Rating: 
Summary: A Study of Happiness
Review: "Authentic Happiness" is a readable and fascinating, but somewhat academic, treatise about happiness by Martin Seligman.The book begins with a discussion of the nun study-a study that followed nuns throughout their lives and examined factors such as longevity and health. The study found the greatest predictive factor of successful aging and life satisfaction was optimism reflected in essays the young nuns wrote about their lives when they first took their religious vows. Those who were happy and optimistic when young tended to remain happy, healthy, and successful. Those who expressed more pessimism in their essays tended to age less successfully and tended to have less life satisfaction. Other researchers found similar early predictive value using yearbook photos. Seligman writes: "...yearbook photos are a gold mine for Positive Psychology researchers. 'Look at the birdie and smile,' the photographer tells you, and dutifully you put on your best smile. Some of us break into a radiant smile of authentic good cheer, while the rest of us pose politely. There are two kinds of smiles. The first, called a Duchenne smile (after its discoverer, Guillaume Duchenne) is genuine. The corners of your mouth turn up and the skin around the corners of your eyes crinkles (like crow's feet). The muscles that do this, the orbicularis oculi and the zygomticus, are exceedingly difficult to control voluntarily. The other smile, called the Pan American smile (after the flight attendants in television ads for the now-defunct airline), is inauthentic, with none of the Duchenne features. Indeed, it is probably more related to the rictus that lower primates display when frightened than it is to happiness." Follow-up studies of people with Duchenne yearbook photos showed that they tended to have more personal life satisfaction into their thirties, forties, and fifties than did people without Duchenne smiles. Seligman tells us that "external circumstances" only have a minimal effect ("no more than between 8 and 15 percent of the variance...") on happiness. Here are a few circumstances Seligman says tend to correspond slightly with happiness: 1) Living in a wealthy democracy, rather than a poor dictatorship. Unsurprisingly, this has a relatively strong effect on happiness relative to other circumstances. Extreme poverty and dictators are a real bummer. 2) Marriage. Married people tend to be happier. "Marriage is a more potent happiness factor than satisfaction with job, or finances, or community," Seligman writes. 3) Rich social network. Seligman points out that this might not be a causal relationship. In other words, happy people might tend to build richer social networks more naturally. What about staying healthy, getting a good education, and making more money? Seligman says none of these are highly correlated with happiness. Also, it's a person's subjective feeling of health, not objective health that matters for determining happiness. Some people facing extreme illness remain happy, while other people in relatively good health feel they aren't healthy and are depressed about it. Of course, extreme health problems have a tendency to drag us down. I found the relationship between money and happiness fascinating. It appears winning the lottery or extreme wealth won't make a person happy. Seligman writes: "In very poor nations, where poverty threatens life itself, being rich does predict greater well-being. In wealthier nations, however, where almost everyone has a basic safety net, increases in wealth have negligible effects on personal happiness. In the United States, the very poor are lower in happiness, but once a person is just barely comfortable, added money adds little or no happiness. Even the fabulously rich-the Forbes 100, with an average net worth of over $125 million dollars-are only slightly happier than the average American." (I read an article about Jean Chatzky's new book in which people were asked about their overall life happiness. Relative to income, once $50,000 is hit, happiness levels off. If you search google for "happiness money $50,000" you can find the full article online.) However, a person's obsession with making more money can lead to less happiness. Seligman writes: "...people who value money more than other goals are less satisfied with their income and with their lives as a whole ..." While external circumstances account for less than 15% of a person's happiness, Seligman tells us that genetic disposition plays a significant role, probably contributing over 50% to a person's characteristics. So, why do people become unduly pessimistic or unhappy? Seligman argues that negative emotions prepare us for conflicts or for win-lose games. In contrast, positive emotions help us be more creative and helps us to build social and intellectual resources. Happiness prepares us for win-win situations. Seligman writes: "When we are happy, we are less self-focused, we like others more, and we want to share our good fortune even with strangers. When we are down, though, we become distrustful, turn inward, and focus defensively on our own needs. Looking out for number one is more characteristic of sadness than of well-being." In addition to providing us with an understanding of happiness, "Authentic Happiness" provides several tests for evaluating our own happiness. Many of the tests are available online at AuthenticHappiness.org. Seligman also offers a prescription for finding more happiness. He suggests that people are happiest when they're using their signature strengths. Studying major religions and philosophies, Seligman has identified six admirable and largely culturally-independent strengths. They are: * Wisdom and Knowledge
* Courage
* Love and Humanity
* Justice
* Temperance
* Spirituality and Transcendence Seligman says that if we discover a calling, something that links to a greater good, which utilizes our signature strengths, we tend to be happy. The book also has practical advicee for using your knowledge of happiness to improve marriages and help children become more future-oriented. I highly recommend "Authentic Happiness" to readers who are interested in studying happiness, who want to test their own level of happiness, or who want to attain richer, more fulfilling lives.
