interest and it was consolidated when I began my research at the University of Pennsylvania as a graduate student.
SP: How do you see the role of helplessness in our lives in general? Dr. Seligman: I believe that the basic facts of life are that we are helpless in the great issues like birth and death. However, there is a window of control that we can either choose to open wider or let slam shut.
SP: And you obviously found many new ways for opening that window. Dr. Seligman: I know the window can be opened much wider than people normally think. SP: How would you define helpless- ness for the layperson? Dr. Seligman: It is a response to situations where events are uncon- trolled.
SP: So the opposite of helplessness would be mastery, or control. Dr. Seligman: Yes.
SP: So, according to your definition, positive events can also produce helplessness. Correct? Dr. Seligman: Absolutely. If positive events come to you independent of anything you do, then you get the same kind of helplessness induced by negative events. We call it “success depression.”
SP: Have you ever experienced a success depression? Dr. Seligman, chuckling: No. Just the reverse. My successes have come by diligent effort and hard work.
SP: Can you illustrate the internal process of helplessness in a selling situation? Dr. Seligman: Let’s take some negative, uncontrollable event like losing an important sale. You may perceive that you are helpless, you are lost, you are defeated. Then you ask what caused it. At this point in the flow of events you can escape mental pain by saying, “My custom-
er doesn’t need this now,” and that will take care of it.
SP: You are opening the window. Dr. Seligman: Right. However, the poor salesperson closes it by saying, “I am no good at this job. I can’t sell this product.” If you interpret it that way, then you become passive, you tend to give up with a large number of customers and you tend to blame yourself and feel bad about yourself.
SP: I have read your scientific study of life insurance salespeople and I would like to go through a quick checklist of the consequences of helplessness. First, it saps motivation to respond in future situations. Dr. Seligman: Correct.
SP: It disrupts the ability to learn from the situation. Dr. Seligman: I would add that it also inhibits the ability to be creative in the situation.
SP: It lowers the expectation for future successes. Dr. Seligman: Right.
SP: It produces emotional disturbances. Dr. Seligman: Specifically sadness, anxiety, and hostility. It also generates fear and depression.
SP: It reduces the body’s immune system. Dr. Seligman: Right.
SP: And you found that salespeople earn less and their job security decreases. Dr. Seligman: Both are correct.
SP: The big question is, what can we do about it? How do we respond to tough situations in a confident, optimistic way? How do we unlearn the helplessness response? Dr. Seligman: The president of Metropolitan Life asked me the same question. We began our research by developing a questionnaire to predict who was going to react this way. As a result, we immediately lowered turnover by hiring people with what we call “positive explana- tory styles.” Next, we developed a training program we call “Optimism Sales Training.” Essentially, we introduce people to a process for
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