Editing Positive psychology (section)

=== Applications and misapplications ===

==== The US Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program ====
[[File:Csf..jpg|thumb|In contract with Seligman's Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, the United States Army began the [[Comprehensive Soldier Fitness]] program in order to address psychological issues among soldiers.]]
The [[Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness|Comprehensive Soldier Fitness]] (CSF) program was established in 2008 by then-[[Chief of Staff of the United States Army]], [[General (United States)|General]] [[George W. Casey, Jr.]], in an effort to address increasing rates of drug abuse, family violence, [[Post-traumatic stress disorder|PTSD]], and suicide among soldiers. The Army contracted with Seligman's Positive Psychology Center at the [[University of Pennsylvania]] to supply a program based on the center's Penn Resiliency Program, which was designed for 10- to 14-year-old children.<ref name="Singal">{{cite web|last=Singal|first=Jesse|title=Positive Psychology Goes to War|date=2021-06-07|access-date=July 25, 2021|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/positive-psychology-goes-to-war|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Although Seligman proposed starting with a small-scale pilot-test, General Casey insisted on immediately rolling out the CSF to the entire Army.<ref>{{cite book|last=Seligman|first=Martin E. P.|title=Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2012|page=163|isbn=9781439190753}}</ref> Interviewed for the journal ''Monitor on Psychology'' of the [[American Psychological Association]], Seligman said that "This is the largest study—1.1 million soldiers—psychology has ever been involved in."<ref>{{cite web|last=Novotney|first=Amy|title=Strong in mind and body|date=December 2009|access-date=July 25, 2021|url=https://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/12/army-program}}</ref> According to journalist Jesse Singal, "It would become one of the largest mental-health interventions geared at a single population in the history of humanity, and possibly the most expensive."<ref name="Singal" />

Some psychologists criticized the CSF for various reasons. Nicholas J.L. Brown wrote: "The idea that techniques that have demonstrated, at best, marginal effects in reducing depressive symptoms in school-age children could also prevent the onset of a condition that is associated with some of the most extreme situations with which humans can be confronted is a remarkable one that does not seem to be backed up by empirical evidence."<ref name="Brown">{{cite journal|last=Brown|first=Nicholas J. L.|title=A critical examination of the US Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program|journal=The Winnower|volume=2|year=2014|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264224551}}</ref>
[[Stephen Soldz]] of the [[Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis]] cited Seligman's acknowledgment that the CSF is a gigantic study rather than a program based on proven techniques, and questioned the ethics of requiring soldiers to participate in research without informed consent.<ref name="Soldz">{{cite journal|last=Soldz|first=Stephen|date=2011-03-24|title=The Dark Side of 'Comprehensive Soldier Fitness'|journal=[[The American Psychologist]]|volume=66|issue=7|pages=643–44; discussion 646–47|doi=10.1037/a0025272|pmid=21967209}}</ref> Soldz also criticized the CSF training for trying to build up-beat attitudes toward combat: "Might soldiers who have been trained to resiliently view combat as a growth opportunity be more likely to ignore or under-estimate real dangers, thereby placing themselves, their comrades, or civilians at heightened risk of harm?"<ref name="Soldz"/>

In 2021 the [[Chronicle of Higher Education]] carried a debate between Singal and Seligman about whether, with the CSF well into its second decade, there was any solid evidence of its effectiveness. Singal cited studies that, he said, failed to find any measurable benefits from such positive psychology techniques, and he criticized the Army's own reports as methodologically unsound and lacking peer review.<ref name="Singal"/><ref>{{cite web|last=Singal|first=Jesse|title=Magical Thinking on Positive Psychology: The field's founder can't see past his own hype|date=2021-07-22|access-date=July 25, 2021|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/magical-thinking-on-positive-psychology|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Seligman said that Singal had misinterpreted the studies and ignored the Army's positive feedback from soldiers, one of whom told Seligman that "if I had had this training years ago, it would have saved my marriage."<ref>{{cite web|last=Seligman|first=Martin E. P.|title=Effectiveness of Positive Psychology: Setting the record straight|date=2021-07-14|access-date=July 25, 2021|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/effectiveness-of-positive-psychology|url-access=subscription}}</ref>