Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life

Martin E.P. Seligman

3.98 · Rating details · 16,813 ratings · 830 reviews

Known as the father of the new science of positive psychology, Martin E.P. Seligman draws on more than twenty years of clinical research to demonstrate how optimism enchances the quality of life, and how anyone can learn to practice it. Offering many simple techniques, Dr. Seligman explains how to break an “I—give-up” habit, develop a more constructive explanatory style fo ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 319 pages

Published January 3rd 2006 by Vintage (first published February 1st 1990)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Learned Optimism, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Greatest Psychology Books

609 books — 1,324 voters

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Self-help and advice

1,038 books — 815 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.98 ·

Rating details

· 16,813 ratings · 830 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life

Sep 22, 2012 Saša rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Don't confuse this for another bullshit self-help guide. This book is actually based on Dr. Seligman's (and others') extensive scientific research. It includes tests that offer valuable insight and effective techniques to battle those crippling negative thoughts. It's a bit lengthy, but that's the only downside I could find. Strongly recommended to anyone struggling with feelings of helplessness, pessimism, and/or depression. ...more

flag 78 likes · Like · see review

Feb 17, 2012 hissi rated it really liked it

Shelves: self-help, audio-book, how-to, psychology, non-fiction

(4 out of 5) because its informative, but boring.

im reading this for my friend. to help her find optimism and hope.

what i love about this book is that it does not believe that optimism is an attitude you should adapt for every situation in life. and that is what made the book so real!

when you're friend is hurt or feeling betrayed or sad, optimism will make them feel that you are undermining their problems.
having the "I CAN DO IT" attitude does not apply in everything. >> having a drink and drivi ...more

flag 45 likes · Like · see review

Jan 24, 2012 Michelle rated it liked it

Shelves: psych

Anyone in need of an attitude adjustment (as I was when I picked up this book) will benefit from knowing that how you view good and bad events can have a big impact on how effectively you deal with the normal ups and downs of life. In a nutshell, if you see bad events as persistent (things will never change), pervasive (this disappointment means my whole life is a disaster) and personal (I always mess things up), you are a pessimist and probably not a very happy camper.

Optimists see the world f ...more

flag 33 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2019 Sanjay Gautam rated it liked it

If you think your problems are permanent and all pervasive: you are inviting pessimism.
If you think your problems are temporary and limited in scope: this is learned optimism.

flag 20 likes · Like · see review

Jun 15, 2010 Nita rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

If only this stuff were as easy to apply as it is to understand.

Here's a quick summary: 1) Be specific. I'm not a bad person. I just made a mistake. 2) Notice the tendency to think of a negative outcome as more likely than a positive one. 3) Notice the tendency to take responsibility or blame yourself for things that could possibly be someone else's fault. The book includes a word of caution about blaming others. The idea isn't to shirk self-responsibility, it's just to notice and reframe the k ...more

flag 15 likes · Like · see review

Jun 13, 2016 Harold Griffin rated it liked it

Ah, self-help books. Long ago I read some N.V. Peale and Dale Carnegie about thinking positively, making friends, influencing people, stopping worrying, starting living. So here I am, negative, solitary, uninfluential, worrisome, nearing extinction. And a dubious endorsement for all those books!!

Actually the old books were all right, inspirational enough in grim times, but almost always plodding and predictable. "Just when he was about to leap from a window in despair, William K. Bloop of Keokuk Ah, self-help books. Long ago I read some N.V. Peale and Dale Carnegie about thinking positively, making friends, influencing people, stopping worrying, starting living. So here I am, negative, solitary, uninfluential, worrisome, nearing extinction. And a dubious endorsement for all those books!!

Actually the old books were all right, inspirational enough in grim times, but almost always plodding and predictable. "Just when he was about to leap from a window in despair, William K. Bloop of Keokuk, Ioway, saw a light in a chapel. There he saw a man with no arms, no legs, one eye,
no nose. But a vision came to Bloop: the man had a shining bald scalp. The next day Bloop cashed in his life insurance policy and started manufacturing toupees and is now President of a billion dollar rug company!"

I can't remember the Seventies (too much feverish Disco) , but I recall that the self-help genre headed downward, as if that were possible. Touchier, feelier, full of mumbo-jumbo. Even worse prose, extolling yoga postures, abdominal breathing, chopping water, carrying wood (or was that the other way)? And when the stuff that sold books started to get promoted on PBS channels as if it were Holy Writ, well, I exited, growling.

