Martin Seligman’s early work emphasized the concept of learned helplessness. Beg

Question

Martin Seligman’s early work emphasized the concept of learned helplessness. Beginning in the late 1990’s, he shifted the focus of his research and practice and became the leading pioneer in the Positive Psychology movement. From there he began studying the same phenomena from a different perspective – learned optimism.

Watch

Watch this brief animated book review of Seligman’s 1991 book, Learned Optimism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tN9wMbdqZU

Discuss

Post a thoughtful discussion comparing and contrasting the concepts of learned helplessness and learned optimism. How do these relate to the concepts of optimism and pessimism? How do they influence personality?

Provide illustrative modern, real-world examples of both learned helplessness and learned optimism. These can be personal examples from your own life experience or examples in a larger context relating to groups or society at large.

Explanation / Answer

Learned helplessness is a concept that explains a person's inability to face a challenging situation and they give-up when they face a difficult situation. Martin Saligram proved this concept with his experiment with the dogs.
Learned Optimism is a concept which is entirely opposite to learned helplessness. It explains the concept when one face adverse situations and challenging the negative aspects thus emerging successfully.
People who are optimistic stay and face the problem while pessimistic people always blame others and try to discourage people by saying that things won't work in your favour.
I used to get discouraged when faced with a challenge and I used to give-up easily. That's when I met one of my teachers in the school who told us that thinking and staying positive helps one achieve greater heights and that people should learn to look at the opportunities and possibilities in everything instead of looking at the negative aspects and getting discouraged. I started to talk to myself and motivated myself and it helped me come out of the school in flying colours.

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