The world as we see it...post script

I really wanted to share one more idea to this theory that “We see the world as we are.” I love to learn new things and just the other day I had the pleasure of learning something about a fascination of mine: psychology. It came from an article entitled “Positive psychology advances, with growing pains” from the American Psychology Association.

I always try to be an optimist. I couldn’t imagine not taking an optimistic view of things. I recently discovered that not everyone can always be an optimist. Optimism is better being a part-time thing for some people, for example anxious people.

“…Julie Norem, PhD, professor of psychology at Wellesley College…doesn’t deny the many studies suggesting that optimism and positive mood can help some people, her work indicates that being optimistic and positive may not benefit everyone.

She studies people she calls “defensive pessimists” who deal with anxiety by thinking about everything that could go wrong. Her studies show that by processing the negative possibilities, defensive pessimists relieve their anxiety and work harder at their task to avoid those pitfalls. Several studies by Norem and others suggest that forcing optimism or a positive mood on an anxious defensive pessimist can actually damage performance on tasks that include math problems, anagrams and playing darts…People who use defensive pessimism are anxious and have developed a good strategy for dealing with that anxiety…They don’t need to be made into optimists.”

The entire article can be found by clicking here. Professor Norem also wrote a book on her research called, “The Positive Power of Negative Thinking”.

For me, the article was enlightening. I can’t imagine not trying to maintain a positive outlook. That is how I see the world. The article however, allowed me to see the benefit of pessimism through the eyes of an anxious person. I can now understand the “defensive pessimist’s” thought process. It was truly a revelation for me.

I would like to send a thank you to “The PositivityProject” for leading me to this discovery.

Coach Randal Suozzo, CPC, ELI-MP