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Back to Positive Psychology: Martin E. P. Seligman’s Visionary Science

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Positive Psychology: Martin E. P. Seligman’s Visionary Science by University of Pennsylvania

4.9
stars
5,759 ratings

About the Course

Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman—renowned worldwide as the “father of Positive Psychology”—has led visionary leaps in the scientific research, empirical data and personal understandings of human flourishing. This course explores the past, present and future of positive psychology as a journey through the key scientific leaps led by Dr. Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center and Master of Applied Positive Psychology program. There are no prerequisites....

Top reviews

JM

Jan 15, 2022

The course is well-organized and taught. The information was presented in an exciting fashion that was captivating, instilling even more interest and curiosity into the subject of Positive Psychology.

RS

Dec 8, 2017

Very self-enhancing. Activities are fun and at the same time a good avenue for learning experiences. Very positive and student engaging. Thank you for giving me the chance to be part of this course =)

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26 - 50 of 1,961 Reviews for Positive Psychology: Martin E. P. Seligman’s Visionary Science

By Bavneet S N

Nov 18, 2018

It gives me power to look at this world with a different eye.

By Lynn C

Jul 31, 2018

I was a little disappointed that there was so much content overlap from Flourish but there was also new content. There are many typos in the captioning. There are also some timing errors with the video and the quizzes. And one major but in module one for reviewing the final exercise. Lastly, some of the quiz questions were typical "test taking tricks" rather than testing your knowledge, they are testing your ability to test. That's just cheeky.

By Leslie K

Feb 13, 2021

I am so grateful to be able to hear about this research from the founder of the field and those colleagues who are engaged in taking the field forward into the future. I wish that the readings had been more substantial (even if they were optional) and I wish that there were more exercise to do. This was an interesting overview of the state of the field, but the readings were journalistic and surface level.

By Amy K

Oct 12, 2017

The first two weeks were excellent because they provided valuable information about the basic concepts of Positive Psychology. As the course continued, I felt it moved away from these basics into related topics that themselves could be specific courses. Additionally, we heard from other speakers but I wanted my teacher to be primarily Martin Seligman.

By Courbe M N

Jan 22, 2021

A bit too much of Seligman's person, I was here in this class to learning how positive psychology could be useful and if I get some informations i got more on the professor studies than in the current fields of positive psychology. In someway and ads for his books and to congrats the university

By Subhasis C

Mar 25, 2018

My rating is not for the course but the course price. I had to pay for the entire specialisation to just take this one course. Dr. Seligman should see that his course at least here, is affordable. That would be philanthropy and not force people to pay for the entire specialisation.

By Jim T

Feb 11, 2020

Really good beginning, but then kind of veered off into tangents. Would have preferred a deeper dive into the practices, research, and applications of Positive Psychology in a therapeutic setting.

By María B U

Aug 24, 2019

I think you need more practical information and not so much theorical information, also i would like better use of the audiovisual ressources.

By Vladimir H

Nov 22, 2019

This course is more an advertisement to Positive psychology.. No practical methods are thought..

By Dominik W

Sep 2, 2018

Starts good ends rather, well, boring

By Betania G

Jul 31, 2017

The first couple lectures were interesting. I had a hard time listening and reading the remainder ones due to being too technical and not as interesting for my field. I am interested in learning practical interventions that I can utilize with my clients. I had difficulties paying attention to some of the lessons due to being not as practical to my client as I expected (information that I did not find it applied to help my clients due to being too theoretical and out of scope).

By Andrew B

Apr 30, 2017

I honestly thought this course was all over the place and too general. It also seemed to be full of self - congratulations about what UPENN has accomplished with its research. I wanted more depth in a more targeted approach to improving my life.

By Devon M P

Mar 22, 2020

I dropped this class because it was too self-reflective. I wanted to learn the subject, not analyze myself.

By Bob R

Jul 2, 2017

Gag. This entire course was devoted to Seligman worship (led, as usual, by Seligman).

