From Amazon.com: Martin Seligman, a renowned psychologist and clinical researcher, has been studying optimists and pessimists for 25 years. Pessimists believe that bad events are their fault, will last a long time, and undermine everything. They feel helpless and may sink into depression, which is epidemic today, especially among youths. Optimists, on the other hand, believe that defeat is a temporary setback or a challenge–it doesn’t knock them down. “Pessimism is escapable,” asserts Seligman, by learning a new set of cognitive skills that will enable you to take charge, resist depression, and make yourself feel better and accomplish more.
About two-thirds of this book is a psychological discussion of pessimism, optimism, learned helplessness (giving up because you feel unable to change things), explanatory style (how you habitually explain to yourself why events happen), and depression, and how these affect success, health, and quality of life. Seligman supports his points with animal research and human cases. He includes tests for you and your child–whose achievement may be related more to his or her level of optimism/pessimism than ability. The final chapters teach the skills of changing from pessimism to optimism, with worksheet pages to guide you and your child.
As some of the Amazon.com reviews now, this is more of a “why” book than a “how-to.” It really focuses on the significant research done in the area of learned optimism, and only goes into how you can use this information to help change your own life in the very last section of the book. Still, with all of the books on “happiness” lately, it’s a good to read to understand the foundation for much of this newer research.
Softcover, 336 pages.
Psych Central's Recommendation: Worth Your Time! +++
Your Recommendation (if you've read this book):Want to buy the book or learn more?
Check out the book on Amazon.com!
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 26 Sep 2008
