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Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life (平装)
by Martin E. Seligman
| Category:
Personal improvement, Psychology, Motivation |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Healing, encouraging, and life-changing, this book is an excellent treatise on how thinking patterns affect how we perform and feel. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 12 items |
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The New York Times Book Review (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-15 00:00>
Vaulted me out of my funk... So, fellow moderate pessimists, go buy this book.
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Dr. Robert H. Schuller (Author of Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do), USA
<2007-01-15 00:00>
One of the most important books of the century - an absolute must-read for all persons interested in genuinely understanding and helping our fellow human beings. |
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Philadelphia Daily News (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-15 00:00>
A system for reforming the most entrenched pessimist. |
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Dr. Aaron T. Beck (Author of Love is Never Enough) (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-15 00:00>
Dr. Seligman makes an optimistic case for optimism: you can learn it, you can measure it, you can teach it, and you will be healthier and happier for it. |
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Beth Cholette (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-15 00:00>
I am a psychologist myself, and ever since i first began studying psychology, I have been fascinated by the work of Dr. Seligman. Once I started working as a therapist, I purchased and this book to facilitate my work with clients. Dr. Seligman is a talented, amusing, and engaging writer who presents an extremely pursuasive review of his research into the effects of learned optimism on mood, performance, health, etc. Because his research includes areas as diverse as including health (showing greater breast cancer survival rates for those who are more optimistic), sales success (proving that optimistic salesman are more successful), and sports/politics (providing evidence that both sports teams and political candidates are more likely to win when optimism is increased), his methods are beleivable to even the most die-hard psychological skeptic.
Dr. Seligman explains your attribution style - that is, how you explain your successes/failures - can have a major impact on mood as well as all of the other dimensions mentioned above. He provides the reader with a concrete, easily understandible model to asses their own thinking style, emphasizing that being able to monitor your thoughts is the first step towards changing them. Finally, he presents a simple plan for changing though patterns which involves easy to implement steps. This book will definitely help you to better understand how your thought patterns affect your mood and how to go about making changes in order to live a happier, healthier life; highly recommended.
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Hal Sanderson (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-15 00:00>
In Learned Optimism, the author does an excellent job of explaining the different ways optimists and pessimists view their circumstances and events. One learns that optimists are less acccurate in evaluating their circumstances. They are cheerful, persist and succeed more often because of their expectation of success (even when the expectation lacks substance). When the consequences of failure are far reaching, optimism can be dangerous. One also learns that pessimists are more accurate in their evaluations. I believe this is an essential book for those who seek understanding about how we view the world. I would also strongly recommend Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self, a practical how-to book that shows the reader how to be an optimal realist (making the most of situations at hand).
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E. Cook (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-15 00:00>
I have always been very skeptical of all "self help" books, believing they were mainly fluff and a waste of time. On a whim I thought I would buy this book since it was written by a psychologist and clinical researcher, and claimed to have evidence that optimists actually do succeed more and accomplish more.
As stated earlier, the author is a psychologist and clinical researcher who has spent the majority of his life studying learned helplessness and optimism. After many clinical trials, he has been hired in many "real world" situations (including Met Life Insurance and sports teams) to improve results and test optimism and success. The results are astounding. The book describes the results using these real-life projects. As evidenced by these studies, optimism helps persons succeed in business, sports, politics, health, school, and literally all walks of life.
The book demonstrated over and over again how I was handicapping myself by being negative and a pessimist. I am a very logical person and it took a book like this, written factually instead of emotionally, to open my eyes to pessimism. Since reading this book, I have dedicated myself to being an optimist, and I must say I have already noticed major differences in my life. I am succeeding at things I never would have even attempted before, and I have become very resilient in non-favorable situations. I have surprised myself over and over again.
Not too many "life changing" books come along, but this book was definitely one for me. If you are a pessimist, this book can transform your life. If you are average or only slightly positive, this book can improve your life greatly. Do yourself a favor and read this book!
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Cathy Goodwin (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-15 00:00>
When Martin Seligman deliver his APA presidential address, I was in the back of the room. His ideas were radical - too radical for some therapists, who began walking out. These days Seligman's ideas reach beyond the research community and we can all gain.