With that preface, Martin Seligman's Learned Optimism was not a bad read. Dr. Seligman promotes the proposition that optimism is generally (but not always) better than pessimism, which can lead to depression. He says that he does not espouse Dr. Peale's simplistic solution of positive thinking or repeating mantras. Rather, he suggests that when humans can reduce their sense of helplessness and pessimism by examining the negative events in their lives, explaining to themselves that bad results are not personal, pervasive, or persistent. That is to say, humans should avoid concluding that such results come because of innate flaws in themselves that will never change and that will cause adverse results to keep recurring. Explaining adverse results to oneself differently will make one happier, healthier and more successful! Yay!! (Some might call this positive thinking.) And excessive ruminating on adverse events in our lives, needless to say, can only bring unhappiness. Though isn't that what psychiatric practice is built upon?

Dr. Seligman, writing in 1990, did recognize that sometimes things are our fault, and that pessimists often have a better handle on reality than blithe optimists. And, while I agree that it's sometimes too easy for some of us to take the blame for problems that are not really of our own making but the result of transient circumstances, I wonder in this year of 2016 how many folks are really blamin' themselves for much of anything. (Witness the rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Blame problems on anyone but yourself!! Occupy Wall Street! Build a Wall!!)

I was quite impressed by the opening chapters (and the concluding one, in which the author discussed the self-centered society and some possible means to better living). For all my cynicism, Dr. Seligman is at times an excellent writer and a thoughtful thinker. However, the book suffered through a tedious middle in which some of the writer's principles are rather tediously applied to many aspects of life. Seems to me that the thesis of this book was pretty simply stated and easily understood yet was pounded into the ground. But that's being too pessimistic! So forget that. Remember this: if you feel you're being crippled by pessimism, give this book a good skim. Or, look on the bright side, think positive thoughts, eat an apple every day and stay regular. One way or another you'll be a happier clam.

...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Sep 10, 2017 Ali rated it did not like it

Shelves: self-help

How?! 😐

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Apr 22, 2012 Isabell rated it liked it

Shelves: psycho

I enjoyed the insights the author provided into the history of learned helplessness theory, as well as bits and pieces about the beginnings of cognitive behavioral therapy. This book has a lot of research and quite a bit of psychology in it, some of it boring to me, some of it fascinating, some of it convincing, some of it unconvincing.

It is not just a self-help guide to positive thinking. In fact, the author decries positive thinking, making the point that chanting inflated mantras to oneself I enjoyed the insights the author provided into the history of learned helplessness theory, as well as bits and pieces about the beginnings of cognitive behavioral therapy. This book has a lot of research and quite a bit of psychology in it, some of it boring to me, some of it fascinating, some of it convincing, some of it unconvincing.

It is not just a self-help guide to positive thinking. In fact, the author decries positive thinking, making the point that chanting inflated mantras to oneself daily is ineffective in the long run.

Instead, he says, we must learn to rationally dispute our pessimistic thoughts the way we would dispute a verbal attack on us by a rival. There are three chapters teaching how to do just that, with one chapter focusing specifically on how to teach children those same skills. Children seem to be on Seligman's mind a lot, as a good portion of his research focuses on them. I agreed with everything he had to say about children, and about the effect divorce has on them (basically he says, don't divorce!, and, don't fight in front of them!, and in this day and age, that's a brave thing to say. I love him for that).

He says many brave things, and I agree with most of them. Some of his statements are over-simplified and unconvincing, however. I am not satisfied with his reasoning as to why women are twice as likely as men to suffer from depression (it's their tendency to ruminate, he says). And while I generally agree with his theory that the epidemic of depression has hit us because of our increased focus on the "I" and individual rights, coupled with a decrease in the "We" (ie community, country, duty, God, meaning), it leaves unexplained why groups such as stay-at-home mothers, one of those last valiant troops left fighting in the "We" battlefield, are at particular risk for depression. Are they more pessimistic as a group? Do they ruminate even more than working mothers? Unlikely.

To be fair, his research isn't concerned with the why of depression, but rather with the how to beat it in the long-run. Given that, I wish he had focused a bit more on actual skill teaching (in the end, what he actually teaches is only a few pages long), or at the least provided a work book to accompany his main book.

In either case, this was certainly an interesting read. And as I agree with him that depression will be the thing to beat for future generations, I can't wait to read his "The Optimistic Child: Proven Program to Safeguard Children from Depression & Build Lifelong Resilience."

...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Apr 12, 2013 Stacy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: psychology, books-read-2013, nonfiction

I first read this in 2013. I was really looking for something to help me with a problem I have struggled with all my adult life: learned helplessness. What is learned helplessness? An overwhelming feeling of powerlessness that stems from either a traumatic event (true for me), or some persistent failure to succeed (also true for me, but the root cause was a traumatic event). What I discovered was that, somewhere along the line, I had become a serious pessimist.

