer depression than men are and depression studies have also found that depression strikes at an earlier age. People born towards the end of the end of the century are at much more vulnerable to depression than people who were born in the beginning of the twentieth century. Children are much more optimistic but by the time puberty strikes their level of optimism will no longer be the same. Several factors are involved to predict whether or not a child will become optimistic. Their parent's explanatory style, what they are told when they fail, painful events of suffering and loss.

Seligman highlights three very vital qualifications needed to be hired at any workplace in order to create a successful business. There must be aptitude, motivation, and optimism in every employee to truly maximize a business' performance. Seligman worked with an insurance company Met Life testing their employees on their optimism. He discovered that the most optimistic employees tended to sell the most insurance while the most pessimistic employees tended to sell the least amount of insurance causing many to quit. Soon Met Life required all people that request a job for their company to take Seligman's optimistic test. They accepted the most optimistic people and as a result Met Life transformed to be one of the premier insurance companies the nation has to offer. There was also something else that Seligman discovered. When the CEO of Met Life wanted the executive officials who were pessimistic to be changed into optimists Seligman something else. What Seligman discovered is that pessimistic ways do have positive outcomes and those reasons are why pessimism survived evolution. Pessimistic have a stronger grasp of reality and have a realistic way of thinking which is especially important in an executive branch.

Optimistic thinking has shown to be essential to be successful in all aspects of all life no matter what you do for a living and no matter