Martin Seligman: From "Learned Helplessness" to "Learned Optimism"

Being regarded as the Father of the modern positive psychology movement, interesting, Dr. Seligman was not that positive in his early research. As one of the most eminent psychologists of the 20th century, Dr. Seligman was reputed for  his theory of "learned helplessness" began at University of Pennsylvania in 1967, as an extension of his interest in depression. His works on "learned helplessness" has been widely cited, and indeed he was the 13th most frequently cited psychologist in introductory psychology textbooks throughout the century. Dr. Seligman is well known in academic and clinical circles and is a best-selling author.

Having started with such a relatively "dark" concept of human behavior, Dr. Seligman introduced some sunshine to the field of psychology by founding the "positive psychology" branch in 1998 when he was the president of American Psychological Association. And as this area became more firmly grounded, Dr. Seligman has viewed the promotion of the field of Positive Psychology "to make the world a happier place" as his main mission since 2000. Details can be referred to Dr. Seligman's Bio via http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/bio.htm

Dr. Seligman is currently Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology and Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. His books with positive psychology topics are very popular, including The Optimistic Child, Child's Play, Learned Optimism, Authentic Happiness, and Flourish.

Dr. Seligman also do public talk sometimes, below is his TED talk in 2004:
Dr. Martin Seligman's TED talk: The New Era of Positive Psychology

If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Seligman's latest research, you can visit his "Authentic Happiness" homepage: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx