Authentic Happiness Martin Seligman Summary

Authentic Happiness Martin Seligman Summary 4,0/5 8288 votes

Learned Optimism Summary. Before talking about the book Learned Optimism Summary lets first discuss the author Martin E.P. Seligman, He is an American born psychology professor; he has done Ph.D. From Pennsylvania University, Martin is also an Educator, writer and a former president of the American Psychological Association. OVERVIEW: This guide summarizes several key findings from Martin Seligman research in positive psychology. Date time app for android. It provides practical methods for increasing your authentic happiness. Our brains are wired to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. When we feel good, we have less resistance to what is.

Martin Seligman Authentic Happiness Webs…
Martin Seligman Learned Helplessness
Martin Seligman Positive Psychology

Seligman asserts that there is a pervasive belief that happiness is inauthentic. One of the goals of his book about authentic happiness is to challenge that belief. Seligman believes that authentic happiness comes from identifying and cultivating fundamental strengths. Summary of Well-Being Theory. In authentic happiness theory, by contrast, happiness is the centerpiece of positive psychology. It is a real thing that is defined by the measurement of life satisfaction. Happiness has three aspects: positive emotion, engagement, and meaning, each of which feeds into life satisfaction and is measured entirely by subjective report. Seligman is an American born psychology professor with a Ph.D. Obtained at the University of Pennsylvania, writer, educator and a former president of the American PsychologicalAssociation. Martin was born in Albany, New York 1942. He grew up in the “Big Apple” where Seligman firstly encountered the real benefits of optimism.

Authentic Happiness Quotes. And while whales feeding on mackerel are confined forever in the sea, we climb the waves, look down from clouds. —From Look Down from Clouds (Marvin Levine, 1997)” ― Martin E.P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment.

Rate this book

Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillmentby
8,989 ratings, 3.95 average rating, 373 reviews

Authentic Happiness Quotes Showing 1-4 of 4

“Authentic happiness derives from raising the bar for yourself, not rating yourself against others.”
―

“Depression is now ten times as prevalent as it was in 1960, and it strikes at a much younger age. The mean age of a person’s first episode of depression forty years ago was 29.5, while today it is 14.5 years. This is a paradox, since every objective indicator of well-being—purchasing power, amount of education, availability of music, and nutrition—has been going north, while every indicator of subjective well-being has been going south. How is this epidemic to be explained?”
―

“After a heated dispute, we each undertook an assignment for the next class: to engage in one pleasurable activity and one philanthropic activity, and write about both. The results were life-changing. The afterglow of the “pleasurable” activity (hanging out with friends, or watching a movie, or eating a hot fudge sundae) paled in comparison with the effects of the kind action. When our philanthropic acts were spontaneous and called upon personal strengths, the whole day went better. One junior told about her nephew phoning for help with his third-grade arithmetic. After an hour of tutoring him, she was astonished to discover that “for the rest of the day, I could listen better, I was mellower, and people liked me much more than usual.” The exercise of kindness is a gratification, in contrast to a pleasure. As a gratification, it calls on your strengths to rise to an occasion and meet a challenge. Kindness is not accompanied by a separable stream of positive emotion like joy; rather, it consists in total engagement and in the loss of self-consciousness. Time stops.”
―

“TRANSCENDING Escher got it right. Men step down and yet rise up, the hand is drawn by the hand it draws, and a woman is poised on her very own shoulders. Without you and me this universe is simple, run with the regularity of a prison. Galaxies spin along stipulated arcs, stars collapse at the specified hour, crows u-turn south and monkeys rut on schedule. But we, whom the cosmos shaped for a billion years to fit this place, we know it failed. For we can reshape, reach an arm through the bars and, Escher-like, pull ourselves out. And while whales feeding on mackerel are confined forever in the sea, we climb the waves, look down from clouds. —From Look Down from Clouds (Marvin Levine, 1997)”
―

All Quotes
Quotes By Martin E.P. Seligman

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment” as Want to Read:

Martin Seligman Authentic Happiness Webs…

Rate this book

See a Problem?

We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Authentic Happiness by Martin E.P. Seligman.

Not the book you’re looking for?

Preview — Authentic Happiness by Martin E.P. Seligman

A national bestseller, Authentic Happiness launched the revolutionary new science of Positive Psychology—and sparked a coast-to-coast debate on the nature of real happiness.
According to esteemed psychologist and bestselling author Martin Seligman, happiness is not the result of good genes or luck. Real, lasting happiness comes from focusing on one’s personal strengths rath..more

Published January 5th 2004 by Atria Books (first published August 27th 2002)

To see what your friends thought of this book,please sign up.

To ask other readers questions aboutAuthentic Happiness,please sign up.

Martin Seligman Learned Helplessness

Jul 09, 2013Sheila rated it it was amazing

Shelves: relationships, self-help, non-fiction, current_issues

So many self-help books, questionnaires, and popular psychology books talk about what’s wrong with our lives and how to make the bad bits better. Martin E. P. Seligman asks us to look instead at what’s good, and learn to turn good into excellent, making this a book on mental wellness, rather than mental illness. It’s a refreshing change.
Wouldn’t you rather feel more happy instead of less miserable? But this isn’t just a question of looking at half-filled cups when they might be half-empty. Simpl..more

Is this authentic happiness?
JDN 2456177 EDT 13:59.
When I started Authentic Happiness, I had the highest hopes—that this might finally be the way out of my depression. When I finished reading it, I felt even more hopeless and depressed. Now that I've had some time to reflect on it, I just feel ambivalent and disappointed.
Seligman promises to offer us a fundamentally new approach to psychology, focused not on curing illness but on supporting flourishing, not on treating depression but on creating..more

Apr 01, 2009Cara rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is a really good book.
It was slow to start, spending pages upon pages talking about the benefits of being happy. Like, duh, just wanting to be happy isn't a good enough reason? I want to be happier because, uh, I'll be happier?
Other than that, good stuff, though. Concrete suggestions backed by psychological study. Summary:
- Your past doesn't determine your future. Increase your gratitude. Forgive.
- Assume bad things are temporary and isolated to the particular context in which they occur...more

The Field of positive psychology is closing the gap between self-help literature and Psychology. Martin Seligman is the God father of this Science and this book is the most popular books about it. I'm studying Masters of Applied Positive Psychology after my MBA to give me the empirical evidences I need in my work as a self Development author, and it really does.
In short: This is a highly recommended book for who are interested in self development based on real scientific researches.

Fascinating book from the man who decided that the psychology of mental illness needed to be paired with research into mental wellness. Seligman believes there's more to mental good health than the mere abscence of illness or sadness, and has inspired a group of researchers to work with him on creating a new branch of psychology to figure it out.
He catalogues the different ways of being happy: about the past, the future and the present. He focuses mostly on present happiness, dividing it into tw..more

Jun 26, 2011Jennifer rated it liked it

Shelves: from-library, popular-psychology, non-fiction

I'd known about Seligmman's work for quite some time. I first started taking questionnaires at his website back in 2008. The fact that three years later, I still haven't taken them all, should be a pretty good indicator that I've never been converted to a true believer. But I do keep coming back, so there are aspects of his work that I find interesting.
This book and the test center at his website are really tie-ins to each other. It was because my results kept saying 'for more information, see t..more

I originally read this book for a college course, where we were actually only supposed to read excerpts. It interested me so much that I read the whole book, but always felt the injustice of being unable to dive as deeply into it as I wanted, since it was my senior year of college, and I was busy with other assignments. This time, I took my time getting through it, stopping and pausing often to think about what I had just read.
I love Martin Seligman. For a little history, he was President of the..more

The cover of this book seems pretty pathetic; I'll be the first to admit I was put off by it. 'Authentic happiness' from one little book. Right.. However, it was recommended to me by a professional therapist, so I bought it. I'm just making my way through the preface, and I'm already pleased. Who doesn't love a good dig into Freud? Here's a quote I liked:
'Freud's philosophy, as bizarre as it sounds when laid out so starkly, finds its way into daily psychological and psychiatric practice, wherei..more

