Martin Seligman and positive psychology

Martin Seligman, recognized pioneer of positive psychology, explains that happiness does not always depend on our social status., our religion or our physical beauty. Happiness is actually a unique combination of what he called “distinctive strengths,” such as a sense of humanity, temperance, persistence, and the ability to lead a meaningful life.

To talk about Martin Seligman is to talk about a new era in psychology. It was in the 90s when he, as president of the American Psychological Association (APA), gave a conference to point out something that in his opinion he considered important: Psychology needed to take a new step, it was necessary to study from a scientific point of view everything that makes human beings happy.. In this way, people could be helped to build a more satisfactory reality.

Until that moment, Much of the studies in psychology had focused on mental illnesses and their treatments. In fact, Seligman himself was best known for his work on learned helplessness.

However, as always happens at some point in our lives, something happens that suddenly forces us to make a deep reflection on ourselves. This is what happened to the father of positive psychology and what he explains in his book “The Optimistic Child”.
One morning, her 6-year-old daughter Nikki was playing in the garden with some leaves. The girl screamed and ran from one side to the other, full of enthusiasm and vitality. Her excitement was such that her father, Martin Seligman, could not concentrate on her work. He couldn’t help it, he ended up yelling at her and asking her to shut up.

Behind this, The little girl, with an unusual maturity for her age, told him that she felt like screaming and crying. That reprimand she received made her want to cry like when she was younger, but she wasn’t going to give in. She knew that she was no longer a baby, and, therefore, she was going to control herself.

He also told him that, Since she had already learned not to let herself be carried away by whining, he too had to control his bad mood. In this way, both “They would be a little older.” That little speech from his daughter simply changed Martin Seligman’s life.

Martin Seligman and positive psychology

Martin Seligman was the pioneer of Positive Psychology, although it should be said that the term itself was coined at the time by Abraham Maslow.. However, Maslow formulated his theories in a very intuitive way and with hardly any empirical and methodological evidence. Therefore, he left this interesting legacy in the hands of a new generation of psychologists who have been creating schools in the field of happiness since the 90s.

Those psychologists, like Seligman, Ed Diener and Mihaly Csiskzenmihalyi have delved into the study of positive emotions from a scientific and rigorous point of view, finding out what processes, dynamics and situations can have the most impact on our health, performance and general satisfaction with life. Likewise, something that Martin Seligman emphasized at the time is that these studies should have the purpose of teaching people to be happier.

In this way, and also based on the notions of happiness enunciated at the time by Confucius, Mencius and Aristotletogether with modern theories on motivation, concluded that happiness can be built by working on three very specific dimensions. They are the following.

1. The pleasant life

Perhaps when hearing the term “pleasurable” a rather hedonistic concept comes to mind, like a life oriented toward mere pleasure and without greater aspirations. This is not what Seligman means in this first dimension about the construction of happiness.

A pleasant life consists of knowing how to promote positive emotions and ensure that they last.To achieve this, it is necessary to cover, first of all, our basic needs, those that would be in the first steps of Maslow’s pyramid: food, security, affiliation, recognition…Likewise, It is important to find a balance between our past, our present and the future.To do this, Seligman proposes the following: We must be grateful and know how to forgive what could have happened in the past. It is necessary to know how to deal with the negative emotions of the present, develop full attention and promote new ways of being happy in the here and now. We will look also the future with hope and optimism.

2. Build a good life

Enjoying a good life, in reality, is not as easy as we may think at first. Happiness is not always synonymous with wealth, power or social success. It is knowing how to reach our maximum human potential and develop it to feel fuller, freer, happier…

Martin Seligman created a human strengths classification system together with Dr. Christopher Peterson, an expert in the field of hope and optimism. The objective of this system was to determine precisely those dimensions that we should work on daily to improve that same potential. They are the following:
human virtues

Wisdom and KnowledgeCourageLove and HumanityJusticeTemperanceSpirituality and Transcendence

