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Biomedical subjects

Martin E P Seligman

Publications and source records attributed to Martin E P Seligman.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Group prevention of depression and anxiety symptoms.

To prevent depression and anxiety, we delivered a brief, classroom-based cognitive-behavioral workshop along with ongoing Web-based materials and e-mail coaching to college students at risk for depression. At risk was defined as having mild to moderate depressive symptoms on a self-report measure of depression. Two hundred forty students were randomized into either an eight-week workshop that met in groups of 10, once per week for 2 h or into an assessment-only control group. We plan to track participants for 3 years after the workshop and here we report the 6 month preventive effects on depression and anxiety. The workshop group had significantly fewer depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms than the control group, but there was no significant difference between the conditions on depression or anxiety episodes at 6 month follow up. The workshop group had significantly better well being than the control group, and the workshop group had significantly greater improvement in optimistic explanatory style than the control group. Improved explanatory style was a significant mediator of the prevention effects from pre- to post-workshop for depressive and anxiety symptoms, as well as for improved well being.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

The prevention of depressive symptoms in low-income, minority children: two-year follow-up.

We present 2-year follow-up data on the efficacy of the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP), a school-based depression prevention program, with low-income, racial/ethnic minority children. This program taught cognitive and social problem-solving skills to 168 Latino and African American middle school children who were at-risk for developing depressive symptoms by virtue of their low-income status. We had previously reported beneficial effects of the PRP up to 6 months after the conclusion of the program for the Latino children, but no clear effect for the African American children. In this paper, we extend the analyses to 24 months after the conclusion of the PRP. We continue to find some beneficial effects for the Latino children and no differentially beneficial effect for the African American children. Implications of findings and future research directions are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2006

Positive psychotherapy.

Positive psychotherapy (PPT) contrasts with standard interventions for depression by increasing positive emotion, engagement, and meaning rather than directly targeting depressive symptoms. The authors have tested the effects of these interventions in a variety of settings. In informal student and clinical settings, people not uncommonly reported them to be "life-changing." Delivered on the Web, positive psychology exercises relieved depressive symptoms for at least 6 months compared with placebo interventions, the effects of which lasted less than a week. In severe depression, the effects of these Web exercises were particularly striking. This address reports two preliminary studies: In the first, PPT delivered to groups significantly decreased levels of mild-to-moderate depression through 1-year follow-up. In the second, PPT delivered to individuals produced higher remission rates than did treatment as usual and treatment as usual plus medication among outpatients with major depressive disorder. Together, these studies suggest that treatments for depression may usefully be supplemented by exercises that explicitly increase positive emotion, engagement, and meaning. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

Affect↗
PubMed2005

Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents.

In a longitudinal study of 140 eighth-grade students, self-discipline measured by self-report, parent report, teacher report, and monetary choice questionnaires in the fall predicted final grades, school attendance, standardized achievement-test scores, and selection into a competitive high school program the following spring. In a replication with 164 eighth graders, a behavioral delay-of-gratification task, a questionnaire on study habits, and a group-administered IQ test were added. Self-discipline measured in the fall accounted for more than twice as much variance as IQ in final grades, high school selection, school attendance, hours spent doing homework, hours spent watching television (inversely), and the time of day students began their homework. The effect of self-discipline on final grades held even when controlling for first-marking-period grades, achievement-test scores, and measured IQ. These findings suggest a major reason for students falling short of their intellectual potential: their failure to exercise self-discipline.

Achievement↗
PubMed2005

[Development of the Japanese version of the Values In Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS)].

Purpose of this study was to develop the Japanese version of the Values In Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS). Japanese VIA-IS was back-translated, and their items were checked by the developers of the original VIA-IS. Participants in our standardization study were 778 undergraduate students who answered a battery of self-report questionnaires. The battery consisted of the Japanese versions of VIA-IS, Subjective Happiness Scale, General Health Questionnaire, and NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). It was found that VIA-IS has high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Happier people showed higher overall scores on VIA-IS and on almost all subscales both in men and women. Scores on VIA-IS were higher in the healthier group than in the unhealthy group, especially on the subscales of depression and impediment of social activities. Subscales of NEO-FFI were related to subscales of VIA-IS in a consistent way. High nomination groups showed significantly higher scores on eight subscales of VIA-IS than low nomination groups.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

A balanced psychology and a full life.

Psychology since World War II has been largely devoted to repairing weakness and understanding suffering. Towards that end, we have made considerable gains. We have a classification of mental illness that allows international collaboration, and through this collaboration we have developed effective psychotherapeutic or pharmacological treatments for 14 major mental disorders. However, while building a strong science and practice of treating mental illness, we largely forgot about everyday well-being. Is the absence of mental illness and suffering sufficient to let individuals and communities flourish? Were all disabling conditions to disappear, what would make life worth living? Those committed to a science of positive psychology can draw on the effective research methods developed to understand and treat mental illness. Results from a new randomized, placebo-controlled study demonstrate that people are happier and less depressed three months after completing exercises targeting positive emotion. The ultimate goal of positive psychology is to make people happier by understanding and building positive emotion, gratification and meaning. Towards this end, we must supplement what we know about treating illness and repairing damage with knowledge about nurturing well-being in individuals and communities.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2004

A test of integration of the activation hypothesis and the diathesis-stress component of the hopelessness theory of depression.

