Martin Seligman is an American educator, psychologist, and author of self-help books. Martin promotes his theories of positive psychology and well-being in the scientific community.
Biography
Martin Seligman was born on August 12, 1942 in Albany, New York, USA in a family with Jewish roots. The education of a famous psychologist began with an ordinary public school at his birthplace. Then he also entered the local academy and successfully graduated from it. In 1964, he received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Princeton University with the distinction of Summa Cum Laude (with the highest honor). In North America, this award is usually awarded to graduates who are at the top of the ranking among class students.
In the final year of his studies, Seligman had a difficult choice between proposals for further development. University of Oxford offered a scholarship to study analytic philosophy, and Pennsylvania offered research on experimental animal psychology. Refusing the first offer, he chose Pennsylvania and subsequently received a doctorate there. Soon, at the same university, Martin received the title of candidate of psychological sciences, and in June 1989 he achieved an honorary doctorate from the Department of Social Sciences at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Martin has seven children, four grandchildren and two dogs. Together with his second wife, Mandy Seligman, they live in a three-story mansion in which the famous conductor Eugene Ormandi once lived. Three out of five children studied at home, not at school. Seligman is an avid bridge player, he regularly takes part in major tournaments and has won more than fifty regional championships, and also finished second in the famous "Blue Ribbon Pairs" tournament.
Professional activity
Martin Seligman is the director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center and works at the Department of Psychology at the Penn Department of Psychology. He is a leading specialist in the field of positive psychology, stability, educated helplessness, depression, optimism and pessimism, as well as in the field of operations that prevent depression, as well as strengthen strength and improve well-being. On his account more than 300 scientific publications and 25 books.
Dr. Seligman's books have been translated into over 45 languages and have been universally bestsellers. His most famous works include Flourish, Authentic Happiness, Learned Optimism, What You Can Change & What You Can't, The Optimistic Child, Helplessness, and Abnormal Psychology. Published works were featured on the front pages of The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, and many other popular magazines.
Martin is a laureate of various awards, including the American Psychological Association Award for Lifetime Contributions to Psychology, the Tang Award for Lifetime Achievements in Psychology, the APA Award for Outstanding Scientific Contribution, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for Research in Psychopathology "and the Distinguished Contribution Award for Basic Research with Applied Relevance from the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology and many others.
Learned helplessness
Seligman's first experiments were made at the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. They were aimed at studying the depressed state and formed the basis for the teria of "learned helplessness." This term was introduced by Martin and described the condition of a person or animal in which the individual does not attempt to improve his condition (does not try to avoid negative incentives or get positive ones), although he has such an opportunity.
This effect was accidentally discovered quite by accident in experiments with dogs: trained animals did not respond to the opportunity to learn to escape from an unpleasant situation. Seligman developed the theory further and came to the conclusion that helplessness is a psychological state in which a person or animal has learned to act helplessly in a particular situation. This usually happened after some inability to avoid an adverse situation. Already an experienced psychologist saw the similarity of patients with people suffering from severe depression, and claimed that clinical depression and related mental illness were partly due to a perceived lack of control over the outcome of the situation. In later years, along with Abramson, Seligman reformulated his theory of scientific helplessness, by including an attribution style.
Positive psychology
Martin Seligman is one of the authors and creators of "positive" psychology. This direction, exploring the positive aspects of the psyche, seeks to reveal the natural abilities of a person and make life better. Seligman worked with Christopher Peterson on this project. Together they tried to create a positive analogue of the work "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", created by the American Association of Psychiatrists and aimed at classifying mental disorders.
In their studies, Seligman and his colleague studied various cultures, trying to find a list of virtues that were recognized by people in ancient China and India and in modern Western society. Thus, the basis of the "positive" psychology was laid six strengths of a person's character: wisdom, knowledge, humanity, justice, moderation and transcendence.
