Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman
Seligman in 2009
Born (1942-08-12) August 12, 1942 (age 82)
Albany, New York, U.S.
Alma mater
Known for
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology
InstitutionsUniversity of Pennsylvania
Signature

Martin Elias Peter Seligman (/ˈsɛlɪɡmən/; born August 12, 1942) is an American psychologist, educator, and author of self-help books. Seligman is a strong promoter within the scientific community of his theories of well-being and positive psychology.[1] His theory of learned helplessness is popular among scientific and clinical psychologists.[2] A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Seligman as the 31st most cited psychologist of the 20th century.[3]

Seligman is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Psychology. He was previously the Director of the Clinical Training Program in the department, and earlier taught at Cornell University.[4] He is the director of the university's Positive Psychology Center.[1] Seligman was elected president of the American Psychological Association for 1998.[5] He is the founding editor-in-chief of Prevention and Treatment (the APA electronic journal) and is on the board of advisers of Parents magazine.

Seligman has written about positive psychology topics in books such as The Optimistic Child, Child's Play, Learned Optimism, Authentic Happiness, and Flourish. His most recent book, The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist's Journey from Helplessness to Optimism, was published in 2018.

  1. ^ a b Positive Psychology Center Archived July 3, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, University of Pennsylvania.
  2. ^ Bower, Gordon H. (1981). The psychology of learning and motivation: advances in research and theory. Academic Press, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-12-543315-0. The most popular theoretical interpretation of the learned helplessness phenomenon to date is that of Seligman (1975) and Maier and Seligman (1976).
  3. ^ Haggbloom, Steven J.; et al. (2002). "The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century". Review of General Psychology. 6 (2): 139–152. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139. S2CID 145668721.
  4. ^ "A Brief Biography of Psychologist Martin Seligman". psychology.about.com.
  5. ^ "Former APA Presidents". American Psychological Association.