What’s wrong with thinking positively? Could be a lot. Let’s take another look at the "positive psychology" movement in this episode of The Psych Files podcast. I’ll share some ideas for bringing about more positive events in your life, talk about social comparison theory, and then discuss how important "negative" - that is sad - feelings are in our lives. Those are moments not to run from, but to embrace.

Resources For This Episode

• Newsweek article (January 28, 2008): "The How To of Leading a Happy Life" by Jennifer Barrett. Summarizing the work of Sonja Lyubomirsky in The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want
• Prevention magazine (February, 2008): “Joy - How to make it last” by Siri Carpenter. Summarizing the work of Fred Bryant, Ph.D.
• Time magazine article (February 11, 2008): “Happiness: Enough Already” Sharon Begley
• Sharon Begley’s Blog
• Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy
• Chronicle of Higher Education (January 18, 2008) "In Praise of Melancholy", by Eric Wilson, Ph.D.

Social Comparison Theory

• Definition: whenever we are uncertain about ourselves, our skills, our talents, etc., we tend to compare ourselves to other people. Typically we compare to people similar to ourselves in some way (same age, similar background, belong to the same group for example). But we can make upward and downward comparison.
• Upward Comparison: you compare your self to someone who is either older, more experienced, more talented, more well off, etc. Comparisons of this type will probably make you feel worse about yourself.
• Downward Comparison: the opposite of the above: you compare yourself to someone who is less fortunate than you. These comparisons will probably remind you of how fortunate you are and will make you feel better about yourself.

Sad Songs mentioned in this episode

• Played at the end of the episode: the "Intermezzo" from the opera Cavaleria Rusticana by Mascagni. You can learn more about Mascagni and hear another version of the Intermezzo on Erik Bruchez’s excellent Mascagni website.
• "O Mio Babbino Caro" from the opera Gianni Schicchi by Puccini
• The Moonlight Sonata by Beethovan
• Tristesse by Chopin
• Lakme Duet (also called the Flower Duet) from the opera Lakme by Delibes
• Claire de Lune by Debussey
• Feel free to suggest other beautiful sad songs in your comments to this post!

Popularity: 64% [?]

 

 Positive Thinking [28:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 O Mio Babbino Caro from Gianni Schicci by Puccini: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 64% [?]

What could be bad about thinking positively? That is the question we examine this week on The Psych Files.

Listen to episode 6 on Positive Thinking.

Click the image below to see a concept map for Seligman’s Explanatory Style.

Notes on Positive Thinking

In this week’s episode I discuss two well-known psychologists: Albert Ellis and Martin Seligman.
Here are some of my notes on Seligman’s Explanatory Style concept:

The three kinds of attributions we make are:

• Internal (or Personal) attributions – my failure (or success) has something to do with me (my skills, my abilities, my intelligence, my talents, etc.)

• Global (or Pervasive) attribution – my failure (or success) affects other parts of my life

• Stable (or Permanent) attributions – my failure (or success) continues throughout the rest of my life

Example: student fails a test:

A pessimistic student would interpret this failure as:

• Personal: I’m stupid, I’m not good at this.

• Pervasive: I’m bad at taking tests in general. I’m bad at all types of math too.

• Permanent: I’ll always fail at math tests for the rest of my life.

A more optimistic view:

• Not Personal: This test was hard. I was more tired than usual, and besides, I’m under a lot of stress right now (these are impersonal explanations that are external to the student and if true they can relieve some of the negative feelings and low motivation that can result from an off the cuff “I’m stupid” way of thinking).

• Not Pervasive: I don’t do poorly on all my tests. I’m doing well in History for example (the failure is in one area and is not pervasive)

• Not Permanent: I did well in previous math tests, so I know I can do well again in the future.

Even success could be interpreted in a pessimistic way (ex: student does well on a test):

• Not personal: I got lucky

• Not pervasive: No way I’m going to get that lucky in my other classes

• Not permanent: I’ll never get that lucky again

References on the topic of Positive Thinking

• The article entitled Pathologies of Hope can be found in the Februrary 2007 issue of Harper’s Magazine.

• It was written by Barbara Ehrenreich. Click here to go to her website. She also hosts a fascinating blog which you can subscribe to from her website.

• The article on The Secret was written by Jerry Adler and can be found in the March 5th 2007 issue of Newsweek.

• Learn more about Albert Ellis and Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy at the Albert Ellis Institute. Here’s where you can hear the whole program from NPR on Albert Ellis. This program is narrated by NPR’s Alix Spiegel.

• If you want to learn more about Martin Seligman, you can find his book at on iTunes about Learned Helplessness or learn about Learned Helplessness at Audible.com.

Quote of the week

This week’s quote comes from page 27 of the book “Contentment” by Johnson and Ruhl, which can be found at Amazon.

“Many people in our modern world are faced with the awful dilemma of choosing between unreality or being left alone. If you don’t play along with the excesses of our time, you risk being ignored or even tossed aside.”

Video of the Week

This week’s video about sex differences is called “How to Shower - men vs. women.

[email_link]

Popularity: 50% [?]

Popularity: 50% [?]