I've read so many interesting books lately! I came across Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin Seligman, as a result of reading How Children Succeed by Paul Tough. Tough said that this book was the founding text for the positive psychology movement, teaching that optimism is a learnable skill and not something you're born with or not. So I decided to check it out.
Not too surprising...this is an optimistic book. Seligman says that he came into this field as a result of his graduate work which showed that dogs who are trained to become helpless become very passive. That also goes for people. This seems obvious to me but apparently this was a new idea in the psychological world. Gradually he did more and more studies, and realized that people can be taught new attitudes so that those who are naturally inclined to be passive and feel helpless can be taught a more optimistic outlook. Pessimism is equated with feeling helpless about your life--you have no power to change anything.
Most of the book is spent showing how having an optimistic outlook (or a mindset that growth and change are possible and desirable) makes a huge difference in life. Optimistic people are much more likely to successfully graduate from college, be successful in sports, relationships, school, sales, work, and politics, and be more healthy. In fact, he goes so far as to say that major depression is caused by pessimistic thinking. I won't try to explain why he says that, but his arguments are fairly convincing. One convincing argument is this: the usual method of treating depression is to use anti-depressants AND to use cognitive behavior therapy which will help patients to change their thinking to a more optimistic explanatory style. People who only use anti-depressants are more likely to relapse whereas patients who change their thinking through therapy are more likely to successfully overcome the depression.
My main quibble with the book is that he doesn't spend very much time at all teaching the reader how to become more optimistic. The book is about 292 pages long and 70 of those pages are for teaching individuals, helping children, and businesses how to be more optimistic. I could have used more exercises in that. I also have to confess that I never really figured out if I am optimistic or pessimistic. The book has a test in it, both for adults and children, but I frequently didn't like either choice of answers so I didn't complete it. The test is available online at http://www.stanford.edu/class/msande271/onlinetools/LearnedOpt.html.
Regardless, I found the book quite interesting and would recommend it to anyone.
Not too surprising...this is an optimistic book. Seligman says that he came into this field as a result of his graduate work which showed that dogs who are trained to become helpless become very passive. That also goes for people. This seems obvious to me but apparently this was a new idea in the psychological world. Gradually he did more and more studies, and realized that people can be taught new attitudes so that those who are naturally inclined to be passive and feel helpless can be taught a more optimistic outlook. Pessimism is equated with feeling helpless about your life--you have no power to change anything.
Most of the book is spent showing how having an optimistic outlook (or a mindset that growth and change are possible and desirable) makes a huge difference in life. Optimistic people are much more likely to successfully graduate from college, be successful in sports, relationships, school, sales, work, and politics, and be more healthy. In fact, he goes so far as to say that major depression is caused by pessimistic thinking. I won't try to explain why he says that, but his arguments are fairly convincing. One convincing argument is this: the usual method of treating depression is to use anti-depressants AND to use cognitive behavior therapy which will help patients to change their thinking to a more optimistic explanatory style. People who only use anti-depressants are more likely to relapse whereas patients who change their thinking through therapy are more likely to successfully overcome the depression.
My main quibble with the book is that he doesn't spend very much time at all teaching the reader how to become more optimistic. The book is about 292 pages long and 70 of those pages are for teaching individuals, helping children, and businesses how to be more optimistic. I could have used more exercises in that. I also have to confess that I never really figured out if I am optimistic or pessimistic. The book has a test in it, both for adults and children, but I frequently didn't like either choice of answers so I didn't complete it. The test is available online at http://www.stanford.edu/class/msande271/onlinetools/LearnedOpt.html.
Regardless, I found the book quite interesting and would recommend it to anyone.
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