When you were a kid, "I was a pretty unhappy, miserable kid. That didn't make me want to study misery." But no one was working on happiness and the way learned helplessness gave way to positive psychology. And that led to the next 15 years of my work, which basically found that it was optimistic people who never became helpless.
When Marty Seligman started his long scientific career, psychologists concentrated on studying "misery and suffering" and what made people sad. But Marty wanted to discover what made happy people, well, happy. His research laid the foundations of "positive psychology" and the happiness science you hear week after week in this podcast.
Dr Laurie Santos talks to Professor Seligman about his decades of research; the power of optimism; and how he became less of a "grouch" to improve his own personal happiness.
Marty's latest book, TOMORROWMIND: Thriving At Work – Now and in an Uncertain Future, is OUT NOW.
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