Seligman as father of Positive Psychology is a convincing advocate for augmenting the disease model of traditional psychology and for broadening the base of those who understand the benefits of promoting authentic happiness. While most of what he describes does not sound new, the read is worth while as it backs up all those long held beliefs buried in the self help sections of bookshops with solid emperical evidence. I could not help feeling almost validated and clever in recognising some of my..more

This book provides a detailed and insightful model of all the different contributors to happiness (fulfilment is probably a better word). Best of all, the author offers up a hypothesis as to how to put the knowledge to use! I would highly recommend this book - even if life is pretty good in general, it may provide that little extra *click* that leads to a Eureka moment. And if life sucks, well, consider this book a checklist of things to work on one at a time.
Key Points:
1. There are three diffe..more

Mar 03, 2013Dayla rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. This book helped me to perfect the ability to 'replace negative and all encompassing' thoughts with more neutral and more local thoughts. For example, one could say, 'Everyone hates me.' But after reading this book, I would be able to replace that with, 'Well, not everyone hates you. A few people, like _____, _______, and _______ still like you. And not only that, do you really care if people hate you because you are holding them accountable at work?' Usually, this would help..more

I’ve been meaning to read the work of Seligman for some time but just got to it now. This book seems to me a blend of research, history of Positive Psychology, and personal philosophy. It seemed like almost 3 books in one, but all of it was interesting and related in an engaging way.
It includes some wonderful stories and exercises, and it made me think. For sure, I will read more Seligman.

Feb 28, 2013Chris Walker rated it liked it · review of another edition

My father gave me Dale Carnegie's How to Stop Worrying and Start Living to read as an anxious adolescent. Later I read Norman Vincent Peale. This book mentions how Norman Vincent Peale's positive thinking grew out of early Protestantism (Methodism) in the United States and the notion of our having a free will to better ourselves (rather than being passive vessels waiting to be filled with grace). The author asks the question as to whether the development of Positive Psychology, the program at th..more

Seligman encourages people to focus on their strengths rather than improve their weaknesses. The author has some good ideas. There are questionnaires on the website 'Authentichappiness.com' that can be used to determine your strengths. The author is a capitalistic atheist who basically rejects modern psychology and wants people to work all the time to make more money for the rich. Seligman does say that religious people are happier and live longer. Atheists have a high suicide rate while Jewish..more

Sep 22, 2014Keith rated it it was amazing

This book resonated with me. Below are a few notes that I made while reading it.
'We find that both the depressed people who walk into our clinic and people need help us by unsolvable problems display passivity, become slower to learn, and are sadder and more anxious than people who are not depressed or are our control subjects.' (Page 22)
'10 years into our work on learned helplessness I changed my mind about what was going on in our experiments. It all stems from some embarrassing findings that..more

Nov 12, 2017AnaMaria Rivera rated it really liked it

One of Dr Selligman’s best books, disecting happiness and backing all his arguments on his scientific research. Very interesting framework on Character Strenghts and its relationship to what he calls “the good life”, and practical “advise” on reflecting and landing these concepts to life, love, parenting and work..
“Securely attached children grow up to outperform their peers in almost every way that has been tested, including persistence, problem solving, independence, exploration, and enthusia..more

Dec 13, 2018Lisa Shultz rated it it was amazing

This book was filled with tests. I found it valuable to think about my level of happiness and signature strengths. I thought about what virtues I have and which ones I might want to place more focus upon in the future. I wish I had read the chapter on raising children when my kids were little. I understand more about how I can achieve more lasting happiness. And what I like most about the book is its hopeful and optimistic nature. It was very inspiring and I have recommended it many people.

Seligman certainly has some good insights. I was a bit sceptical of the first few chapters. However, I learnt a lot throughout the rest of the book. I was particularly fond of the fact he referenced quizzes from his website. You could either take the quizzes straight from the book or on the website. I found the book helped me to identify my own personal strengths and overall the importance of having a more optimistic mindset.

This is a great introduction to positive psychology by one of its betterknown proponents. This book is aimed at a wider audience and is very readable. As such, for those of you with a degree in psychology, there is nothing new - merely a pleasant refresher of some of the classics and most insightful lines of research that fall under the umbrella of positive psychology.