Here's the basic thesis. When rats receive shock after shock, and nothing they do prevents future shocks, they learn to be helpless. They just give up. Dogs exhibit the same behavior and so do people. However, not all people - and, for that matter, not all rats - succumb. With people, Seligman has learned, thinking style is the moderator, i.e,. the differentiator between those who give up and those who keep going.
At first I seem an unlikely person to read this book, let alone recommend it. I'm known as irreverent, cynical and "cantankerous," as one reader said. However, Seligman defines an optimistic style by the way we respond to adverse events. Optimists see them as specific rather than pervasive, transient rather than permanent, and caused by factors outside oneself. In that sense, I might qualify!
I recommend this book because it is important to understand that thinking style can outweigh other predictors of success. His stories with insurance sales representatives and athletes are persuasive. One insurance company found that an optimistic style can compensate for lower aptitude, as measured by their traditional test.
Seligman also acknowledges that an optimistic style will not always be appropriate. When facing high risk, it's better to err on the side of pessimism. Indeed, he says, some occupations tend to attract and reward those who are mildly pessimistic.
On the downside, I found I could not relate to the tests in the book. Example:
Your car runs out of gas on a dark street late at night.
Either "I didn't check to see how much gas was in the tank" or, "The gas gauge w as broken." Well, it seems that the condition of the gas gauge is an objective fact, which I'd find out sooner or later. And if I stop a crime by calling the police, it's possible that a strange noise caught my attention AND I was alert that day. Then again, I get irritated at tests in general (hmm... is that a pessimistic style?)
The next step is to explore the ways our society and institutions foster a sense of helplessness. Seligman encourages us to get a medical exam if we've experienced many losses, yet the medical profession often encourages us to feel helpless. Taking a pill, which requires getting a prescription, gives all control to the doctor. Schools, prisons and other governmental institutions teach people they're wrong - and often labels students or inmates as "C student" or "bad person."
And while Seligman says we can all learn to be optimists ,every psychological relationship has limits. In today's economy, when people get knocked down over and over again, are they learning to be pessimists? And can they learn a new style of thinking?
Finally, couldn't someone be a pessimist in some life domains and an optimist in others?
These questions may be too much to ask of a book destined for a popular audience.
Meanwhile, it's enough to say, this is one of the best popular psych books around, by someone who really knows the score.
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Wendy (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-15 00:00>
This book was recommended to me by my psychology professor, who's also a very successful counselor in private practice. He uses this theory himself (it's been used professionally for at least 2 decades now). He told us that the cognitive behavioral therapy that's detailed in this book is a revolution in treating depressives. Dr. Seligman has identified that depressives have a pessimistic thought pattern that's destructive - and that can be changed. Depressives tend to berate themselves with a mental brutality that's a hundred times worse than they would ever endure outside of their heads. This book identifies those negative thoughts and teaches you how to think more rationally and realistically.
There are no Stuart Smalley mindless "I'm good enough and smart enough" chants in here, no "confront your family & lovers and tell them just how much pain they've caused you" nausea. Instead, there's just sound and simple advice on how to recognize your own self-abusive thoughts and refocus them so you don't beat YOURSELF into a downward spiral of hopelessness.
The only negative I can say about this book is that there is a lot of Dr. Seligman's professional history and it has plenty of clinical justifications and statistics for the professionals. Take comfort in knowing that this is a well-researched and well-supported theory, and then skip just over this dry stuff.
Research has proven that in most cases of mild to moderate to depression, cognitive behavioral therapy is as effective as anti-depressant medication. All the good and none of the weight gain or loss of sex drive. I definitely say it's a better way to go!
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-15 00:00>
This book is not perfect, but it is tremendous! I found it much more helpful than the standby in this category, David Burns' Feeling Good, which goes over much of the same territory but is so chirpy that the dyed-in-the-wool pessimist will throw it across the room before using its techniques. Seligman, by contrast, first draws the reader in by explaining the concept of "learned helplessness" and how it was first demonstrated in lab animals, and then in humans as well. Thus, by the time he gets around to explaining the techniques of cognitively disputing one's pessimistic thoughts, he has convinced the reader that "learned optimism" is not only truly possible, but attainable for the average person. This book is changing my attitude, and my life. Well worth the bucks.
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1 2 | Total 2 pages 12 items |
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