The Voice of Positive Psychology, Professor Martin Seligman, at AGSM

06 February 2006

Professor Martin Seligman, a recognised thought leader in Positive Psychology and best selling author of the books Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness, will present a series of briefings at AGSM during February. AGSM Professor Roger Collins will co-teach with Professor Seligman, discussing how Australian organisations can apply Positive Psychology concepts to support high performance workforce strategies.

Professor Seligman is the Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania where his current work is the study of Total Life Satisfaction, exploring the significance of positive emotion, engagement and meaning on life generally, and in the workplace.

Positive Psychology is an umbrella term for the study of ‘what is right’ with people, workplaces, organisations and communities. One of the goals of Positive Psychology is to build a science that supports organisations that foster satisfaction and high productivity.

Applications and interventions focus on identifying peoples’ strengths, and building resilience, engagement and meaning. These have important implications for ‘Best Employers’ who are interested in optimising capacity, human potential and organisational performance, and building ‘best self, best team, best organisation’.

Professor Seligman gave voice to the concept of Positive Psychology when he chose it as the theme for his year as President of the American Psychological Association in 1997. With the intention of adjusting the focus of psychology from mental illness to mental health, he has raised millions of dollars to fund scientific research into the pursuit of happiness showing that it can be lastingly increased. Along the way, he has convened gatherings of hundreds of eminent psychologists to discuss the principles and possibilities for positive psychology and provided thought leadership to the new movement.

Key to the field of positive psychology is the identification of six ubiquitous core virtues – wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence – which are common to all cultures and provide the basis for 24 ‘signature’ human strengths. With the support of the growing body of research, Professor Seligman believes that everyone possesses several ‘signature’ strengths and focussing on these can deliver inspiration, elevation, confidence and optimal performance.

While the study of positive psychology began with individuals, evidence of its significance and application in organisations and team environments increasingly is linking the positive practices to improved performance.

Martin E.P. Seligman Biography

Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D., works on positive psychology, learned helplessness, depression, optimism and pessimism. He is currently Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is well known in academic and clinical circles and is a best-selling author.

Dr. Seligman's bibliography includes twenty books and 200 articles on motivation and personality. Among his better-known works are Learned Optimism (Knopf, 1991), What You Can Change & What You Can't (Knopf, 1993), The Optimistic Child (Houghton Mifflin, 1995), Helplessness (Freeman, 1975, 1993) and Abnormal Psychology (Norton, 1982, 1988, 1995, with David Rosenhan. His most recent book is the best-selling, Authentic Happiness (Free Press, 2002). He is the recipient of two Distinguished Scientific Contribution awards from the American Psychological Association, the Laurel Award of the American Association for Applied Psychology and Prevention, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for Research in Psychopathology. He holds an honorary Ph.D. from Uppsala, Sweden and Doctor of Humane Letters from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.

Dr. Seligman received both the American Psychological Society's William James Fellow Award (for contribution to basic science) and the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award (for the application of psychological knowledge).

Dr. Seligman's research and writing have been broadly supported by a number of institutions including The National Institute of Mental Health (continuously since 1969), the National Institute of Aging, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. His research on preventing depression received the MERIT Award of the National Institute of Mental Health in 1991. He is the network director of the Positive Psychology Network and Scientific Director of the Classification of Strengths and Virtues Project of the Mayerson Foundation.