MARTIN ELIAS PETE SELIGMAN

Devika Vijayan
Msc Clinical Psychology
 INTRODUCTION

• Martin Elias Pete Seligman, 78 years(1942)

• American psychologist
• Educator
• Author of self-help books
• Strong promoters within the scientific community of his theories
of positive psychology and of well being.
• The father of modern positive psychology.
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• 1967 Ph.D. in psychology from the university of Pennsylvania,
• In 1996, Seligman was elected president of APA.
• 31st most eminent psychologist.
• Influenced by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.
 Major Concepts
• Learned helplessness
• Positive psychology
• PERMA model
 Learned Helplessness
• Learned helplessness is a term specifying an organism learning to accept and
endure unpleasant stimuli, and unwilling to avoid them, even when it is avoidable.
• It occurs when an animal is repeatedly subjected to an aversive stimulus that it
cannot escape.
• The animal will stop trying to avoid the stimulus and behave as if it is utterly
helpless to change the situation.
• Even when opportunities to escape are presented, this learned helplessness will
prevent any action.
 Discovery of Learned Helplessness
• Martin Seligman and Steven F Maier.
• They had initially observed helpless behavior in dogs that were classically
conditioned to expect an electrical shock after hearing a tone.
• Later, the dogs were placed in a shuttle box that contained 2 chambers
separated by a low barrier.
• The floor was electrified on one side, and not on the other.
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• The dogs previously subjected to the CS made no attempts to escape, even
though avoiding the shock simply involved jumping over a small barrier.
• To investigate this phenomenon,
• In group one, the dogs were strapped into harnesses for a period of time and
then released.
• In group two, the dogs were placed in the same harnesses but were subjected
to electrical shocks that could be avoided by pressing a panel with their noses.
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• In group three, the dogs received the same shocks as those in the group two, except that those in
this group were not able to control the shock.
• For these dogs in the third group, the shocks seemed to be completely random and outside of
their control.
• Dogs were placed in a shuttle box:
1. Group one-quickly learned
2. Group two-quickly learned
3. Group three-made no attempts (due to previous experience, they had developed a
cognitive expectation that nothing they did would prevent or eliminate the shocks)
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• Learned helplessness has also been associated with several different
psychological disorders: depression, anxiety, phobias, shyness, and
loneliness.
• Learned helplessness often originates in childhood, and unreliable or
unresponsive caregivers can contribute to these feelings.
• Common symptoms of LH in children include: failure to ask for help,
frustration, giving up, lack of effort, low self esteem, passivity, poor
motivation and procrastination.
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• Many researchers believe that attribution or explanatory styles play a role
in determining how people are impacted by learned helplessness.
• This view suggests that an individuals characteristic style of explaining
events helps determine whether or not they will develop learned
helplessness.
 Overcoming learned helplessness
• Intervention occur during early onset.
• Therapy
• Cognitive behavior therapy
 Positive Psychology
• One of the newest branch
• Area of psychology that focuses on how to help human beings prosper and
lead healthy, happy lives.
• Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describe positive
psychology in the following way: “ We believe that a psychology of
positive human functioning will arise that achieves a scientific
understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in individuals,
families, and communities.
 Definition
• According to Seligman, scientific study of optimal human functioning
[that] aims to discover and promote the factors that allow individuals and
communities to thrive’.
• Positive psychology is a science of positive aspects of human life, such as 
happiness, well-being and flourishing.
 Three levels of positive psychology
• The subjective level includes the study of positive experiences such as joy, well-being,
satisfaction, contentment, happiness, optimism and flow. This level is about feeling good,
rather than doing good or being a good person.
• At the next level, the aim is to identify the constituents of the ‘good life’ and the personal
qualities that are necessary for being a ‘good person’, through studying
human strengths and virtues, future-mindedness, capacity for love, courage, perseverance,
forgiveness, originality, wisdom, interpersonal skills and giftedness.
• Finally, at the group or community level, the emphasis is on civic virtues, social
responsibilities, nurturance, altruism, civility, tolerance, work ethics, positive institutions
and other factors that contribute to the development of citizenship and communities.
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• Positive psychology is concerned with eudaimonia, "the good life"
or flourishing, living according to what holds the greatest value in life and
other such factors that contribute the most to a well-lived and fulfilling life.
• While not attempting a strict definition of the good life, positive
psychologists agree that one must live a happy, engaged, and meaningful life
in order to experience "the good life.
• Martin Seligman referred to "the good life" as "using your signature strengths
every day to produce authentic happiness and abundant gratification.
 Basic Concepts
• Related concepts are happiness, well-being, quality of life, contentment,
and meaningful life.