Rating:
Summary: Profound and Inspiring!!
Review: "Authentic Happiness" is the best psychology book I've read in ages. Dr. Seligman's advice for achieving emotional fulfillment through pursuing ones's innate strengths, rather than picking apart the past and trying to solve decades-old problems, is brilliant. I'm ready to use what I've read to make a better life for myself.
Rating:
Summary: A Study of Happiness
Review: "Authentic Happiness" is a readable and fascinating, but somewhat academic, treatise about happiness by Martin Seligman. The book begins with a discussion of the nun study-a study that followed nuns throughout their lives and examined factors such as longevity and health. The study found the greatest predictive factor of successful aging and life satisfaction was optimism reflected in essays the young nuns wrote about their lives when they first took their religious vows. Those who were happy and optimistic when young tended to remain happy, healthy, and successful. Those who expressed more pessimism in their essays tended to age less successfully and tended to have less life satisfaction. Other researchers found similar early predictive value using yearbook photos. Seligman writes: "...yearbook photos are a gold mine for Positive Psychology researchers. 'Look at the birdie and smile,' the photographer tells you, and dutifully you put on your best smile. Some of us break into a radiant smile of authentic good cheer, while the rest of us pose politely. There are two kinds of smiles. The first, called a Duchenne smile (after its discoverer, Guillaume Duchenne) is genuine. The corners of your mouth turn up and the skin around the corners of your eyes crinkles (like crow's feet). The muscles that do this, the orbicularis oculi and the zygomticus, are exceedingly difficult to control voluntarily. The other smile, called the Pan American smile (after the flight attendants in television ads for the now-defunct airline), is inauthentic, with none of the Duchenne features. Indeed, it is probably more related to the rictus that lower primates display when frightened than it is to happiness." Follow-up studies of people with Duchenne yearbook photos showed that they tended to have more personal life satisfaction into their thirties, forties, and fifties than did people without Duchenne smiles. Seligman tells us that "external circumstances" only have a minimal effect ("no more than between 8 and 15 percent of the variance...") on happiness. Here are a few circumstances Seligman says tend to correspond slightly with happiness: 1) Living in a wealthy democracy, rather than a poor dictatorship. Unsurprisingly, this has a relatively strong effect on happiness relative to other circumstances. Extreme poverty and dictators are a real bummer. 2) Marriage. Married people tend to be happier. "Marriage is a more potent happiness factor than satisfaction with job, or finances, or community," Seligman writes. 3) Rich social network. Seligman points out that this might not be a causal relationship. In other words, happy people might tend to build richer social networks more naturally. What about staying healthy, getting a good education, and making more money? Seligman says none of these are highly correlated with happiness. Also, it's a person's subjective feeling of health, not objective health that matters for determining happiness. Some people facing extreme illness remain happy, while other people in relatively good health feel they aren't healthy and are depressed about it. Of course, extreme health problems have a tendency to drag us down. I found the relationship between money and happiness fascinating. It appears winning the lottery or extreme wealth won't make a person happy. Seligman writes: "In very poor nations, where poverty threatens life itself, being rich does predict greater well-being. In wealthier nations, however, where almost everyone has a basic safety net, increases in wealth have negligible effects on personal happiness. In the United States, the very poor are lower in happiness, but once a person is just barely comfortable, added money adds little or no happiness. Even the fabulously rich-the Forbes 100, with an average net worth of over $125 million dollars-are only slightly happier than the average American." (I read an article about Jean Chatzky's new book in which people were asked about their overall life happiness. Relative to income, once $50,000 is hit, happiness levels off. If you search google for "happiness money $50,000" you can find the full article online.) However, a person's obsession with making more money can lead to less happiness. Seligman writes: "...people who value money more than other goals are less satisfied with their income and with their lives as a whole ..." While external circumstances account for less than 15% of a person's happiness, Seligman tells us that genetic disposition plays a significant role, probably contributing over 50% to a person's characteristics. So, why do people become unduly pessimistic or unhappy? Seligman argues that negative