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Martin Seligman

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Positive Psychology Expert

Martin Seligman Quick Facts

Main Areas: Positive Psychology; Learned Optimism
Career Focus: Author; Lecturer; Columnist; Cognitive Psychologist; Former APA President; Psychology Professor
Affiliation: University of Pennsylvania
Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D., works on positive psychology, learned helplessness, depression, and optimism and pessimism. He is currently The Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Positive Psychology Network. In 1996, he was elected president of the American Psychological Association.

Since 2000, Dr. Seligman has been promoting the field of positive psychology—a discipline that includes the study of positive emotion, positive character traits, and positive institutions. He trains positive psychologists to make the world a happier place. Dr. Seligman’s best-selling books, translated into 20 languages, include Learned Optimism, Authentic Happiness, The Optimistic Child, and What You Can Change…And What You Can’t.

Dr. Seligman holds an A.B. degree in philosophy from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds an honorary Ph.D. from Uppsala University in Sweden and a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Massachusetts College of Professional Psychology. Dr. Seligman has received 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.