Seligman is leading the research on what might be called Happiness Revolution in psychology. Since World War II, psychologists have focused on fixing what is broken --repairing psychosis , and neurosis . Research has piled up steadily when it comes to looking at patients who are neurotic, while the happy or joyful people among us have received little scientific examination. When Seligman did a search to find academic articles about such 'positive psychology' he found only 800 out of 70,000. 'Psychologists tend to be concerned with taking a negative 8 person, and helping him get to negative 2,' said Seligman, a psychology professor of the University of Pennsylvania. 'My aim is to _ ' In the last 50 years, statistics have shown that we are less happy as a people. 'While our quality of life has increased dramatically over that time, and we've become richer, we're in an epidemic of depression,' Seligman said. 'Depression is 10 times more common now, and life satisfaction rates are down as well.' Seligman argues that the new science he writes about is shifting psychology's model away from its narrow-minded focus on mental illness towards positive emotion, virtue and strength that increase people's happiness. If you want to be happy, forget about winning the lottery , getting a nose job, or securing a raise. In his new book, Authentic Happiness, psychologist Martin Seligman argues that overall lifetime happiness is not the result of good genes, money, or even luck. Instead, he says we can increase our own happiness by making use of the strengths and virtues that we already have, including kindness, originality, humor, optimism, and generosity. He has named the field'Positive Psychology,' arguing that we would be better off building on our own strengths rather than mourning, and, hence, trying to repair, our weaknesses. By frequently calling upon their strengths, people can build up natural barriers against misfortune and negative emotions, he said. Science has shown that there are several distinct roads to being a happy person -- though happiness might not mean what you think. Material goods -- even simple ones like ice cream, and massages -- are only stimulating things that rapidly give people a boost. To cultivate happiness, we must first find out our individual strengths and virtues. Next, apply the qualities in such a way as to enhance your happiness-generating system. What does Seligman mean by saying 'take a plus 2 person and boost him to a plus 6'?
We should focus on happy or joyful people. We need more and more happy and joyful people. It's difficult to make people happy from a plus 2 to plus 6. Happy people also need to improve their level of happiness.