Reviews for Health Psychology Theory, Research And Practice

The average rating for Health Psychology Theory, Research And Practice based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-01-02 00:00:00 Mark Deegan So many self-help books, questionnaires, and popular psychology books talk about what’s wrong with our lives and how to make the bad bits better. Martin E. P. Seligman asks us to look instead at what’s good, and learn to turn good into excellent, making this a book on mental wellness, rather than mental illness. It’s a refreshing change. Wouldn’t you rather feel more happy instead of less miserable? But this isn’t just a question of looking at half-filled cups when they might be half-empty. Simple questionnaires (with more complicated versions online) invite the reader to find their own strengths so we can play to them. And then, in a nice twist on the “So this is who you are” approach, we’re asked to identify which strengths feel natural to us, which feel enlivening. We might be good at leading but feel drained every time we have to lead, making leadership a strength, but not a signature strength. Those final, happy, signature powers become the key to enlivening everyday life. But first, are you happy? Not just smiling today, but waking up happy, contented, hopeful, optimistic. And what things will make us happy? The author has looked through many cultures to find those things common to most. Again, there’s a twist—he’s not looking for features valued in all; just in most, because there area always exceptions—that’s why they’re called exceptions. Religion becomes something of worth, though the author’s own “religious” beliefs, expounded in a final chapter, might not agree with his readers’. The answer’s not in the details but in the approach. Raise happy children. Turn your job into something you enjoy (without necessarily changing jobs). Find your strengths and enjoy who you are instead of trying to turn into someone else. And enjoy this book. I did. Disclosure: My sister-in-law lent me a copy of this book then I went out and bought my own.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-30 00:00:00 Dustin Jackson Is this authentic happiness? JDN 2456177 EDT 13:59. When I started Authentic Happiness, I had the highest hopes—that this might finally be the way out of my depression. When I finished reading it, I felt even more hopeless and depressed. Now that I've had some time to reflect on it, I just feel ambivalent and disappointed. Seligman promises to offer us a fundamentally new approach to psychology, focused not on curing illness but on supporting flourishing, not on treating depression but on creating happiness. He promises to build a foundation for this program based on honest appraisal of personal strengths and a life of virtue. He... does not succeed. He does not completely fail, and perhaps he points us in that general direction, but he doesn't get us there. The worst parts are when he tells us the key to happiness lies in self-delusion. He doesn't do this often, but once would be too many. The delusion he most commonly advocates is what he calls “optimism”; optimism might sound like a good thing, but listen to how Seligman defines it. For Seligman, an optimist believes that good things are always personal, permanent, and pervasive, while bad things are always impersonal, temporary, and local. Of course, this is simply not true. In reality, both good and bad things can be either personal or not, permanent or not, pervasive or not. In fact, I think my depression involves a delusional level of pessimism, believing that bad things are worse than they really are and good things are not as good as they really are. So in that sense, I should be recalibrating my perception. But Seligman doesn't help us to recalibrate to the truth; instead he tells us that higher optimism is always better, even if it makes you into a raving maniac. One thing I really do try to do is repeat a list of affirmations about good things in my life. But when I do this, one criterion is absolute: They must be true. Without this requirement, the whole enterprise falls apart; we might as well be wireheads. This is not authentic happiness at all, but happiness founded upon lies. Most of the time, Seligman actually seems to appreciate this, and encourages us to focus on our real strengths instead of pretending we have strengths we truly lack. But about once a chapter or so, he slips, and tells us that we should nurture positive illusions. It's weird; for him there doesn't seem to be a big difference between happiness due to good things and happiness due to delusional attitudes. For me, the difference is absolutely fundamental. It was Seligman's slips that triggered my despair on the train ride home from Chicago. I realize now that it was an overreaction, but this was my thought process: 1. People with positive illusions are happier. 2. Therefore, the only way to be happy is to delude yourself. 3. Therefore, life is awful; anyone who sees life as it truly is will be unhappy. 4. Therefore, life is pointless and we may as well just die. I'm sure this is not what Seligman intended to say. But at least in that dark moment, it was what I heard. And it is what I still hear, from hedonists on the Internet who literally can't understand why I would rather be honestly sad than delusionally happy, why I would want to live an authentic and virtuous life when I could simply drug myself into bliss. They are, in short, wireheads—or pre-wireheads waiting for the technology to mature. If Seligman truly believes in authentic happiness, he needs to be much more careful to exclude this kind of thinking. He must say, “You should be more optimistic—if you are currently too pessimistic. You should focus on your strengths more—if you currently focus too much on your weaknesses. You should have more self-esteem—if you are currently self-effacing.” Without that proviso, he comes off as saying that it's just fine to be a wireheaded narcissist. And a lot of people apparently really believe that!