emotions prepare us for conflicts or for win-lose games. In contrast, positive emotions help us be more creative and helps us to build social and intellectual resources. Happiness prepares us for win-win situations. Seligman writes: "When we are happy, we are less self-focused, we like others more, and we want to share our good fortune even with strangers. When we are down, though, we become distrustful, turn inward, and focus defensively on our own needs. Looking out for number one is more characteristic of sadness than of well-being." In addition to providing us with an understanding of happiness, "Authentic Happiness" provides several tests for evaluating our own happiness. Many of the tests are available online at AuthenticHappiness.org. Seligman also offers a prescription for finding more happiness. He suggests that people are happiest when they're using their signature strengths. Studying major religions and philosophies, Seligman has identified six admirable and largely culturally-independent strengths. They are: * Wisdom and Knowledge
* Courage
* Love and Humanity
* Justice
* Temperance
* Spirituality and Transcendence Seligman says that if we discover a calling, something that links to a greater good, which utilizes our signature strengths, we tend to be happy. The book also has practical advicee for using your knowledge of happiness to improve marriages and help children become more future-oriented. I highly recommend "Authentic Happiness" to readers who are interested in studying happiness, who want to test their own level of happiness, or who want to attain richer, more fulfilling lives.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Book for Some (at least)
Review: "Authentic Happiness" is an informative and/or helpful book for some people, perhaps many people. Other people might find a different book to be more informative and/or helpful for them. Isn't that the whole point of the personality psychology of individual differences? It seems unlikely that any one book, by itself, could be exactly right for every person, no matter what her or his personality, background, current life situation, or future aspirations are. Personally, I think this book is quite good for what it aims to be. And its web site is interesting. But one should look before one leaps -- read descriptions for several books, compare them & etc.. To search to find books that match one's present context seems a sensible strategy. But to expect one particular book to be either very good or very bad for all people would be inconsistent with decades of research findings from the personality psychology of individual differences. Not to mention, inauthentic and unhappy.
Rating:
Summary: Psychology is taking a positive turn
Review: = POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY =
Until recently psychology has mainly been working within a disease model: a strong emphasis has been placed on discovering deficits in human behavior and finding ways to repair this damage. Psychologist hardly focused on in doing studies acquiring knowledge about healthy functioning and building strengths. In other words: they have focused solely on taking away something negative (the disfunctioning) instead of adding something positive (increasing mental and behavioral health). The result: psychologist know little about healthy and happy functioning. This situation has been changing now since the rise of positive psychology a few years ago. What is Positive Psychology? It is a new movement in psychology, originated by Martin Seligman and a few other prominent psychologists among whom Mihali Csikszentmihalyi (author of FLOW). It aims to be a psychological science about the best things in life. Main topics of study are: positive emotions, positive traits and positive institutions. This book, Authentic Happiness, is the first book on positive psychology. Seligman is its main spokesperson. = HAPPINESS =
This book mainly deals with the phenomenon of happiness. According to Seligman your enduring level op happiness results from three factors: 1) your SET RANGE ( the basic biologically determined range within which your happiness normally will be), 2) the CIRCUMSTANCES OF YOUR LIFE (some conditions - like being married and living in a democratic country- somehow seem to contribute to happiness, and 3) your VOLUNTARY CONTROL ( the things you can do to get your happiness to the upper part of your set range. Ok, then how to get this done? Before answering this question Seligman explains that happiness/positive emotion can refer to three domains: the PAST (satisfaction, contentment, fulfilment, pride and serenity), the PRESENT (joy, ecstasy, calm, zest, ebullience, pleasure and flow) and the FUTURE (optimism, hope faith, trust). Then the author comes up with suggestions to improve your happiness: = HOW TO INCREASE YOUR HAPPINESS =