This was another required read for a psychology class. It was easy to read with a great tone. Compared to Flow, I liked this one even better as I think any audience would be engaged and like to read it.

Seligman is a visionary and his science needs to become a cornerstone of humanity's future. This book is quite long-winded, however, so not for the faint hearted!

I learned a lot about myself .. like that I'm 'moderately hopeless' (ugh) and relatively high on the 'revenge' scale. The good news is that I can fight these tendencies and live a more fulfilling emotional life.

Despite not being into self-help books, yet this one gets some interesting ideas about positive psychology, except the last chapters as far as I concern. Anw, it's a perfect ending to a perfect holiday ^^
So, how to be happy? Just be grateful for what we have, be mindful in our everday life, look on the bright side of everything 😉

Nov 29, 2017Alex rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I was trying to finish this book since 2008. Finally I've done.
Overall review:
-The content is great and practical with exercises to actually make you happier.
-The exercises themselves has two downsides, though. Firstly, they're not formatted in the way to make finding them easy. So I struggle each time I try to come back to the book and to find a next one to do. Secondly, they consist mostly of different types of diary writing. Which works, but also is too monotonous for my taste.
-It has a lot o..more

Feb 01, 2011Brent rated it liked it · review of another edition

Once again I don't think of myself as someone who reads many self-improvement books, but I did it again.
I valued the main point in this book, but I don't think it's the ultimate solution the way Seligman describes it. The author relates that in the history of psychology, much of the practice has been focused on the negative: people's social problems, delusions, irrational behavior, depression, etc. He argues that this often ends up being counter-productive where people focusing on everything th..more

Apr 19, 2016Maren rated it liked it

Things I will remember about this book:
--When something good happens to an optimist, they think of it as universal (permeating all areas of their life) and permanent. When something good happens to a pessimist, they think of it as specific and temporary. When something bad happens to an optimist, they think of it as specific and temporary. When something bad happens to a pessimist, they think of it as universal and permanent.
--Marriage between two pessimists is hard.
--People get habituated to t..more

Authentic Happiness is an important introduction to Positive Psychology-- the science of understanding and furthering what's right rather than what's wrong with us. If you are disenchanted with mainstream psychology's emphasis on disorder and prescribed solutions, and if you want to enhance and make permanent the good things in life, you will find this book instructive and encouraging. Seligman simplifies a budding but complicated scientific discipline into an approachable read. He has a compani..more

I listened to the unabridged audio version of this book, which worked out well, as it's probably not something you need to focus 100% of your attention on. I really enjoyed the first few chapters, where Seligman lays out the basis for studying 'positive psychology' -- how to increase one's experience of positive emotion/states of being, versus how to decrease one's experience of the effects of psychological trauma or disorders.
I also enjoyed taking the self-assessment quizzes at Seligman's websi..more

Should be called: the human being operation guide.
I read about half of this book, and stopped because of school work. I have started it again and I had to start at the beginning. It is a little complicated (it is, after all, psychology) but, after the initial mind twisting, it starts to seem like common sense. This book answers the question: how can I live my life that will make me feel like I am accomplishing something worth while - and be fulfilled and happy doing it?
learn more:
http://www.pp..more

I picked up this book randomly, while traveling through Costa Rica. The title itself turned me off, but I was desperate for an English language book and would have read anything at that point. I was wonderfully surprised by this book- a self-help book on promoting optimism and freedom from negative thought patterns that is pragmatic, research driven and interesting to read. Seligman is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and has a very useful website in conjunction with the book, where..more

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Librari..:Edition belongs not to a work	4	21	Jan 16, 2019 09:07PM

Recommend ItStatsRecent Status Updates

Martin Seligman Positive Psychology

See similar books…

See top shelves…

569followers

Seligman is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Psychology. He was previously the Director of the Clinical Training Program in the department. Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association by the widest margin in its history and served in that capacity during the 1998 term.[4] He is the founding editor-in-chief..more

“Authentic happiness derives from raising the bar for yourself, not rating yourself against others.” — 25 likes

More quotes…