Negative Thinking Not All that Bad

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In the past 50 years, people with mental problems have spent untold millions of hours in therapists' offices, and millions more reading self-help books, trying to turn negative thoughts like "I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed." For many people — including well-educated, highly trained therapists, for whom "cognitive restructuring" is a central goal — the very definition of psychotherapy is the process of changing self-defeating attitudes into constructive ones.

But was Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking? A study just published in the journal Psychological Science says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.

The study's authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin with a common-sense proposition: when people hear something they don't believe, they are not only often skeptical but adhere even more strongly to their original position. A great deal of psychological research has shown this, but you need look no further than any late-night bar debate you've had with friends: when someone asserts that Sarah Palin is brilliant, or that the Yankees are the best team in baseball, or that Michael Jackson was not a freak, others not only argue the opposing position, but do so with more conviction than they actually hold. We are an argumentative species.
And so we constantly argue with ourselves. Many of us are reluctant to revise our self-judgment, especially for the better. In 1994, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published a paper showing that when people get feedback that they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you try to tell your dim friend that he has the potential of an Einstein, he won't think he's any smarter; he will probably just disbelieve your contradictory theory, hew more closely to his own self-assessment and, in the end, feel even dumber. In one fascinating 1990s experiment demonstrating this effect — called cognitive dissonance in official terms — a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write hard-hearted essays opposing funding for the disabled. When these participants were later told they were compassionate, they felt even worse about what they had written.
For the new paper, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students on their self-esteem. The students were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds during those four minutes, one randomly assigned group of the students heard a bell. When they heard it, they were supposed to tell themselves, "I am a lovable person."

Those with low self-esteem — precisely the kind of people who do not respond well to positive feedback but tend to read self-help books or attend therapy sessions encouraging positive thinking — didn't feel better after those 16 bursts of self-affirmation. In fact, their self-evaluations and moods were significantly more negative than those of the people not asked to remind themselves of their lovability.
This effect can also occur when experiments are more open-ended. The authors cite a 1991 study in which participants were asked to recall either six or 12 examples of instances when they behaved assertively. "Paradoxically," the authors write, "those in the 12-example condition rated themselves as less assertive than did those in the six-example condition. Participants apparently inferred from their difficulty retrieving 12 examples that they must not be very assertive after all."

Wood, Lee and Perunovic conclude that unfavorable thoughts about ourselves intrude very easily, especially among those of us with low self-esteem — so easily and so persistently that even when a positive alternative is presented, it just underlines how awful we believe we are.
The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than try to reject and fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can also make things worse. Mindfulness and meditation techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic perspective. Call it the power of negative thinking.

From: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1909019,00.html
The link to the study mentioned in the article is broken, but I managed to find it: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2009/wood.cfm

It's an interesting idea. The tl;dr version of it is that honesty is the best policy for happiness, and that bs just makes everything worse. What are your thoughts on the article?
 
Ok, so the idea here was that blind positiveness is not that healthy. I agree with that. Over-idealizing anything (including honesty) can be really hindering.

Both constructive criticism and hopeful optimism are necessary, they balance one another. Any person exclusively clinging to one or the other will have problems, no doubt.

Maybe some only think they are temporarily clinging to the blind optimism, because there is already so much negativity and constructive criticism in their lives, and it eventually becomes a crutch for them.


I personally think being self aware is never a bad thing, as long as it is unbiased; both extreme self-consciousness and blind optimism are, of course, completely biased.

Nice find!
 
Those with low self-esteem — precisely the kind of people who do not respond well to positive feedback but tend to read self-help books or attend therapy sessions encouraging positive thinking — didn't feel better after those 16 bursts of self-affirmation. In fact, their self-evaluations and moods were significantly more negative than those of the people not asked to remind themselves of their lovability.

know this. Yeah, at one point i thought self affirmations would work but they really don't. Similar to the idea of compliments. Supposedly, if you get a lot of compliments, your self esteem improves. Instead, i usually become more self conscious, more self involved, or develop an expanded ego. So, receiving positive affirmations of self worth is not always effective.

Wood, Lee and Perunovic conclude that unfavorable thoughts about ourselves intrude very easily, especially among those of us with low self-esteem — so easily and so persistently that even when a positive alternative is presented, it just underlines how awful we believe we are.

Yep.

The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than try to reject and fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can also make things worse. Mindfulness and meditation techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic perspective. Call it the power of negative thinking.

I have to say, i feel much more in control and comfortable when i'm honest with myself while not being too negative. you can acknowledge weaknesses and build on strengths without positive affirmations focused on "feeling good about myself". It's never felt comfortable, natural, or realistic to think "great and wonderful things". Instead, it just feels weird - it really does. And it isn't necessary. I think that's why the CBT therapy never really worked for me.
 
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I think the key here is that blatantly false claims are counter-productive. Instead of focusing on trying to overturn the negative thoughts, which are often somewhat accurate, I think focusing on what is good about oneself will boost self-esteem.

Also, it's never too late to build a new history.
 
I have to say, i feel much more in control and comfortable when i'm honest with myself while not being too negative. you can acknowledge weaknesses and build on strengths without positive affirmations focused on "feeling good about myself". It's never felt comfortable, natural, or realistic to think "great and wonderful things". Instead, it just feels weird - it really does. And it isn't necessary. I think that's why the CBT therapy never really worked for me.

Agreed. I think to some parts, we can notice such weirdness contained within a blatantly ridiculous compliment and...went on a "that's not true. Oh shit. That's not true AT ALL."

NeverAmI said:
Both constructive criticism and hopeful optimism are necessary, they balance one another. Any person exclusively clinging to one or the other will have problems, no doubt.
That depends. I don't think most of the words said for this is hopeful optimism at all. It's mostly.... ignorant saccharine statements. The same as how "you're so ugly" is not a constructive criticism. Hopeful optimism is most advice said in this forum (the realm of NFs). Constructive criticism is...well, the realm of NTs.

I got a personal stereotype that most of the self-help books in this vein contained certain ignorant, carefree attitude towards themselves and the world that... while it can be useful, in long term it'd stunt growth. >_>; I'd rather have a realistic assessment about myself.... Which's why I preferred 'seeing things from the other point of view' rather than this kind of positive self-help statements.

I think the key here is that blatantly false claims are counter-productive. Instead of focusing on trying to overturn the negative thoughts, which are often somewhat accurate, I think focusing on what is good about oneself will boost self-esteem.

Also, it's never too late to build a new history.
Agreed. I'd rather support myself with, "You can grow out of it" rather than "You aren't it!"
Rather than "I'm a loveable person" or "I will succeed", I'd rather pick "I can and will be a loveable person" and "I am going to succeed."
 
Thanks so much for posting this. It confirms how I feel. I wish I had the guts to send it to my minister. It explains more eloquently than I could why I haven't been attending. Our family belongs to one of those churches where you must put a positive slant on absolutely everything. If you don't, then the negative results are your own fault. I think "Idealism increases with one's distance from the problem". This study made me feel a lot better.....affirmations I don't believe do not.

klutzo
 
Seems accurate to me. Your thread title is misleading though.
 
Rather than "I'm a loveable person" or "I will succeed", I'd rather pick "I can and will be a loveable person" and "I am going to succeed."

Well put. Because then we're focusing on striving to achieve a goal rather than believing something which may seem false or inauthentic to our psyche/sense of self.
 
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