The UK has contributed significantly to the international effort, through the ground breaking Whitehall Study led by Sir Michael Marmot, which tracked the lifestyles and outcomes for large groups of British civil servants.
Seligman has summarised the research to date in terms of what makes humans happy; again, this demonstrates themes about universal emotional needs which must be met for people to lead fulfilling lives.
[5][6] At the University of Rochester, contemporaries of Seligman Edward Deci and Richard Ryan have conducted original research and gathered existing evidence to develop a framework of human needs which they call self-determination theory.
[7] The human givens approach defines nine emotional needs: These needs map more or less well to tendencies and motivations described by other psychological evidence, especially that compiled by Deci and Ryan at the University of Rochester.
Humans are a physically vulnerable species that have enjoyed amazing evolutionary success due in large part to their ability to form relationships and communities.
Learning how to use these resources well is seen as being key to achieving, and sustaining, robust bio-psycho-social health as individuals and as groups (families, communities, societies, cultures etc.).
Psychotherapy based on the Human Givens theory follows the APET model, following the order in which the brain processes information and offers supportive strategies for each phase.
[39] In 2019 a retrospective study found that a Human Givens based therapy provided by PTSD Resolution for the Armed Forces Community was to be an acceptable alternative for IAPT treatment.