| Username |
Post |
| HamiKinaYestoJhoor? |
Posted
on 09-Apr-02 11:05 PM
We are turning into a nation of cynical, frustrated misanthropes, says Puskar Bhusal, a columnist with the Nepali Times. Btw, that's not his real name. Even most people at the Nepali Times don't know that re.
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/ntimes/issue88/somewhereinnepal.htm
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 10-Apr-02 12:00 AM
Psychologist Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania is famous for
his studies on "optimism."
His long-time theoretical and empirical papers (NB: NOT a psychologist, I
have only read other studies, pertaining to corporate performance, in
which Seligman's findings have been extensively cited) have shown that, all
else being equal, optmist people:
have more friends,
are more solution-oriented,
are more productive,
earn more money,
and are better able to cope with and
bounce back from life's stresses and setbacks
and are more happy
THAN their negative counterparts -- i.e. pessimists, cynics and frustrated people who hold corrosive grudges against others and are full of anger and scorn.
Fortunately, Seligman has argued that optimistic behaviours CAN be learnt
and put to practice!! He has even devised a test, I think, to measure
one's "OQ" -- optimism quotient.
Since Nepal, according to Pushkar Bhusal in his Nepali Times piece, is full of
cynical misanthropes, Seligman's theories have become all the more relevant
in understanding how we in Nepal can do what we do here -- better, more efficiently/effectively, and with joy, imagination and good results.
Anyone in grad psych program out there -- to shed more light on this?
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 10-Apr-02 01:25 AM
An Interview with
Martin EP Seligman, Ph.D.
September, 1999
Joshua Freedman
Josh: The tool that you introduced at the Nexus EQ Conference is "disputing catastrophic thinking;" what is that?
Martin: There is a skill that everyone has that they usually deploy in the wrong place. The skill is disputing. In learned optimism programs we teach people first to recognize the catastrophic things they say to themselves. For example, they might say, "No one is going to like me at this party. I never have fun at parties."
We teach them first to treat it as if it were said by an external person whose mission in life is to make them miserable. Then to dispute it in the same way they would an external person. When you say these things to yourself, you treat them as if they were true. We generally have the skill of disputing other people when they make false accusations, and we can learn to do so with ourselves as well. That’s the central skill in both cognitive therapy and learned optimism training.
Josh: How young a person can be taught these skills?
Martin: We start at about age 10.
Josh: Recognizing that there is no quick fix, what would you advise as a starting point?
Martin: My first advice is to make some assessment of whether or not you are a pessimist. There are a set of tests which people can take rather easily to decide that. It is not transparent to yourself. Then, if you are, the nutshell advice is to learn the disputing skills.
Josh: Are you an optimist?
Martin: I’m a born pessimist.
Josh: Have you then taught yourself to be an optimist?
Martin: I think only a pessimist can write and do serious stuff about optimism. The skills I talk about I use every day. What I’ve become is what I call a "flexible optimist." I can recognize the situations which call for optimism, and the situations which don’t call for optimism need a mercilessly realistic view of what’s going to happen.
When I make that separation, if it’s one of the many situations in which the optimism skills are going to pay off, then I throw in my whole complement of optimism skills. It makes me better able to initiate different projects. But when I’m in a situation in which the cost of failure is very high, then what I want is merciless realism. In that case I revert to my usual "four in the morning" pessimism.
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 10-Apr-02 01:28 AM
Read more at:
http://www.eqtoday.com/seligman.html
Also, check this out:
http://www.eqtoday.com/marsha.html
|