I think the reason this book turned I first read this in 2013. I was really looking for something to help me with a problem I have struggled with all my adult life: learned helplessness. What is learned helplessness? An overwhelming feeling of powerlessness that stems from either a traumatic event (true for me), or some persistent failure to succeed (also true for me, but the root cause was a traumatic event). What I discovered was that, somewhere along the line, I had become a serious pessimist.

I think the reason this book turned the trick for me was that it turned optimism into a process rather than some just-out-of-reach brass ring. I'd been tagged by an overwhelming feeling of despair for years. I felt a real sense of relief when I read what Seligman had to say on the unhappiness caused by learned helplessness (which is in turn caused by pessimism): this is a nameable and fixable problem. Suddenly, something that felt totally ethereal and therefore unsolvable suddenly had a name and a possible solution--something within my control. Just reading the book put me in a better frame of mind. (I, er, didn't do the exercises when I first read this. I would suggest going ahead and doing them and not waiting.)

Basically, I think the steps can be boiled down to these:

1. Pay attention to your thoughts. When you start to feel overwhelmed:

2. Distract yourself.

This really only works short-term, but it's a good technique to use when you can't sit down and do the next step. Even something as simple as "I'll think about this later" can get the Inner Critic to shut up. I've also found that finding something constructive to do helps. Painting works great for me. Something else might work for you. For longer-lasting results:

3. Refute the Inner Critic.

Seligman doesn't call it this--I can't remember his wording, and he explains it a lot better than I do here. But to really do the job, you have to refute the constant ruminating your brain does. Don't let it go unchecked. The key here isn't dismissing the Inner Critic, it's mitigating what it says to you so that it doesn't spiral out of control. So it's not a dismissive "Haters gonna hate" or a mindless list of affirmations.

I can see how some believe the book is more theoretical than practical, but there are steps to helping your thought process in there. Most importantly, I think, is that Seligman manages to convey all of this in a way that totally does not blame the reader. In fact, he points out that it can be difficult to know if you are a pessimist. (If you frequently experience people reacting negatively to you and you don't know what you said wrong, you might be a pessimist.)

All I can say is, this book really helped me. I had a small writing job that turned into a lot of work, which wound up pulling me out of poverty-level wages. In two years, I've not gone back. I went from sleeping on a friend's sofa to getting my own place. (Not the greatest apartment, but still, it's mine, and I've paid my own rent for the better part of a year and a half now.) I'm not saying my life is all sunshine and roses, or that I don't still struggle. I'm still in the negative numbers when I take the test. But even a movement of four points (-8 to -4) has yielded huge results for me. I've definitely felt a push into a better life from reading this book. I just have more work to do. ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Jul 13, 2011 Daniel Silvert rated it it was amazing

Authors like Dr. Martin Seligman give ‘self help’ books a good name. In his meticulously researched yet engaging style, Seligman’s Learned Optimism makes a near bullet proof case for optimistic thinking as an inexhaustible engine for personal improvement. Seligman focuses on a person’s ‘explanatory style’ as the key indicator of how they will respond to difficult situations. Explanatory style is what we say to ourselves when the chips are down. According to Seligman, this self coaching is both d Authors like Dr. Martin Seligman give ‘self help’ books a good name. In his meticulously researched yet engaging style, Seligman’s Learned Optimism makes a near bullet proof case for optimistic thinking as an inexhaustible engine for personal improvement. Seligman focuses on a person’s ‘explanatory style’ as the key indicator of how they will respond to difficult situations. Explanatory style is what we say to ourselves when the chips are down. According to Seligman, this self coaching is both deeply imbedded and rarely questioned. In other words, ‘if I’m saying it to myself, it must be true!’ In response, Dr. Seligman makes the case that there are many ‘truths’ out there and consciously choosing which to focus on can dramatically improve the quality of your life.

Here’s how it works: In the face of an unfortunate event a ‘Pessimist’ will employ a three stage strategy: First they focus heavily on the negative consequences and ‘personalize’ the attribution. (“This is my fault). Second, they decide that the difficulty of the situation is permanent (“It will never change”). Third, they confirm that the change is part of a much larger pattern of failure, that it is pervasive (This will ruin everything). This trifecta of gloom locks in a self fulfilling prophecy of failure, which in turn validates the ‘logic’ and ‘accuracy’ of the pessimistic person’ diagnosis.

Optimists, as one would expect, react to unfortunate events differently. The optimist identifies external forces that have influenced the negative event, thus they don’t take it as personally. Next, optimists accept that negative events are both unavoidable and a temporary pause from an otherwise positive progress towards their goals. Lastly, negative events are compartmentalized as ‘isolated phenomenon.’ Negativity is, therefore, episodic, not pervasive.
Incredibly, when good events happen, the script flips. Optimists will see the positive as personalized, permanent, and pervasive, while the pessimist will take good news as de-personalized, temporary, and isolated.

