Yes, I like some of his ideas but is his "theory" presented in peer-reviewed journals or just in his popular books? Does he spell out clear explanations or is he merely describing what he thinks is an important moderating factor namely, attribution or post-event thinking? While such attributional processes are interesting, I think even he has noted (with actual research citations) that it does not really predict well depression or similar problems. Most likely this attribution process is promoted by the proneness to depression. Just wonderin' Gary
Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychology Saginaw Valley State University University Center, MI 48710 989-964-4491 [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Beth Benoit" <[email protected]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 12:32:46 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [tips] Seligman's Explanatory Style It's a favorite of mine too. I always cover it in just about every class. I even manage to sneak it into my Psychology of Love and Sex class. (Use your imagination for the example I use in that class!) I think it gives students a world of information about looking at behavioral explanations for depression. I introduce the basic concept of learned helplessness, then the negative explanatory style. I'm attaching the PowerPoint slides I made to use when explaining the "IGS" (internal, global, stable) explanatory style. Feel free to use it. The example I usually use to go through the points is, "You applied for a job, but didn't get it. How will you explain to yourself why you didn't get the job?" Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 11:42 AM, Britt, Michael < [email protected] > wrote: One of my favorite theories (which has now found a home in the "positive psychology" movement) is Seligman's ideas regarding the effects of your explanatory style (especially in your reaction to negative events) on your mood. In the early days he talked about a negative style as one that is Internal ("I'm stupid!"), Stable ("I'll never get this!") and Global ("I'm going to fail at other things as well!"). Recently in his more popular books I see that he has changed these terms to Personal, Persistent and Pervasive. Whatever you call them, I rather like the whole theory and certainly think it's worth teaching at the introductory level. I checked a couple of intro books and to my surprise I found very little in-depth coverage of these ideas. I found explanatory style covered briefly in the Personality chapter, and then in the Stress chapters of two other intro books. Too bad - for such a useful theory. Why do you think it doesn't get more exposure? Too much material to cover in one book I suppose. Michael Michael Britt [email protected] www.thepsychfiles.com --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ( [email protected] ) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
