Is Our Understanding Of Resilience Wrong? With Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman is a leading authority in the fields of positive psychology, resilience, learned helplessness, depression, optimism, and pessimism.  He is the director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center, the Penn Master of Applied Positive Psychology program. 

In this conversation, you will hear Martin share what he would like attendees to take away from his presentation at the 5th World Congress on Positive Psychology.  He talks about changes he is seeing with governments as they implement positive psychology practices.  Martin believes well-being should be one of the principle goals of political policy around the world.  

Martin also talks about positive psychology in the workplace. He shares one small change that he believes can make a big impact on workplaces.  He also shares that increases in occupational well-being should decrease accidents and increase safety in the workplace.

Connect with Martin Seligman:

Website - http://authentichappiness.org

You’ll Learn:

• [02:02]  - Martin will be speaking at the IPPA World Congress on Positive Psychology in July in Montreal.  He shares what he would like attendees to learn in his session, “Positive Psychology: Past, Present, and Future”.
• [03:55] - Martin shares some of the changes he is seeing with governments as they implement these ideas.  He shares the five groups to life satisfaction and happiness, which forms the acronym, PERMA.
• [05:51] - Martin talks about the ways of measuring well-being with psychometric accuracy.
• [09:03] - Martin shares his confidence that these are the pillars of well-being and that governments can make changes with well-being.  He explains how they are using social media to measure the results.
• [12:17] - Martin states that our positive emotional system is built around the question, “what works?”  
• [13:49] - Martin shares a small change that can make big differences in the workplace.
• [16:22] - Martin defines good leadership in the workplace.  
• [17:45] - Occupational safety dangers are increased by depression, anxiety, and anger.
• [18:41] - Martin explains how his original theories on learned helplessness may have been wrong.
• [20:44] - Martin talks about the idea of positive psychology practices may not be a good fit for certain workplace environments.
• [22:10] - The Lightning Round with Martin Seligman.

Your Resources:

• Martin Seligman’s books on Amazon
• Flourish - Martin Seligman
• Homo Prospectus - Martin Seligman
• 5th World Congress in Positive Psychology

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.  

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Special thanks to Martin for joining me this week. Until next time, take care!