1) to be happier about your past, you need to: 1) let go of the false belief that your past negative experiences determine your present and future, 2) increase your gratitude about the good things in your past and 3) learn how to forgive past wrongs. 2) to be happier in your present, you need to distinguish between PLEASURES and GRATIFICATIONS. Pleasures are delights that have clear sensory and strong emotional components that require little if any thinking. Gratifications are flow-experiences. They are activities we very much like doing but that are not necessarily accompanied by any raw feelings at all. The gratifications last longer than the pleasures and they are undergirded by our strengths and virtues. The key to happiness in past and future lies in enhancing gratifications. 3) to be happier about your future, you need to change your explanatory style in order to become more optimistic and hopeful (for an explanation read my review of Seligman's book LEARNED OPTIMISM). = AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS BY USING YOUR STRENGTHS =
These explanations imply what Seligman means by AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS. He says we should not rely on shortcuts like television watching, chocolate eating, loveless sex, and buying things to feel happy. He explains that positive emotion alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, to inauthenticity, and to depression. So we want to feel like we deserved our positive feelings. That's why Seligman says UTHENTIC HAPPINESS comes from identifying and cultivating your most fundamental strengths (so-called SIGNATURE STRENGTHS) and using them everyday in work, love, play, and parenting. This message reminds of the one in Csikszentmihalyi's FINDING FLOW (see my review).
= CORE VIRTUES AND STRENGTHS =
Psychology has devised a classification system (language) for describing abnormal behavior and mental diseases. But it lacked a language describing human effectiveness and sanity. That is why Seligman and a team of scholars researched sources from all kinds of cultures and times in history and found that there is a strong convergence in what these traditions consider to be virtues and strengths. This led to the formulation of a classification system of virtues and strengths. SIX CORE VIRTUES: 1) Wisdom and knowledge, 2) courage, 3) Love and humanity, 4) Justice, 5) Temperance, 6) Spirituality and transcendence. Further they identified 24 strengths corresponding to these virtues. This book contains definitions of this taxonomy and some questionnaires for the reader to complete (the questionnaires can be found on the web too, by the way). = CONCLUSION =
Some words about the form and style of the book. It is pleasantly written. Seligman writes in a rather personal and honest style which makes the book lively (for instance he exclaims on page 24: "I am a hideous example of my own theory.") I recommend this book to anyone interested in psychology and in happiness (although it is not a self-help book in the first place, I think). The book ends reflectively dealing with the relationship between positive emotions and win-win situations, and speculating that we may be on the threshold of an era of win-win games and good-felling. I enjoyed reading the book and I like positive psychology. It is in many ways reminiscent of humanistic psychology (which I always liked) but has a more scientific approach. I have a good hope it will be a success. Coert Visser, www.m-cc.nl
Rating:
Summary: I agree 100% with the review by Mr. Coffee
Review: A gentleman named Mr. Coffee wrote an excellent review here citing information by the great Dr. Denis Waitley and discusing why optimism is a tonic while pessimism is a poisin. He also cited a review posted here by someone who said that pessimism can be good and that review actually got 34 votes. Mr. Coffee goes on to state that no doubt all 34 votes where from the reviewer who srote it. I couldn't agree more! Who could possibly think that pessimism is anything more than a illness that must be cured. Great book by Dr. Seligman. I also recommend Dr. Waitley. And whoever wrote that review about pessimism being good for you, I submit that you need these books more than anybody!
Rating: 
Summary: Tentative thoughts.....
Review: Admittedly I have not read this entire book in depth or done all of the excercises. I have skimmed it , read parts and done a couple of the excercises online just in case I found it to be worth the 26.00 dollars.I didn't. All in all it seems to me to be a quasi-religious,fuzzy notioned, naive tome of utopian collectivism.But what do I really think? Well for one I don't like his seeming endorsement of fundamentalist religion as indicitive of a superior method for happiness. This seems like the old ignorance is bliss arguement to me and he seems to endorse it. I'll take a little pessimism over arbritrary conformity and "playing by the rules" just to not encounter any "unhappiness".I think the cognitive guys have more to offer as in David Burns "Feeling Good" books and Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Therapy oriented books.One can bear a little unhappiness in the search for integrity and self-respect even if it means bucking the system and not being "Positive Polly".
