Martin E. P. Seligman's Authentic Happiness

Martin E. P. Seligman is a very intelligent and honest man. He has written several books on how to create a better, happier life. A life you can get the most out of. A life where someone can see their full potential. However, with each book, he will give credit where credit needs to be. Because of his integrity and unique outlook on life, I have decided to read 263 pages of Authentic Happiness as well as 241 pages of Flourish. These two books has had readers identify their own strengths and virtues while reading them. It also contributes to a person’s well being. Nonetheless, both are amazing, life changing books to read and are highly recommended to read. In Authentic Happiness, Seligman believes that authentic happiness comes from identifying and develop fundamental strengths and using them every day in every aspect of life. His goal is to provide some balance in the field of psychology, so that in addition to its focus on suffering and mental illness, there will be …show more content…
It is there to assist us in disengagements, a flight or fight response, or to attack. Positive emotions play the opposite role, helping us to “broaden our abiding intellectual, physical, and social resources, building up reserves we can draw upon when a threat or opportunity presents itself.” People with high positive affect do not feel good all the time but just more often than those who don’t. However, positive emotion can undo the negative emotions, based on the happiness formula. The equation is ‘H=S + C + V’. Seligman explains each of the factors which are H(enduring level of happiness), S(set range), C(circumstances in your life), and V(factors under your voluntary control). For example, he proposes that in circumstances it represents money, marriage, social life, negative emotion, age, health, education, climate, race, gender, and religion. He looks at to what extent these factors are relevant to