• - Happiness: Has been sought after and discussed throughout time.
Research has concluded that happiness can be thought of in the way we
act or what we do and how we think in relative terms to it.
• - Well-Being: Has often been referred to what is inherently good for an
individual both physically and mentally, though other aspects could be
added in to define well-being.
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• - Quality of life: Quality of life encompasses more than just physical and
mental well-being, it involves socioeconomic factors. It is also perceived
differently in different cultures and regions around the world, but can come
down to how well you are living and functioning in life.
• Contentment is an emotional state of satisfaction that can be seen as a mental
state, maybe drawn from being at ease in one's situation, body and mind.
Colloquially speaking, contentment could be a state of having accepted one's
situation and is a milder and more tentative form of happiness.
 Core Theory And Methods
• Initial theory: Three paths to happiness
• In Authentic Happiness (2002) Seligman proposed three kinds of a happy life
which can be investigated:
• Pleasant life: research into the Pleasant Life, or the "life of enjoyment," examines
how people optimally experience, forecast , and savor the positive feelings and
emotions that are part of normal and healthy living (e.g., relationships, hobbies,
interests, entertainment, etc.). Despite the attention given, Martin Seligman says
this most transient element of happiness may be the least important.
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• Good Life: investigation of the beneficial effects of immersion, absorption, and flow ,
felt by individuals when optimally engaged with their primary activities, is the study of
the Good Life, or the "life of engagement." Flow is experienced when there is a positive
match between a person's strength and their current task, i.e., when one feels confident
of accomplishing a chosen or assigned task.
• Meaningful Life: inquiry into the Meaningful Life , or "life of affiliation," questions
how individuals derive a positive sense of well-being, belonging, meaning, and purpose
from being part of and contributing back to something larger and more permanent than
themselves (e.g., nature, social groups, organizations, movements, traditions, belief
systems).
 PERMA
• In Flourish (2011) Seligman argued that the last category of his proposed three kinds
of a happy life, "meaningful life," can be considered as 3 different categories. The
resulting summary for this theory is Seligman's PERMA acronym: Positive Emotions,
Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and purpose, and Accomplishments. It is
a mnemonic for the five elements of Martin Seligman's well-being theory:
• Positive emotions include a wide range of feelings, not just happiness and joy.
Included are emotions like excitement, satisfaction, pride and awe, amongst others.
These emotions are frequently seen as connected to positive outcomes, such as longer
life and healthier social relationships.
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• Engagement refers to involvement in activities that draws and builds upon
one's interests. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains true engagement
as flow, a state of deep effortless involvement, feeling of intensity that
leads to a sense of ecstasy and clarity. The task being done needs to call
upon higher skill and be a bit difficult and challenging yet still possible.
Engagement involves passion for and concentration on the task at hand
and is assessed subjectively as to whether the person engaged was
completely absorbed, losing self-consciousness.
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• Relationships are essential in fueling positive emotions, whether they are work-related, familial,
romantic, or platonic. As Christopher Peterson puts it simply, "other people matter." Humans
receive, share, and spread positivity to others through relationships. They are important not only
in bad times, but good times as well. In fact, relationships can be strengthened by reacting to one
another positively. It is typical that most positive things take place in the presence of other
people.
• Meaning is also known as purpose, and prompts the question of "why." Discovering and figuring
out a clear "why" puts everything into context from work to relationships to other parts of
life. Finding meaning is learning that there is something greater than one's self. Despite potential
challenges, working with meaning drives people to continue striving for a desirable goal.
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• Accomplishments are the pursuit of success and mastery. Unlike the other parts of
PERMA, they are sometimes pursued even when accomplishments do not result in
positive emotions, meaning, or relationships. That being noted, accomplishments can
activate the other elements of PERMA, such as pride, under positive emotion.
Accomplishments can be individual or community-based, fun- or work-based.
• Each of the five PERMA elements was selected according to three criteria:
• It contributes to well-being.
• It is pursued for its own sake.
• It is defined and measured independently of the other elements.
 REFERENCES

• Haggbloom, Steven J.; et al. (2002). The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th
century. Review of General Psychology. 6 (2): 139–152.
• Seligman, M.E.P.; Maier, S.F. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of
Experimental Psychology. 74 (1): 1–9. 
• Abramson, L.Y.; Seligman, M.E.P.; Teasdale, JD (1978). Learned helplessness in
humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 87 (1): 49–74.
• Seligman, M.E.P. (1975). Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death.
San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.
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