Of the two explanatory styles, which do you think results in longer life spans, happier marriages, and more satisfying careers? Exactly. Read this book to maximize your optimism.
...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Sep 06, 2010 David rated it liked it

Shelves: therapy, psychology, positive-psychology

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had a very divided reaction to this book.

The Pros:

First of all, ‘learned helplessness’ is quite arguably one of the most important and revolutionary concepts in psychology today. It’s made a wonderful contribution to Aaron Becks’s Cognitive Therapy; cognitive behavioral therapy having an unmatched track record for its treatment of depression – an epidemic in our society today. As a result of his research, Seligman offers real, learnable, and proven effective techniques for learning to be more I had a very divided reaction to this book.

The Pros:

First of all, ‘learned helplessness’ is quite arguably one of the most important and revolutionary concepts in psychology today. It’s made a wonderful contribution to Aaron Becks’s Cognitive Therapy; cognitive behavioral therapy having an unmatched track record for its treatment of depression – an epidemic in our society today. As a result of his research, Seligman offers real, learnable, and proven effective techniques for learning to be more optimistic. It is certainly one of my favorite concepts in psychology.

Furthermore, I love that he challenges the notion of the exponential rise in depression today as being a largely genetic phenomenon. I found this to be some very refreshing common sense. The unprecedented level of depression in this society today cannot be attributed to biology (or solely to biology) – something else is at work here. I don’t mean to say that there is no biological basis for depression – there most certainly is. However, it only makes sense that something in our society is going on, perhaps at times triggering particular genes on a wide scale, to create such an unprecedented level of depression. I found the last chapter to be very insightful where he examines radical individualism (he calls it the ‘Maximal Self’) as the source of depression from a more sociological position – an often overlooked source for depression in contemporary society.

The three major hypotheses of explanatory style were also quite enlightening: 1) Mother’s Explanatory Style; 2) Adult Criticism: Teachers and Parents; and 3) Children’s Life Crisis. In addition to these hypotheses of explanatory style are the three essential aspects of explanatory style: permanence, pervasiveness and personalization.

The Cons:

While I did obtain some solid information/advice in this book, it has some problems and I believe Seligman has some holes in his argument.

The main problem for me was that Seligman seemed to create too much of a mutually exclusive relationship between optimism and realism. One quote I found rather disturbing to illustrate my point: “The pessimist seems to be at mercy with reality, whereas the optimist has a massive defense against reality that maintains good cheer in the face of a relentless indifferent universe” (p. 111) – Sorry, Dr. Seligman, I may be misreading you, but you lost me here. While this was somewhat remedied toward the end of the book, it felt a little too inconsistent with the rest of the book’s tone.

Tying into this, not only does Seligman not take nearly enough of a look at ‘false’ or ‘misguided’ optimism, he seems to – at times – endorse it. This is a serious problem that has not been examined adequately (I suspect that he generated a lot of empirical data, and was a little too eager to tailor his theory to fit in with this). Having spent some time in corporate America, I believe this false optimism is creating record levels of denial in our country, which seem to be extending at an alarming rate – all in the name of being more optimistic. Only towards the end of the book does he seem to write more about the perils of optimism with a brief section in the middle regarding depressives having a more accurate memory and owning up much more readily to both their failures and their successes rather than the optimists who tend to look upon the past through rose-colored glasses.

In all fairness, he does write a little bit about the problem of a lack of personal responsibility today and how he has no interest in personally endorsing this kind of psychology. Again, I just didn’t feel like he spent enough time here.

Lastly, on a minor note, I believe he is too overconfident in his beliefs why women suffer depression at a rate twice that of men. While this is an established statistic, there is much debate over what this statistic means exactly. Are women somehow biochemically or hormonally predisposed to depression? Perhaps. Or do they report it more readily than men? Do men hide their depression through substance abuse or other non-constructive outlets? – I believe Seligman is too simplistic here in his offered explanation. ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

May 27, 2012 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it really liked it

Shelves: happiness, inspiration

I've been fascinated with happiness in the last five years, so it seems obvious that this book, now considered a classic in the field, would be a book I should read.

And now that I have, I must say that I agree with the crown that has been placed upon this book's head; it's a worthy read for anyone interested in happiness.

