1 / 25

Flourish: The Search for Well Being

Flourish: The Search for Well Being. Berlin 10 July 2010 Martin E.P. Seligman marty@apa.org In Memory: John R. Z. Abela d. June 18, 2010, age 39 years. HappinessTheory. Life Satisfaction (Intervening Variable) Positive Emotion Engagement (Flow) Meaning

jacob
Download Presentation

Flourish: The Search for Well Being

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Flourish:The Search for Well Being Berlin 10 July 2010 Martin E.P. Seligman marty@apa.org In Memory: John R. Z. Abela d. June 18, 2010, age 39 years

  2. HappinessTheory • Life Satisfaction (Intervening Variable) Positive Emotion Engagement (Flow) Meaning • Aim: Increase Life Satisfaction • Problems Subjective Variables Not Exhaustive Mood 70% of Life Satisfaction

  3. Well Being Theory • Well Being (Hypothetical Construct) Positive Emotion (Life Satisfaction, Engagement) Meaning Positive Relationships Accomplishment • Aim: Increase Flourishing • Improvements Objective and Subjective Variables More Exhaustive of Uncoerced Choice

  4. Central Europe & PP • 100 years of LH and Tragedy • Intellectual Dogma Background Darwin, Marx, Freud Prison of the Past • Entrenched Pessimistic Premises Negative Emotion & Negative Events Illness and Depression Childhood and History Hard Determinism The Goal: Remediation

  5. Prevalence of flourishing in Europe by age groupESS data 2006/7, n=43,000

  6. Prevalence of flourishing in Europe by years of educationESS data 2006/7, n=43,000

  7. Radical Positive Premises Positive Emotion, Meaning, Harmony, Accomplishment Drawn by the Future (vs Driven by the Past) Will, Freedom, Health The Goal: Growth

  8. Active Constructive Constructive Destructive Active Passive

  9. What is Positive Psychology? psychology should: • Be as concerned with strength as with weakness • Be as interested in building the best things in life as in repairing the worst • Be as concerned with making the lives of normal people fulfilling as with healing pathology • Develop Interventions to increase well being, not just to decrease misery • Break

  10. Skepticism about Happiness • Feeling vs Doing (Instrumental) • Suffering Trumps • Nothing New Here (Wealth, Longevity, LS) • Fuzzy • Antagonizes Traditional Learning • Antagonizes Altruism

  11. Should Positive Psychology Be Taught at School?

  12. First Onset Change • 1960—mean onset age of 30 years • 1995—mean onset age of 14.5 years • Recurrent Disorder

  13. Little Increase in Well Being

  14. Denmark USA Italy Russia

  15. Positivity Promotes Learning • Baby Explores under Positive • Broadens Attention • Promotes Creativity • Success in the Workplace

  16. PP Should Be Taught • Fights Depression • Raises Well Being • Synergy with Classroom Learning • Synergy with Worldly Success

  17. But Is Well Being Teachable?

  18. Positive Interventions Empirically Validated Examples • Optimism: Penn Resilience Training • Positive Emotion: 3 Blessings • Engagement: Signature Strengths • Positive Relationships: ACR • Meaning & Purpose: Altruism vs Pleasure

  19. Penn Resilience Training (PRP) • 21 replications worldwide (3000 children) • Whitehall • Controlled Experiments • Diverse Samples • Led by Teachers • Children learn to handle day to day stressors realistic optimism assertiveness decision-making

  20. Well Being Can Be Taught • Well Being is Being Taught UK (250 trained PRP teachers) USA Australia • Entire US Army (Comprehensive Soldier Fitness) • BREAK

  21. Gratitude Exericse

  22. Politics of Well Being • Military & Economic Centuries • What is Wealth For? GDP vs GWB • The Safety Net and Florence • The Camel, The Rebel, & The Child Reborn • What can every human being say “Yes” to? More Positive Emotion More Engagement More Noble Purpose More Positive Relationships More Positive Accomplishment

  23. Sources & Resources • www.positivepsychology.org (Literature) • www.psych.upenn.edu/seligman (Literature & Manuals) • www.authentichappiness.org (Questionnaires) • seligman@psych.upenn.edu • Flourish, 2011: N.Y.: Free Press (My New Book)

More Related