Martin Seligman is one of the most influential figures in modern psychology, having a significant impact on the field. He is widely acknowledged as the founder of Positive Psychology and credited with introducing the concept of Learned Helplessness.

Seligman was born in 1942 in Pennsylvania and received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and then went on to earn his doctorate from University Of Pennsylvania. As an academic, he has been affiliated with many universities including The University of Kansas, Harvard Medical School, Oxford University and more recently The George Washington University where he serves as professor emeritus. Seligman served as president for both American Psychological Association (APA) and Association for Psychological Science (APS). His research during this time focused primarily on understanding depression which ultimately led to his discovery of Learned Helplessness, a phenomenon that suggests that individuals who have experienced negative events in their lives may become “conditioned” to accept them as inevitable outcomes regardless if there are other solutions available or not.