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Is Positive Thinking Powerful?
The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like “I never do anything right” into positive ones like “I can succeed”. But was the positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking?
Researchers in Canada just published a study in Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply stress 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 by using older research showing that when people get feedback (反馈) which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your friend who is not very clever that he has the potential of an Einstein, you’re just underlining his faults. In the 1990s, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton conducted an experiment. The participants were asked to write essays opposing financial support for the disabled, expressing little sympathy for them. When these participants were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.
In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students’ self-respect. The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, “I am lovable” Those with low self-respect didn’t feel better after the forced self-approval. In fact, their feelings turned significantly worse than those of members of the control group, who weren’t urged to think positive thoughts.
The study provides support for newer forms for psychotherapy (心理治疗) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation (静思) techniques, on the contrary, can teach people to realize their shortcomings from a larger, more realistic perspective. Call it the power of negative thinking.
1．What is the finding of the Canadian researchers?| A．There can be no simple solutions to psychological problems. |
| B．Encouraging positive thinking may do harm to people. |
| C．The power of positive thinking is limited. |
| D．Unhappy people cannot think positively. |
| A．you are pointing out the mistakes he has made |
| B．you are not taking his mistakes seriously enough |
| C．you are stressing the fact that he is not intelligent |
| D．you are not trying to make him feel better about his faults |
| A．Self-approval can bring a positive change to one’s feelings. |
| B．People with low self-respect seldom write down their true feelings. |
| C．It is important for people to continually improve their self-respect. |
| D．Forcing people to think positive thoughts may lower their self-respect. |
| A．people can avoid making mistakes through meditation |
| B．different people tend to have different ways of thinking |
| C．meditation may prove to be a good form of psychotherapy |
| D．the effects of positive thinking differ from person to person |
同类型试题
y = sin x， x∈R， y∈[–1，1]，周期为2π，函数图像以 x = (π/2) + kπ 为对称轴
y = arcsin x， x∈[–1，1]， y∈[–π/2，π/2]
sin x = 0 ←→ arcsin x = 0
sin x = 1/2 ←→ arcsin x = π/6
sin x = √2/2 ←→ arcsin x = π/4
sin x = 1 ←→ arcsin x = π/2
y = sin x， x∈R， y∈[–1，1]，周期为2π，函数图像以 x = (π/2) + kπ 为对称轴
y = arcsin x， x∈[–1，1]， y∈[–π/2，π/2]
sin x = 0 ←→ arcsin x = 0
sin x = 1/2 ←→ arcsin x = π/6
sin x = √2/2 ←→ arcsin x = π/4
sin x = 1 ←→ arcsin x = π/2