Rating:
Summary: prescription for a happy, fulfilled life
Review: After wide-reaching research across time and cultures, Martin Seligman has identified six virtues: Wisdom and learning, courage, love and humanity, justice, temperance, spirituality and transcendence. In "Authentic Happiness" he describes how to strengthen your character in order to develop these life-affirming virtues. Unlike traditional psychotherapy, which revolves around a "talking cure" and seeks to identify traumatic events in a person's past, and even to assign blame, Seligman's Positive Psychology focuses on developing your "signature strengths", and on learning what you will find genuinely fulfilling in life. Using personal anecdotes in addition to well-documented (and in some cases, surprising) studies, he demonstrates how we can avoid being trapped by the downward spiral of negativity and depression. This is a remarkable book that defies classification. It should not be limited to the "self-help" genre, as Seligman goes far beyond that to introduce a new way of thinking about individual potential. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: As a physician
Review: As a physician who has treated clinical depression and anxiety the past 16 years, I have studied the best of pop psychology [Burns, Peurifoy, Bourne]. The standout feature of Seligman is that he is able to take high level scientific data and incorporate it into his lay literture. It provides for a strong argument in trying to convince the reader of the topic a hand. Also, Seligman is able to provide us with a progression of any of his previous written work. So 10 years ago, he presented us with "flexible" or learned optimism. Now, he has acquired enough data to back-up that basic concept and lay the foundation for the whole new field of "Positive Psychology". He truly is a visionary in this field. And yes, he most likely will succeed in cultivating a new branch of psychology.
Rating:
Summary: An extremely worthwhile book
Review: As a psychologist, I completely understand Martin Seligman's drive to free psychology from its obsession with negativity. Freud, he writes, made many people "unduly embittered about their past and unduly passive about their future," while clinical psychology focussed on diagnosing and treating mental disorders. In his new book, Authentic Happiness, Seligman goes a long way towards breaking psychology free from its love affair with pathology and replacing it with a far more positive approach. I don't know of anyone with better credentials to guide readers through what psychology has discovered about happiness. Seligman's own research has contributed greatly to our understanding of the entire range of human experience from profound depression to "abundant gratification." His early, groundbreaking studies of learned helplessness provided great insight into inescapable trauma as a major source of helplessness and depression. He went on to study "learned optimism" as a powerful antidote to depression--his earlier book by that name is invaluable. Now, Seligman sets out to provide readers with the insights and tools from the relatively new field of positive psychology. He does this with a rich mixture of anecdotes, personal revelations and research. In addition, he provides frequent self-assessments and exercises. I think that almost anyone who takes the time to read what Seligman has to say, who takes and thinks about the self assessments, and who does the exercises, will start thinking and acting in ways that lead to lasting happiness. It's important to realize that Seligman is not a self-help guru by any stretch of the imagination. He is a leading research psychologist who builds on solid experimental findings. (Although the book is vividly written for the most part, at times Seligman's reliance on research findings slows things down.) Still, he is also devoted to the idea of making those often dry experiments as meaningful and useful as possible. He doesn't promise limitless bliss, but what he does offer may actually be reachable by ordinary, unenlightened people like us. Early in the book Seligman makes the point that pleasure in itself is not the road to happiness. As we all know, pleasure is fleeting, and pursuing it can easily turn into addiction or futility. Instead Seligman identifies and values a set of nearly universal virtues which he believes lead to deep and lasting gratification. These include wisdom and knowledge, courage, love and humanity, justice, temperance, spirituality and transcendance. "The good life," he writes, "is using your signature strengths every day to produce authentic happiness and abundant gratification." What I liked most about this book is that it made me feel good about myself, other people, and the "simple" virtues that make up much of the fabric of life, but which are often ignored and devalued. Kindness, tolerance, competence, interpersonal skills, a work ethic, and faith emerge as vital ingredients of a good, gratifying, happy life. Authentic Happiness is not a miracle cure for all unhappiness. It is, however, a wise, well-informed, and extremely valuable guide to a more grounded, heartfelt and gratifying life. Robert Adler, Author of _Sharing the Children: How to Resolve Custody Problems and Get on With Your Life_(1988, 2nd. Ed. 2001), and _Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation_ (2002).
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