I took away from it a paradoxical and disquieting idea: the happiest people are the most optimistic, but fail again and again to see the dark truths in life, while the unhappi ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Mar 19, 2019 Andria rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mental-health, nonfiction, self-help, 2019

First, I'd like to reassure those concerned about a severe shift in my temperament that I only read this book on the advice of my psychologist and would have never touched a book with this title otherwise. I found the nugget of wisdom at the core of this book to be extremely helpful and ultimately worth the read. But even then, I think ascribing the thought patterns described as "optimism" and "pessimism" is a misnomer. Ultimately it's about positive and negative self talk and the impacts those First, I'd like to reassure those concerned about a severe shift in my temperament that I only read this book on the advice of my psychologist and would have never touched a book with this title otherwise. I found the nugget of wisdom at the core of this book to be extremely helpful and ultimately worth the read. But even then, I think ascribing the thought patterns described as "optimism" and "pessimism" is a misnomer. Ultimately it's about positive and negative self talk and the impacts those things can have on motivation and learned helplessness. That's it!

The rest of the book is hilariously bad. The two major problems that take up most of its content are 1) it is out of date 2) the author is sketchy. I would really like to see an update of these concepts written by someone else who can incorporate the last 20 years of advancements in psychology.

Dr. Seligman! What can I say about this dude? He has strong opinions about optimists and pessimists but fails to identify himself as either. I first started to get skeeved out when he pretty much blamed his father's mindset for his suffering after he suddenly fell paralyzed, ill, and possibly brain damaged. He comes off as a sociopathic creep at worst and a smug opportunist at best. For example, most of his core research was done on behalf of insurance companies trying to figure out how they could best retain salespeople. Why was a tenured professor taking a handsomely paid side gig helping telemarketers sell financial scams and how could such an obvious conflict of interest be construed as legitimate research? (Hey, it was the 80s!) The chapter about the laughably subjective CAVE method and analysis of sports teams was an obvious attempt by the author to get to spend more time with his son. His practical advice veers between the absurd and hypocritical (he advocates parents postpone divorce because of the negative impacts it can have on children but got one himself). There are better and more thorough critiques of Seligman and his legacy of dog torture a Google search away so I will end mine here, other than to say that he comes off like an alien trying and failing to demonstrate human emotions.

If you have to try this out, the abridged audiobook is only 2 hours long. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 13, 2008 Kirsti rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, science, psychology

Compelling account of the author's decades of research. Seligman is best known for developing the concept of learned helplessness, which is covered in most psychology courses.

The book includes a test so you can determine how optimistic you are in different situations. I think it's an extremely well-designed test because it's often hard to tell what the "right" answer is.

The author studies optimism in many groups: rats, dogs, college students, life-insurance sales reps, East German working men, a ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 01, 2019 Gilgamesha rated it liked it

Seligman, known as the father of positive psychology, convinced me through endless examples of research done by experts on how an optimistic outlook on life can lead to better quality of life and success and happiness and a tool in overcoming adversity. I really enjoyed the first half of the book but the second half became excessively repetitive. He inundated me with too many examples of scenarios that the optimism questionnaire was successful in...one or two was sufficient. The end of the book ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 20, 2019 Ginget Poulton rated it really liked it

Really excellent
Some of it of course a bit out dated but so agree with most all of it!

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Oct 05, 2011 Kathryn rated it really liked it

Shelves: psychology, nonfiction

I was expecting Learned Optimism to be as airy-fairy and worthless as Full Catastrophe Living, and was very pleased to discover that it is quite the opposite. It is a scientific treatment of optimism and its effects on how people respond to problems; that is, it examines who gives up and who perseveres, and why.

Dr. Seligmann has been studying optimism his entire life. He leads us through his intellectual journey, beginning when as a young grad student, he was exposed to a study in which a group I was expecting Learned Optimism to be as airy-fairy and worthless as Full Catastrophe Living, and was very pleased to discover that it is quite the opposite. It is a scientific treatment of optimism and its effects on how people respond to problems; that is, it examines who gives up and who perseveres, and why.

Dr. Seligmann has been studying optimism his entire life. He leads us through his intellectual journey, beginning when as a young grad student, he was exposed to a study in which a group of dogs had been shocked in a room they couldn’t escape, with no control over the shocks. When placed in a shuttlebox, from which they could readily escape, and shocked, they simply lay down and “gave up”. The professor was confused, but Dr. Seligmann opined that the dogs had given up because they had “learned” that they could not get away from the shocks, and there was no use trying. The professor basically said he was an idiot, because that didn’t jibe with either Freudian BS or behavioral psychology, which were the prevailing schools of thought at the time.

So then-student Seligmann and another grad student, with the reluctant agreement of the PI (primary investigator), devised a new experiment. They took three groups of dogs. The first group was shocked, but were situated such that they could learn to turn off the shock by pushing a button with their noses. The second group received exactly the same shocks as the first group, but without any buttons; that is, their shocks stopped when the other dogs, unbeknownst to them, pushed the button. The third group received no shocks at all. Finally, the dogs were placed in the shuttlebox. Those from the first group leaped out to escape the shocks; those from the second group lay down and gave up; and those from the control group also leaped out to escape. Seligmann had essentially proven that the second group had been “taught” that they could do nothing about the shocks.