OBJECTIVES: This prospective study tested the integration of the diathesis-stress component of the hopelessness theory of depression (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989) and Persons and Miranda's (1992) activation hypothesis (i.e. depressogenic inferential styles are typically latent cognitive processes that must be primed in order to be accurately assessed). DESIGN: In order to test the diathesis-stress component of the hopelessness theory, we used a short-term longitudinal design. In order to test the activation hypothesis, inferential styles were assessed both before and after a negative cognitive priming questionnaire. METHODS: A group of 165 university students completed measures of inferential styles about the self, consequences, and causes before and after completing a negative cognitive priming questionnaire (Time 1). Participants also completed measures of depressive symptoms prior to completing the cognitive priming questionnaire and 5 weeks later (Time 2). Finally, negative events occurring between Time 1 and Time 2 were assessed. RESULTS: Contrary to the diathesis-stress component of the hopelessness theory, none of the unprimed inferential styles interacted with negative events to predict increases in depressive symptoms. In line with the integration of the hopelessness theory and the activation hypothesis, however, each of the primed inferential styles interacted with negative events to predict increases in depressive symptoms even after controlling for the proportion of variance in depressive symptoms accounted for by the unprimed inferential style stress interactions. CONCLUSION: Individuals with depressogenic inferential styles are likely to show increases in depressive symptoms following the occurrence of negative events. At the same time, these depressogenic inferential styles are typically latent cognitive processes that must be primed in order to be accurately assessed.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Character strengths before and after September 11.

Did Americans change following the September 11 terrorist attacks? We provide a tentative answer with respect to the positive traits included in the Values in Action Classification of Strengths and measured with a self-report questionnaire available on-line and completed by 4,817 respondents. When scores for individuals completing the survey in the 2 months immediately after September 11 were compared with scores for those individuals who completed the survey before September 11, seven character strengths showed increases: gratitude, hope, kindness, leadership, love, spirituality, and teamwork. Ten months after September 11, these character strengths were still elevated, although to a somewhat lesser degree than immediately following the attacks.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Strengths and satisfaction across the adult lifespan.

Positive psychology has recently developed a classification of human strengths (Peterson & Seligman, in press). We aimed to evaluate these strengths by investigating the strengths and life satisfaction in three adult samples recruited from the community (young adult, middle-aged, and older adult), as well as in the surviving men of the Grant study of Harvard graduates. In general, older adults had higher levels of interpersonal and self-regulatory strengths, whereas younger adults reported higher levels of strengths related to exploring the world. Grant study men tended to report lower strength levels than older adults from the community. Among the young adults, only hope significantly predicted life satisfaction, whereas among the middle-aged individuals, the capacity for loving relationships was the only predictor. Among community-dwelling older adults, hope, citizenship, and loving relationships all positively and uniquely predicted life satisfaction, compared with loving relationships and appreciation of beauty in the Grant sample.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Very happy people.

A sample of 222 undergraduates was screened for high happiness using multiple confirming assessment filters. We compared the upper 10% of consistently very happy people with average and very unhappy people. The very happy people were highly social, and had stronger romantic and other social relationships than less happy groups. They were more extraverted, more agreeable, and less neurotic, and scored lower on several psychopathology scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Compared with the less happy groups, the happiest respondents did not exercise significantly more, participate in religious activities significantly more, or experience more objectively defined good events. No variable was sufficient for happiness, but good social relations were necessary. Members of the happiest group experienced positive, but not ecstatic, feelings most of the time, and they reported occasional negative moods. This suggests that very happy people do have a functioning emotion system that can react appropriately to life events.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Cognitive style predictors of affect change in older adults.

Cognitive styles are the lenses through which individuals habitually process information from their environment. In this study, we evaluated whether different cognitive style individual difference variables, such as explanatory style and dispositional optimism, could predict changes in affective state over time in community-dwelling older adults. Based on previous research, we hypothesized that an optimistic explanatory style would be adaptive except when combined with life stressors, but that dispositional optimism would predict positive affective states regardless of life events. We found that older adults with a more optimistic explanatory style for health/cognitive events actually appeared to develop more depressive symptoms over six months of follow-up. However, dispositional optimism and orientation toward the future predicted a better affective profile over time.

Affect↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prevention that works for children and youth. An introduction.

The widespread implementation of effective prevention programs for children and youth is a sound investment in society's future. The most beneficial preventive interventions for young people involve coordinated, systemic efforts to enhance their social-emotional competence and health. The articles in this special issue propose standards for empirically supported programming worthy of dissemination and steps to integrate prevention science with practice. They highlight key research findings and common principles for effective programming across family, school, community, health care, and policy interventions and discuss their implications for practice. Recent advances in prevention research and growing support for evidence-based practice are encouraging developments that will increase the number of children and youth who succeed and contribute in school and life.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions.

Positive psychology has flourished in the last 5 years. The authors review recent developments in the field, including books, meetings, courses, and conferences. They also discuss the newly created classification of character strengths and virtues, a positive complement to the various editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (e. g., American Psychiatric Association, 1994), and present some cross-cultural findings that suggest a surprising ubiquity of strengths and virtues. Finally, the authors focus on psychological interventions that increase individual happiness. In a 6-group, random-assignment, placebo-controlled Internet study, the authors tested 5 purported happiness interventions and 1 plausible control exercise. They found that 3 of the interventions lastingly increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms. Positive interventions can supplement traditional interventions that relieve suffering and may someday be the practical legacy of positive psychology.

Depressive Disorder↗