Unit One
Text:
You Are What You Think
And if you change your mind-from pessimism to optimism
-you can change your life
Claipe Safran
[1] Do you see the glass as half full rather than half empty? Do you keep your eye upon the doughnut, not upon the hole? Suddenly these clichés are scientific questions, as researchers scrutinize the power of positive thinking.
[2] A fast-growing body of research—104 studies so far, involving some 15,000 people—is proving that optimism can help you to be happier, healthier and more successful. Pessimism leads, by contrast, to hopelessness, sickness and failure, and is linked to depression, loneliness and painful shyness. \we could teach people to think more positively,\says psychologist Craig A. Anderson of Rice University① in Houston②，\would be like inoculating them against these mental ills.\
[3] \abilities count,\explains psychologist Michael F. Scheier of Carnegie Mellon University③ in Pittsburgh④, \
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the belief that you can succeed affects whether or not you will.\In part , that's because optimists and pessimists deal with the same challenges and disappointments in very different ways. [4] Take, for example, your job. In a major study, psychologist Martin E. P. Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania⑤ and colleague Peter Schulman surveyed sales representatives at the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. They found that the positive-thinkers
among
longtime
representatives
sold
37-percent more insurance than did the negative-thinkers. Of newly hired representatives, optimists sold 20-percent more. [5] Impressed, the company hired 100 people who had failed the standard industry test⑥ but had scored high on optimism. These people, who might never have been hired, sold 10 percent more insurance than did the average representative.
[ 6 ] How did they do it? The secret to an optimist's success, according to Seligman, is in his \style\When things go wrong the pessimist tends to blame himself. \no good at this, \he says, \always fail.\The optimist looks for loopholes. He blames the weather, the phone connection, even the other person. That customer was in a bad mood, he thinks. When things go right, the optimist takes credit while the pessimist sees success as a fluke.
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[ 7 ] Craig Anderson had a group of students phone strangers and ask them to donate blood to the Red Cross⑦. When they failed on the first call or two, pessimists said, \Optimists told themselves, \ [ 8 ] Negative or positive, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. \people feel hopeless, \Anderson, \don't bother to acquire the skills they need to succeed.\
[9] A sense of control, according to Anderson, is the litmus test⑧ for success. The optimist feels in control of his own life. If things are going badly, he acts quickly, looking for solutions, forming a new plan of action, and reaching out for advice. The pessimist feels like fate's plaything and moves slowly. He doesn't seek advice, since he assumes nothing can be done. [ 10 ] Optimists may think they are better than the facts would justify—and sometimes that's what keeps them alive. Dr. Sandra Levy of the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute studied women with advanced breast cancer. For the women who were generally optimistic, there was a longer disease-free interval, the best predictor of survival. In a pilot study of women in the early stages of breast cancer, Dr. Levy found the disease recurred sooner among the pessimists.
[ 11 ] Optimism won't cure the incurable, but it may prevent
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illness. In a long term study, researchers examined the health histories of a group of Harvard graduates, all of whom were in the top half of their class and in fine physical condition. Yet some were positive thinkers, and some negative. Twenty years later, there were more middle-age diseases—hypertension, diabetes, heart ailments —among the pessimists than the optimists.
[ 12 ] Many studies suggest that the pessimist's feeling of helplessness undermines the body's natural defenses, the immune system. Dr. Christopher Peterson of the University of Michigan⑨ has found that the pessimist doesn't take good care of himself. Feeling passive and unable to dodge life's blows, he expects ill health and other misfortunes, no matter what he does. He munches on junk food⑩ ，avoids exercise, ignores the doctor, has another drink.
[ 13 ] Most people are a mix of optimism and pessimism, but are inclined in one direction or the other. It is a pattern of thinking learned “at your mother‘s knee”，says Seligman. It grows out of thousands of cautions or encouragements, negative statements or positive ones. Too many “don’ts” and warnings of danger can make a child feel incompetent, fearful—and pessimistic.
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