Learned Optimism : How to Change Your Mind & Your Life
Martin E.P. Seligman
Format: Paperback, 336pp.
ISBN: 9781400078394
Publisher: Vintage
Pub. Date: January 3, 2006
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Description and Reviews
From The Publisher:
ARE YOU HOLDING YOURSELF BACK?
Without knowing it, most of us impose limits on our achievement and our happiness by approaching life's problems and challenges with unnecessary pessimism. Now, Dr. Martin Seligman, a pioneer in cognitive psychology and motivational research, tells you how to identify your own self-defeating thought patterns — and how to harness the powers of your conscious mind to break those patterns.
The Science of Personal Control
Based on years of rigorous research, Learned Optimism examines the importance of "explanatory style" — the way in which we explain our problems and setbacks to ourselves — and offers a series of exercises that will help you target unhealthy habits of pessimistic thinking and bring them under your control. More powerful and pragmatic than a simple program of positive thinking, Dr. Seligman's principles of reasoned, flexible optimism will help you:
- Attain maximum personal achievement
- Avoid feelings of helplessness and depression
- Develop a hopeful, healthy outlook

About the Author
Martin E.P. Seligman is Kogod Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and past president of the division of clinical psychology of the American Psychological Association. He lives in Wynnewood, PA.

Table of Contents
| Introduction | v |
| Part One: The Quest | 1 |
| 1 | Two Ways of Looking at Life | 3 |
| 2 | Learning to Be Helpless | 17 |
| 3 | Explaining Misfortune | 31 |
| 4 | Ultimate Pessimism | 54 |
| 5 | How You Think, How You Feel | 71 |
| Part Two: The Realms of Life | 93 |
| 6 | Success at Work | 95 |
| 7 | Children and Parents: The Origins of Optimism | 116 |
| 8 | School | 136 |
| 9 | Sports | 155 |
| 10 | Health | 167 |
| 11 | Politics, Religion, and Culture: A New Psychohistory | 185 |
| Part Three: Changing: From Pessimism to Optimism | 205 |
| 12 | The Optimistic Life | 207 |
| 13 | Helping Your Child Escape Pessimism | 235 |
| 14 | The Optimistic Organization | 254 |
| 15 | Flexible Optimism | 281 |
| Notes | 293 |
| Acknowledgments | 305 |
| Index | 311 |

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