Does the entire UPenn faculty just suck up to him all the time? Isn't it time credible academics move on from the lazy, unscientific twaddle of PERMA and make your own way, even without the big Templeton Foundation dollars that Uncle Marty still pulls in?

By Japke Z

Jun 14, 2017

Useless course. Just a bunch of repetitions of anecdotes chopped up in tiny clips with way too many pointless popup questions. Let me save everyone some time and summarize this course: "Being positive is good for you." You will have to figure out for yourself how to do that, because this course will not teach you.

By Sigal C

Feb 9, 2019

Starts with a very interesting Module that talks about the concept of Positive Psychology and its key elements, but then goes into less interesting and relevant topics such as different experiments over the years and journalism.

By Noorudin M

Sep 11, 2018

I would like to thank Dr. Seligman and all the course instructors for their valuable insights about positive psychology and how important is it for personal, national and global well being. I have started this personal journey of broadening my understanding about this science and how it could be used to heal myself and others and infuse the concept of hope and seeing goodness in one's own self and others, and building on those strengths. Thanks coursera team for providing me the financial aid to complete this course and i look forward to your support for helping me complete this specialization, which then i can spread to people who i work with and care for.

By Ágnes V

Sep 15, 2022

A wonderfully built course with several great area experts. Clear messages, interesting stories, fact and figures, a great insight in Positive Psychology. I recommend anyone who wants to have a more in depth understanding in the topic.

By Shinq Y I T

Apr 28, 2020

Research-focused, lots of examples given of different studies that were conducted. Sometimes the video topics didn't connect well from one to another - it would jump into another topic and you could tell there was a large amount of material in between that was omitted, which disrupted the flow and made it hard to have a good grasp of the full picture. Would have liked to see some more practical applications in the closing remarks. The course just kind of ended, with no real takeaways given to the common person. It seems like it's all about researchers testing and finding insights in various branches rather than actually benefiting regular people. Otherwise, everything was interesting and well-presented. Engaging and thoughtful. Enjoyed it overall.

By Manon M

Apr 1, 2020

Love the different perspectives. Looking forward to the other courses. But I wonder how I could help other people with positive psychology as a mental trainer/ coach. It's really hard when people are under a lot of pressure to teach them something new. I need some quick wins, to convince them to change some of their habbits otherwise I loose their faith and interest in the science I'd like to promote. I truly beleive we have to invest in mental health just as much as in fysical health, perhaps even more...

By Love L

Jun 21, 2017

Interesting course on a super hot subject with interesting lectures. I would give it five stars if it was more focused on methods that could be applied in professional situations and a little less focused on the history of the field of positive psychology. An idea for improvement is to provide more of the history in form of additional reading material and to focus the lectures more on the application of methods in various fields such as personal development, organizational development, journalism etc.

By Stephen S W

Apr 5, 2018

It is a good introductory course. I would have liked a bit more detail on research findings and more exercises to enhance well-being. The transcripts of the videos aren't good--lots of mistakes. It's like the sound was plugged into some transcription software and nobody QC'ed it. Also, some of the answers to questtions on the quizzes are debatable. The presenters are good and certainly experts in their field. This makes the poor quality elsewhere more frustrating.

By Giulia

Sep 3, 2020

Liked: Good use of lectures, youtube videos, and links to read. Exercises to try for yourself and share with others. Encouraged participation. Teachers are well-spoken and comfortable on camera.

Dislikes: Some irrelevant information, not enough usable/practical knowledge but I'm guessing that's because it's the first course in the program. Looking forward for the next course.

By Benjamin B

Apr 24, 2018

Generally good. Journalism part was not science based and dragged on way to long. There was a minor bit of missing material and coursera does not care about providing it. No response at all from coursera, moderators, or instructor if problems arise. But overall I encourage people to take it. Very interesting and inspiring!

By Ernie D

Jun 2, 2020

The course is an easy introduction to positive psychology. I found the addition of post-doc and experts to be disjointed and that they could have been introduced better. Context as to why these experts were part of the course would help. I also feel the course lacked an overall structure, power point slides, and more good quiz questions. The activities were helpful and I have incorporated them into my life.