Personal strengths

Wisdom and knowledge: refers to the cognitive strengths that give the individual the ability to acquire and use their knowledge. As examples of these strengths we can find:Curiosity and interest in the world: Curiosity involves an activity of recognizing, searching, and regulating one’s own experience in response to challenges or problems.Love for knowledge and learning: This strength relates to a person’s ability to engage in learning new information or skills.Judgment, critical thinking, open-mindedness: is the willingness to actively seek evidence against what one believes, of preferred plans or objectives, and weigh such evidence fairly when available.Ingenuity, originality, practical intelligence: ability to produce original, novel, surprising and unusual ideas or behaviors.Perspective: allows the individual to address important and difficult questions about behavior and the meaning of life. It is used for the good or well-being of oneself and others.

Courage: are the emotional strengths that require the practice of will to achieve goals or objectives, despite the difficulties that may arise. For example:Courage: willingness to act voluntarily, perhaps with fearin a dangerous circumstance. It is the determination to face risky or difficult situations.Perseverance and diligence: voluntary continuation of goal-directed action despite obstacles, difficulties, or discouragement.Integrity, honesty, authenticity: These strengths capture a character trait in which people are true to themselves, accurately representing, privately and publicly, their internal states, intentions, and commitments.Vitality and passion: refers to a person’s ability to live, grow and develop. It is having energy, being vigorous and active.

Humanity: are the interpersonal strengths that They are based on care and approach to others. They manifest themselves in positive social interaction with others. Some examples of them are:Love, attachment, ability to love and be loved: feeling of affection that makes us bow down and give to someone or something.Spell, kindness, generosity: They make people compassionate and collaborative with others.Emotional, personal and social intelligence: a person’s ability to connect and understand other people with whom they interact, communicate with them, and interact satisfactorily.

Justice: are the civic fortresses that promote healthy social life among groups of people such as family, community, nation and world. For example:Citizenship, civility, loyalty, teamwork: The individual with these strengths has a strong sense of duty, works for the good of the group rather than for personal gain, is loyal to his friends, and can be trusted to do his part.Sense of justice, equity: It is to act and judge respecting the truth and giving each person what they deserve.Leadership: refers to a set of cognitive and temperamental attributes that foster an orientation toward influencing, helping others, guiding, and motivating actions toward success.

Moderation: are the strengths that protect people from excesses. They favor the moderate expression of needs, considering the opportune moment to satisfy them. Some examples are:Ability to forgive, mercy: Forgiveness is forgetting the fault that another person has committed and not holding a grudge or punishing them. The strength of mercy refers to the willingness to feel compassion for the sufferings and miseries of others.Modesty, humility: ability to know one’s own limitations and weaknesses, and to act in accordance with such knowledge. Modesty is not showing off one’s own qualities or successes.Prudence, discretion, caution: It consists of acting carefully, fairly and appropriately, with caution and moderation.Self-control, self-regulation: It allows you to control and regulate your emotions, thoughts, behaviors and desires in the face of temptations and impulses.

Transcendence: They are emotional strengths that build higher and more permanent connections with others. For example:Appreciation of beauty and excellence, capacity for wonder: ability to find, recognize and enjoy the existence of goodness and beauty in the worldGratitude: feeling experienced in response to a favor or benefit that has been received or will be received.Hope, optimism, projection towards the future: It is trusting that something you want will be done.Sense of humor: positive attitude and ability to joke and laugh despite problems.Spirituality, faith, religious sense: beliefs and practices that are based on the conviction that there is a transcendent dimension of life.

“Psychology doesn’t just focus on unhealthy behaviors. It also helps in education, work, marriage and even sports. “Psychologists work to help people build strengths in all of these domains.”

-Martin Seligman-

3. A meaningful life

The meaningful life has an intimate connection with that top of Abraham Maslow’s pyramid, where we direct our own developed virtues and strengths to contribute to the happiness of others. We are undoubtedly talking about altruism, that dimension that Martin Seligman defined as the exercise of kindness, as the art of knowing how to elevate ourselves beyond mere personal pleasure to put ourselves at the service of those around us.

Mattieu…