THE SERENITY PRAYER God grant me the serenity

THE SERENITY PRAYER “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. ” Reinhold Niebuhr

Class Conduct: 40 -10 -40 Questions Opinions We will discuss and hopefully clarify the reading for the week. • Please try to bring the book to class; it will help you follow the discussion. • •

Class Conduct: • Materials from other books by Seligman and others. • You will also have the opportunity to take selfassessment surveys, evaluated only by you and confidential. • Something to write with and on • Folder

Two ways to take the class… • Read the book and listen in class – academic exercise. That is good. • Participate and try some relevant interventions and see if they work for you. That is better. – These activities will help you understand Positive Psychology and perhaps will increase your Well. Being.

Flourish - Martin Seligman • Positive Psychology; how to go from plus two to plus seven. • Research Based – Internal, External Validity – Correlation and Causation – Random Assignment Placebo-Controlled – Not 100% Predicable

Positive Psychology • Well-Being • Optimism

Well-Being • • • Positive Emotion Engagement – a. k. a. Flow Relationships Meaning Accomplishment Pursued For-its-own-sake

Optimism • Inherited • Can be developed • Used in a flexible, planned manner

Benefits • Prevent PTSD • Reduce the incidence of CVD • Reduce the incidence of infectious diseases • Lead to a longer and fuller lifespan

Introduction 1. Monism verses Pluralism 2. Experimental Realism 3. Correlation and Causation.

1. Philosophical Topic • Monism – Reduces all human motives to one – Everything has a singular cause • Pluralism – Many factors can motivate behavior

Psychological Experiments • Individuals differ • What most people do most of the time under a given set of circumstances • Conclusions may not be precise for all people

2. Realism • Experimental Realism – The experiment feels real to the subjects even though they never have the same experience in daily life. • Mundane Realism – The experiment is similar to events in the outside world

Learned Helplessness • Mid 1960 s • Nothing you do will alter events • Relevant factor in anxiety and depression

Learned Helplessness • TRIADIC DESIGN • Subjects are divided into three groups – One group (ESCAPABLE) is exposed to a noxious event that they can escape – One group (INESCAPABLE) is exposed to the same event but can’t make it stop no matter what they do – A third group is the CONTROL group.

Part 1 • ESCAPABLE and INESCAPABLE groups are exposed to the same noxious event • ESCAPABLE learn that what they do can make a difference • INESCAPABLE learn they are helpless. • CONTROL group does not participate in Part 1.

Part 2 • All three groups participate • “shuttle box” – The subject puts their hand in one side of a box; then a loud noise sounds. – If the subject moves his hand a few inches to the other side, the noise goes off.

Learned Helplessness • ESCAPABLE group and the CONTROL group readily learn to move their hand to escape the noise. • INESCAPABLE group typically do not move. – They learned in Part 1 that what they do doesn’t matter, – So in Part 2 they do not try to escape.

TRIADIC DESIGN • ESCAPABLE, INESCAPABLE, and CONTROL • Bi-directional inferences – Does helplessness damage a person? – Do the inescapable do worse than the control group? – Does mastery strengthen a person? – Do the escapable subjects perform better than the control group?

Learned Helplessness • About one-third of the subjects, both animal and human never became helpless! • About one-tenth were helpless to begin with. • Led to the exploration of Optimism/Pessimism and their relation to Learned Helplessness

Optimism • Helplessness (1975) – Little is made of the resistant and already helpless subjects – Makes no mention of Optimism

Psychological Experiments • All subjects did not behave the same way • Resulting experimental realism was of value

CORRELATION ≠ CAUSATION • CORRELATION – Either when one goes up the other almost ALWAYS goes up – Or when one goes up the other almost ALWAYS goes down

CORRELATION ≠ CAUSATION • Strong Positive Correlation: – Church Attendance – Consumption of Alcohol • Does one cause the other? • Is there a third variable causing both?

CORRELATION ≠ CAUSATION • Population is a common factor that causes both… • Attempt to eliminate possible third variables • To establish what appears to be a plausible causal relationship. • The reason for random assignments to groups

PLEASE… • • BRING YOUR BOOK TO CLASS SOMETHING TO WRITE WITH SOMETHING TO WRITE ON SOME KIND OF FOLDER

THE SENILITY PRAYER Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.