All in the Angle: Study Scrutinizes Positive Thinking
July 11th, 2009 |
A GoodTherapy.org News Headline
Scores of mental health professionals work with the concepts of positive thinking in various aspects of their work, whether focused on a psychodynamic approach or offering services based on other traditions and schools of thought. The power of positive thinking is well known and can have marvelous effects on outlook and well-being, but a new study recently published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that the precise way in which we structure positive thinking can have a major impact on its efficacy. Time magazine has picked up on the idea, and discusses how an over-simplistic approach is often a waste.
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4 comments so far
nice to hear this kind of critic of positive thinking…with the terrible exagerrations made by “the secret” for financial game, it’s good to seem some balance…look forward to reading the time article.
Totally disagree with this. Life is what you make it. Postive thinking and prayer can go a long way toward making your life what you want it to be. What on earth could be wrong with having an outlook on life like that?
When you don’t have the self belief to back the outlook up, what good is it? Chanting to yourself about how fabulous you are isn’t going to make it so.
It is not surprising to me that people in general, especially those with low self esteem, when presented with an unrealistic overly positive thoughts (I am a lovable person), cannot catch onto it to feel better. In terms of vibrations, it is too far from the original negative thoughts, so people are better off being presented with thoughts that are close enough to how they actually feel so that they can hang on to it with hope. In other words, positive thoughts need to be taylored to each one of us depending of where we stand on the scale of positive and negative thoughts.