Flourish : A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being

by Martin E. P. Seligman

• ISBN13: 9781439190753
• ISBN10: 1439190755
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-05
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

The creator of one of the most influential theories of the 20th century presents for the first time a complete, new theory of the best way to live.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 1
A New Positive Psychology	p. 3
What Is Well-Being?	p. 5
The Birth of a New Theory	p. 9
The Original Theory: Authentic Happiness	p. 11
From Authentic Happiness Theory to Well-Being Theory	p. 13
Well-Being Theory	p. 14
The Elements of Well-Being	p. 16
Kindness Exercise	p. 21
Flourishing as the Goal of Positive Psychology	p. 26
Creating Your Happiness: Positive Psychology Exercises That Work	p. 30
The Gratitude Visit	p. 30
Can Well-Being Be Changed?	p. 31
What-Went-Well Exercise	p. 33
Positive Psychology Interventions and Cases	p. 35
Signature Strengths Exercise	p. 38
Positive Psychotherapy	p. 40
The Dirty Little Secret of Drugs and Therapy	p. 45
Cure Versus Symptom Relief	p. 46
The 65 Percent Barrier	p. 47
Active, Constructive Responding	p. 48
Dealing with Negative Emotions	p. 51
A New Approach to Cure	p. 53
Applied Psychology Versus Basic Psychology: Problems Versus Puzzles	p. 55
Wittgenstein, Popper, and Penn	p. 56
Teaching Well-Being: The Magic of MAPP	p. 63
The First MAPP	p. 64
Ingredients of Applied Positive Psychology	p. 66
Intellectually Challenging Applicable Content	p. 66
Personal and Professional Transformation	p. 70
Transformations	p. 71
Called to Positive Psychology	p. 75
Positive Education: Teaching Well-Being to Young People	p. 78
Should Well-Being Be Taught in School?	p. 79
The Penn Resiliency Program: A Way to Teach Well-Being in School	p. 81
Three-Good-Things Exercise	p. 84
Using Signature Strengths in New Ways	p. 84
The Geelong Grammar School Project	p. 85
Teaching Positive Education	p. 89
Embedding Positive Education	p. 90
Living Positive Education	p. 92
Positive Computing	p. 93
A New Measure of Prosperity	p. 96
The Ways to Flourish	p. 99
GRIT, Character, and Achievement: A New Theory of Intelligence	p. 101
Success and Intelligence	p. 102
Positive Character	p. 103
Drawn by the Future, Not Driven by the Past	p. 104
What Intelligence Is	p. 106
Speed	p. 106
The Virtue of Slowness	p. 110
Executive Function	p. 112
Rate of Learning: The First Derivative of Speed	p. 113
Self-Control and GRIT	p. 115
GRIT Versus Self-Discipline	p. 118
High Human Accomplishment	p. 119
GRIT's Benefits	p. 122
Building the Elements of Success	p. 124
Army Strong: Comprehensive Soldier Fitness	p. 126
A Psychologically Fit Army	p. 126
Global Assessment Tool (GAT)	p. 129
Online Courses	p. 137
Emotional Fitness Module	p. 139
Family Fitness Module	p. 142
Social Fitness Module	p. 143
Spiritual Fitness Module	p. 149
Turning Trauma into Growth	p. 152
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	p. 152
Post-Traumatic Growth	p. 159
Post-Traumatic Growth Course	p. 161
Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory	p. 161
Master Resilience Training	p. 163
Building Mental Toughness	p. 167
The Hot Seat: Fighting Catastrophic Thoughts in Real Time	p. 169
Hunt the Good Stuff	p. 171
Character Strengths	p. 171
Building Strong Relationships	p. 173
The Rollout	p. 177
Positive Physical Health: The Biology of Optimism	p. 182
Turning Medicine on Its Head	p. 182
Origins of Learned Helplessness Theory	p. 184
Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)	p. 190
Infectious Illness	p. 194
Cancer and All-Cause Mortality	p. 200
Is Well-Being Causal, and How Might It Protect?	p. 204
Positive Health	p. 208
Army Database: A National Treasure	p. 211
Cardiovascular Health Assets	p. 213
Exercise as a Health Asset	p. 214
The Politics and Economics of Well-Being	p. 221
Beyond Money	p. 221
The Divergence Between GDP and Well-Being	p. 222
The Financial Downturn	p. 228
Ethics Versus Values	p. 228
Optimism and Economics	p. 232
Reflexive and Nonreflexive Reality	p. 234
Perma 51	p. 237
Appendix: Signature Strengths Test	p. 243
Thanks and Acknowledgments	p. 267
Notes	p. 271
Index	p. 321
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