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Happy People Are Extremely Social
While experimental psychology after World War II became deeply concerned with the cognitive processes of the brain, clinical psychology continued to examine ways to treat disorders such as depression and anxiety. The new cognitive therapies still focused largely on alleviating unhappy conditions rather than on creating and promoting happier ones.
Martin Seligman, whose theory of “learned helplessness” (the spiral of acquiring pessimistic attitudes in illnesses such as depression) had led to more successful treatments in the 1980s, believed that what psychology offered was good, but it could offer more. He felt that therapy should be “as concerned with strength as with weakness; as interested in building the best things in life as repairing the worst”.
Having studied philosophy, he likened the task of his “positive psychology” to that of Aristotle seeking eudaemonia– “the happy life”. Like his philosophical forebears, Seligman found this was not a matter of relieving or removing things that make us unhappy, but of encouraging those things that might make us happy – and first he had to discover what they were.
eudaemonia——因理性而积极生活带来的幸福
"Good social relationships are, like food and thermoregulation(温度调节), universally important to human mood."
Martin Seligman
“Happy” lives
Seligman noticed that extremely happy, fulfilled people tend to get on with others, and enjoy company. They seemed to lead what he called “the pleasant life”, one of the three distinct types of “happy” life that he identified, the others being “the good life” and “the meaningful life”. The pleasant life, or seeking as much pleasure as possible, appeared to bring happiness, though Seligman found this was often short-lived.
Less obviously, the good life, or being successfully engaged in relationships, work, and play, gave a deeper, more lasting happiness. Similarly, the meaningful life, or acting in the service of others or something bigger than oneself, led to great satisfaction and fulfilment. Seligman also observed that good and meaningful lifestyles both involve activities that his colleague Mihály Csíkszentmihályi had described as generating “flow”, or deep mental engagement.
The pleasant life clearly does not involve “flow”, but Seligman did find that all the “extremely happy people” he studied were also very sociable, and in a relationship. He concluded that “social relationships do not guarantee high happiness, but it does not appear to occur without them”.
A good and meaningful life may bring eudaemonia, but having a pleasant life as well will intensify whatever happiness you achieve. Enjoying social events and the company of others may not offer deep intellectual or emotional satisfaction, but Seligman observed that it was an essential part of being truly happy.
MORE TO KNOW…
APPROACH
Positive psychology
BEFORE
1950s Carl Rogers develops the concept and practice of “client-centred” therapy.
1954 Abraham Maslow uses the term “positive psychology” for the first time, in his book Motivation and Personality.
1960s Aaron Beck exposes the weaknesses of traditional psychoanalytical therapy, and proposes cognitive therapy.
AFTER
1990 Mihály Csíkszentmihályi publishes Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, based on his research into the links between meaningful, engaging activity and happiness.
1994 Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Wherever You Go, There You Are introduces the idea of “mindfulness meditation” to cope with stress, anxiety, pain, and illness.
MARTIN SELIGMAN
Born in Albany, New York, Martin Seligman took his first degree in philosophy at Princeton University in 1964. He then turned his attention to psychology, gaining a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. He taught at Cornell University, New York, for three years, before returning in 1970 to Pennsylvania, where he has been Professor of Psychology since 1976.
Seligman’s research into depression during the 1970s led to a theory of “learned helplessness”, and a method of countering the pervasive pessimism associated with it. But after an incident with his daughter that highlighted his own innate negativity, he was persuaded that focusing on positive strengths, rather than negative weaknesses, was key to happiness. Regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern positive psychology, Seligman instigated the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
Key works
1975 Helplessness
1991 Learned Optimism
2002 Authentic Happiness
以下是我写的关于The Psychology Book的其他章节，欢迎各位前来观看 ^ ^