The book proceeds to explain Dr. Seligmann’s continued experiments. He performed a similar experiment on humans, in which pressing the right combination of buttons would turn off an annoying sound for one group, while another group could do nothing to turn off the sound, and got the same results when the humans were placed in a situation where the annoying sound was easily escaped. The group that had “learned” that there was nothing they could do basically sat down and gave up.

However, there was a flaw. Among both dogs and humans, there were certain percentages of the first group who never tried, and there were certain percentages of the second group who never gave up. So Dr. Seligmann continued to explore the concept of optimism. He eventually found that there are three dimensions: personal, pervasive, and permanent.

For example, let’s say you fail a test. You might say, “I didn’t study hard enough,” versus, “The professor made that test too hard.” The former is an example of taking failure personally. (Of course, most of the time, it IS true that you didn’t study hard enough; but it is also sometimes true that the professor’s test was unfair.) Or you might say, “I am so stupid. I will never do well in anything,” versus, “Wow, I really don’t get quantum physics [or whatever].” That’s a demonstration of pervasiveness – a pervasive pessimist thinks that a failure in one area translates to failure in every area. And finally, you might say, “Wow, I am stupid. I will never do better,” versus, “I’ll do better next time,” which demonstrates permanence.

So, someone who doesn’t take failure personally and who doesn’t believe that failure is pervasive or permanent is optimistic, and will generally succeed in life. (Caveat: Experiments have demonstrated that moderate pessimists often have a much better handle on reality than optimists.) And you can learn to be optimistic, by identifying whether your pessimism is personal, pervasive, or permanent (or some combination), and learning to dispute the pessimistic part of yourself. The book repeated several times that if some drunk on the street yelled, “Hey, you suck!” you wouldn’t pay any attention to him, would you? So why listen when part of yourself says that? Dispute yourself the same way you would dispute someone else.

From now on, I’m going to picture my critical inner voice as a drunk hobo. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

May 20, 2017 Nikolay rated it it was amazing

Learned Optimism is not a self-help book, it’s based on a lot of scientific research and is not a light read. But worth it.

This book validated so many of my life beliefs, so from now on, it may be the confirmation bias speaking :) Still, here are few pieces I strongly related to.

“The skills of becoming happy turn out to be almost entirely different from the skills of not being sad, not being anxious, or not being angry.” We focus so much on being happy that we forget that not being sad may be mo ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 03, 2011 Jeffrey Howard rated it it was amazing

Shelves: psychology-general, best-of-books-list

I read Learned Optimism for the first time several years ago. It pulled me out of a dark place and into more flourishing place. This 2nd reading took me to a new level of optimism and hope about my ability to control my emotional reaction to adversities in life. Reading it again in a few years should bring me to a real level flourishing I really want to be in.

Seligman challenges conventional notions about depression. He makes a hopeful case that pessimism is not a symptom of depression but the ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Dec 20, 2012 Steven rated it liked it

Shelves: psychology, american

I do not like Seligman because of his research on animals. People who think it's OK to give electric shocks to dogs have made me learn pessimism about human compassion.

Seligman created a ground-breaking experiment which was first performed with dogs back in the sixties. Three dogs went through each experiment. The first dog was given electrical shocks which stopped whenever it pressed a panel with its nose. It got shocks, but had the power to stop them. The second dog got shocks whenever the fir ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 05, 2020 Mirela rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Summary: think in terms of sometimes when bad thing happens, do not take it personally, and do not stretch it over a whole life, keep it where it is.
example:

a) Today I had a bad meeting. I slept badly this night so I was tired. Noone probably noticed. = good, positive thinking

b) Today I had a bad meeting. I am stupid it is always like that. Noe everyone thinks I am incapable= bad, pessimistic thinking in terms of always, invasive and personal

And that is all you need really from this book.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2020 Sally rated it it was ok

Two stars for two brilliant viewpoints the author makes: 1) the learned helplessness theory, which is well-grounded in biology, experiments and simply fascinating; 2) the good advice that we should teach kids in an optimistic way. Deducting three stars for 1) the book slips from lab controlled animal experiments to causation to prediction....and eventually to correlation 2) based on the study-based conclusions, which are only valid within the study contexts, the author gave disturbing overarchin Two stars for two brilliant viewpoints the author makes: 1) the learned helplessness theory, which is well-grounded in biology, experiments and simply fascinating; 2) the good advice that we should teach kids in an optimistic way. Deducting three stars for 1) the book slips from lab controlled animal experiments to causation to prediction....and eventually to correlation 2) based on the study-based conclusions, which are only valid within the study contexts, the author gave disturbing overarching advice to organizations 3) the last section talking about tactics really is not useful. It's a very basic run-down of CBT. Maybe it was useful when the book was published, but for 2020, any good CBT workbook beats this brief section by miles.

