Psychology: PERMA and well-being, declining violence trends

Running head: Psychology
Psychology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1Psychology
Selected Articles:
Article 1: Seligman, Martin. "PERMA and the building blocks of well-being." The Journal
of Positive Psychology 13.4 (2018): 333-335.
Article 2: Pinker, Steven. The better angels of our nature: Why violence has declined. Vol.
75. New York: Viking, 2011.
Reason for selecting the articles:
Article by Martin Selingman (2018) studied how PERMA (Positive Emotion,
Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment) is related to the well being. The
author proposed that PERMA forms the components of well being, and thus their presence is
necessary to establish and maintain the well being of individuals. The article tries to draw a
clear link between well being and PERMA, thereby helping us to understand how such
factors can foster well being (Selingman).
Article by Steven Pinker (2011) discusses the trends of declining violence through our
civilization, showing that how civilization is improving and growing. Pinker also discusses
the five inner demons that drives people towards aggression such as predatory violence,
dominance, revenge, sadism and ideology, showing how such factors increases the propensity
of violence among people and how the “better angels: of our nature such as empathy, self
control, moral sense and reason can be applied to counter the effects of the demons and curb
the propensity of violence (Pinker).
Conclusions from the articles:
From article 1 it can be concluded that through positive emotions, engagements,
relationships, meaning and accomplishments the well being of individuals can be attained.
The author argues that individuals, who can develop positive emotions, build meaningful