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pmtracy's review against another edition
4.0
Dr. Seligman pioneered positive psychology and his work on quantifying happiness was presented in his book Authentic Happiness. After reviewing his work in light of additional findings, he's expanded his theory. To really flourish, an individual needs a high level of well-being of which happiness is just a small part. Flourishing is the true goal of positive psychology.
This book provides a lot of research background to Seligman's findings. In fact, this is a fairly scholarly publication with 25% of the book being dedicated to end notes and an index. There's information about the history of positive psychology and how various features of personality are measured. We're finally presented with the definition of a flourishing individual which is someone who has positive emotions, is engaged and their life has meaning and purpose. They also need to exhibit three of the following traits: self-esteem, optimism, resilience, vitality, self-determination and positive relationships.
The book provides insight into how the concept of a flourishing life can be worked into everything from politics to education to medicine. It also provides some exercises for how we can increase our own level of well-being. While the bulk of the book was somewhat clinical in nature, it provides a great introduction to positive psychology and its practical applications.
This book provides a lot of research background to Seligman's findings. In fact, this is a fairly scholarly publication with 25% of the book being dedicated to end notes and an index. There's information about the history of positive psychology and how various features of personality are measured. We're finally presented with the definition of a flourishing individual which is someone who has positive emotions, is engaged and their life has meaning and purpose. They also need to exhibit three of the following traits: self-esteem, optimism, resilience, vitality, self-determination and positive relationships.
The book provides insight into how the concept of a flourishing life can be worked into everything from politics to education to medicine. It also provides some exercises for how we can increase our own level of well-being. While the bulk of the book was somewhat clinical in nature, it provides a great introduction to positive psychology and its practical applications.
monicacm's review against another edition
3.0
There’s quite a bit that’s useful in this book; I’m using quite a bit of positive psychology concepts in my 1101 class right now. However, in its pendulum swinging it goes a bit too far in putting culpability on individuals and not in institutions and structures. As with Grit (which is mentioned quite a bit in here), it doesn’t matter how “gritty” my students are-if they can’t afford books or get to class, they aren’t going to succeed.
gonza_basta's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting and up-to-date as far as I know, but I have to say that it was not an easy reading and I took me a while to finish it.
Interessante ed aggiornato (per quanto ne so io), se peró posso fare un appunto, é molto lento e parecchio noioso in piú parti, tanto che ci ho messo parecchio a finirlo.
Interessante ed aggiornato (per quanto ne so io), se peró posso fare un appunto, é molto lento e parecchio noioso in piú parti, tanto che ci ho messo parecchio a finirlo.
dbianco's review against another edition
3.0
I admire Seligman's work in turning psychology into a study of *what works* rather than a study of negativity (eg. abnormal or clinical psychology). This book did feel more like an argument for (& sometimes a defence of) Seligman's systems rather than an in-depth how-to on the systems themselves. There's an interesting description of his work with the US Army & a thoughtful explanation as to why we should teach well-being skills to school kids (brilliant idea!), there's also a chapter on the biological benefits of optimism (not quite so much on how to *be* an optimist) & a foray into the idea of 'post-traumatic growth'.
Flourish puts forward the idea of well-being as an extension on authentic happiness. Food for thought! I guess I just wanted MORE food for thought. :)
Flourish puts forward the idea of well-being as an extension on authentic happiness. Food for thought! I guess I just wanted MORE food for thought. :)
dvnc's review against another edition
3.0
Too difficult to read, the structure of content is not good
colinandersbrodd's review against another edition
2.0
I had seen this recommended by some people who were researching Stoicism, so I thought I ought to read it. While not completely useless to me, it was far less helpful than I had expected - and a lot of it was not very practical, more like the author singing his own praises for his own research.
cookiecalder's review against another edition
4.0
Really good book. Much more to review and write about to come but for the moment 2 points
- it was great
- but at times it was painfully written.
More to come.
- it was great
- but at times it was painfully written.
More to come.
rhyemirch's review against another edition
5.0
Took me several years of picking up this book and reading it chapter by chapter. It seemed that each chapter I read was perfectly designed to be the right text to read at the moment I picked it back up to read it. A wonderful book that I spent many nights reading far past my normal bed time. I took the VIA character strengths test at the beginning of reading this book and at the end. Reading this book was a truly transformative experience, and I am looking forward to reading more books in the positive psychology topic.
philtor's review against another edition
2.0
I'm about 1/2 way through this book. So far I'm not all that impressed. I guess I was expecting more. It's written in a very chatty style with lots of little digressions that make it seem unfocused. There's also some annoying self-congratulatory stuff like how he mentions he was elected president of the APA with the highest margin of victory ever. I was hoping for lot more nuts & bolts, this is what you can do to flourish type content.
Edit: Now finished (well, I have to admit that I quickly skimmed and even skipped sections of this book).
Like: * section on the non-efficacy of drugs in treating depression and anxiety disorders (Selig relates some of the "inside baseball" of testing these drugs) * section on optimism and increased longevity (need to work on that Optimism part, I think :)
Dislike: as noted above, there's lots of fluff in this book. It could easily be edited down to half the number of pages without losing the essential information.
Edit: Now finished (well, I have to admit that I quickly skimmed and even skipped sections of this book).
Like: * section on the non-efficacy of drugs in treating depression and anxiety disorders (Selig relates some of the "inside baseball" of testing these drugs) * section on optimism and increased longevity (need to work on that Optimism part, I think :)
Dislike: as noted above, there's lots of fluff in this book. It could easily be edited down to half the number of pages without losing the essential information.