The author makes two claims: 1) pessimism causes depression, while optimism immunes people from depression. 2) pessimism causes failure, while optimism causes success. The first claim is convincing and intuitive, especially with the studies on clinical depression. The second claim is repulsive and I believe inaccurate. For me, the accurate depiction of what the author finds should be: 1) pessimism leads to learned helplessness in some people 2) pessimism, even without learned helplessness, can cause depression or lower mood in general 3) learned helplessness causes failure, but pessimism does not *cause* failure other than through its relation to helplessness. After reading the entire book, I cannot find any study that proves why pessimistic people who are persistent and motivated cannot succeed as much as optimistic people.

Before I go on, I must admit that I am taking it personally because I am a pessimist - both self-perceived before reading this book and unequivocally self-diagnosed by the test of this book. However, I think of myself as a very persistent and motivated pessimist. In fact, much of my persistence is caused by my pessimism. For example, I know that I (personal) am less talented (permanent) in most sports (pervasiveness) than most people. This is why I try four or five times harder before I even start to evaluate my performance as a success or a failure. I am equally, if not more, pessimistic on good events. I believe that many of my successes are the results of good luck. That is why even facing a challenge that I have succeeded in before, I put in as much effort as the first time. For me, pessimism is a personality trait that can be used for or against you, and this book mostly asserts one way without any justification.

The most repulsive part of the book is how the author recommends using his optimism test in hiring decisions and college admissions. Specifically, he recommends that we hire unqualified optimists over qualified pessimists because unqualified optimists are predicted to perform better than qualified pessimists. Now, the statistical claim, that on average, optimists are predicted to perform better than pessimists, is probably true. But by the same logic, men are predicted to perform better than women, whites are predicted to perform better than blacks, and people with high SES background are predicted to perform better than low SES background. Why is that true? Well, men are more optimistic than women, and I will put my bet on whites are more optimistic than blacks, and high SES people are more optimistic than low SES people. Oh and by the way, even the author points out that people might be pessimistic *because* they grew up with unfortunate life events, in poverty, or are discriminated against. So when people grow up in unfortunate circumstances, they learn to be pessimistic, and then we are justified to not hire/admit them even when they manage to become as qualified as people who grow up in more fortunate circumstances?

Another baffling part of this discussion is that, when faced with high dropout/quit rates, or lower than academic successes, instead of looking for ways the program can help those qualified people realize their own potential, the CEOs and deans of colleges prefer to discard them and instead have optimistic people who won't quit as a replacement.

In contrast, I take the first part of the book, where the author argues that pessimism causes depression, seriously. I think this is a much more accurate claim, but even this claim makes me uneasy. Specifically, the author argues that the downsides of pessimism are many, while the upside of pessimism is only that pessimistic people are more objectively correct and wiser. For the author, this means that optimism clearly wins in this cost-benefit analysis. I find this hard to swallow - especially because as academic researchers, we are devoting our career to advance the scientific understanding of the world, so being correct and wise seems like a noble goal, not a nuisance. Even when I believe the author's argument that pessimism leads to depression, I would personally be okay with average or mild depression if it comes with knowing the truth and being wise, rather than being an ignorant optimist.

In all, I am disappointed after reading this book. I had high hopes for it because I am a firm believer in CBT and I thought this book would help me understand how and why CBT works effectively, and how we can use similar principles to live a happier life for healthy people. The reason I like CBT is that CBT persuades one to see the truth by discarding their biases. At first glance, the author seems to agree with me by advocating "flexible optimism" in the last section of the book. However, this is directly at odds with the rest of the book. The optimism test classifies someone who is completely objective (G-B score of 0) as a pessimist, if not a depressive. Therefore, the optimism test implies that to reap the benefits of optimism, one must deviate from the truth. This is a conclusion I am not willing to swallow - so, for now, I will choose to keep my pessimism and mild depression tendencies. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 11, 2020 Berna Kabadayı rated it liked it

Although its informative, I would say its quite boring book. Tldr for me: In the long run, motivation, perspective we have are the key things that help us to tackle with the difficult situations we face. As The Beatles also said don’t carry the world upon your shoulders

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 16, 2021 Emily S rated it really liked it

I was skeptical of this book at the beginning, but thankfully he ends with more caveats. While I still have reservations, I think this book will be helpful for changing pessimistic habits/patterns of thought.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 13, 2020 Sulav rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, psychology, self-help

3.5/5
Apparently, after 18 days of giving up on at least 10 books, I was finally able to complete this one.
I first learnt about Martin Seligman from my A-level Psychology course book. We had to learn about depression in the second chapter and I had found his theory very convincing.
This book is about depression explained from a cognitive approach namely Learned Helplessness. According to Seligman, Permanence, Pervasiveness, and Personalization together make a recipe for depression and to tack ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 26, 2018 Maithreyi Mulpuru rated it it was amazing

Books offers a scientific approach towards recognizing your depression triggers and how you can unlearn pessimistic behaviors to inculcate more positive action oriented thinking. Overall, liked the book for its practical guidance and the fact that it's based on quantitative research. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 05, 2020 Dinko rated it really liked it

This is NOT yet another boring informationless self-help book (it is a great example that you shouldn’t judge the book by the cover, because the cover really looks like another terrible self-help book). I found the book mostly interesting and practical with a lot of advice. The claims and the data are substantiated with research and clever experiments. There is some repetition throughout the book since it tries to give practical advice for different aspects of life: private life, children, work. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 09, 2019 Amanda rated it did not like it

Shelves: dnf

DNF at 23%.

I tried to give this book a chance. I was skeptical after taking the Optimism test in the book. There's a series of situations and you must chose one of two responses you would have, which are then scored and categorized into a variety of categories. The categories are then individually added up giving you scores for things like pervasive bad (pessimism), pervasive good (optimism) or how hopeless you are and then a final tally is given. I had two big issues with this. First, the optio DNF at 23%.

I tried to give this book a chance. I was skeptical after taking the Optimism test in the book. There's a series of situations and you must chose one of two responses you would have, which are then scored and categorized into a variety of categories. The categories are then individually added up giving you scores for things like pervasive bad (pessimism), pervasive good (optimism) or how hopeless you are and then a final tally is given. I had two big issues with this. First, the options for the scenarios penalize someone who is rational. For example, responding that chance makes you win the lottery is marked as pessimistic (as opposed to answering you chose good numbers). Anyone who has a basic understanding of the lottery knows it's blind chance. Why is this penalized? There are many other examples of this in the quiz. Second, the final tally makes no sense. For example, I came out as average in multiple categories, but then moderately hopeless and then finally moderately optimistic. What? I had my spouse take the same quiz. He came out average on everything and then completely pessimistic when it was fully tallied. What?!

Alright, I decided, maybe the quiz is hokum but I can still get something useful out of it on building up my optimism. Well, the very next chapter goes on to discuss depression, and it describes suicide attempts in such an offensive way, I decided I simply couldn't continue.
"[attempts of suicide] generally have one or both of two motives. The first is surcease: The prospect of going on as they are is intolerable, and they want to end it all. The other is manipulation: They want to get love back or get revenge, or have the last word in an argument."[23% into electronic book]

I was completely incensed. To describe suicide attempts as, not just attempts at manipulation, but for petty reasons like having "the last word in an argument" is incredibly offensive. Even if the author has scientific evidence to back this up (none is cited in the book), there are far less harmful ways to discuss such a sensitive topic. And don't even get me started on the irresponsibility of a book on increasing optimism devoting time to discussion of suicide. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 16, 2008 Brian Johnson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: modern-classics, positive-psychology

“Habits of thinking need not be forever. One of the most significant findings in psychology in the last twenty years is that individuals can choose the way they think.”

“People who make permanent and universal explanations for their troubles tend to collapse under pressure, both for a long time and across situations.”

“On a mechanical level, cognitive therapy works because it changes explanatory style from pessimistic to optimistic, and the change is permanent. It gives you a set of cognitive ski ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2017 Greg rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: anthropology, american-authors, social-analysis

I spotted this book, a freebee discard at the local library recently, 'Learned Optimism'. I thought, this'll be good for a laugh. The first chapter is titled 'Two Ways of Looking at Life'. Only two ways, how depressing is that! Chapter four sounds more up my street, 'Ultimate Pessimism'. It is odd there is no listing of sceptics or cynics in the index, (there's a few mentions of being skeptical). The index does list 'catastrophizers', which gets interesting. Apparently, catastrophizers are into ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
CBT, versus Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness	1	3	Apr 11, 2020 09:42PM
Cognitive Therapy	3	16	Nov 17, 2019 03:39PM
Any teachers/educators out there read this book?	1	8	Jan 22, 2016 10:17AM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Psychology

673 users

Nonfiction

400 users

Self Help

390 users

Self Help > Personal Development

117 users

Business

30 users

Science

30 users

Health > Mental Health

28 users

Health

25 users

Leadership

22 users

Parenting

19 users

See top shelves…

About Martin E.P. Seligman

Martin E.P. Seligman

768 followers

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. Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association by the widest margin in its history and served in that capacity during the 1998 term.[4] He is the founding editor-in-chief ...more