We all live in the world, which is full of sadness and disappointing. We see people dying, poverty, unemployment, etc. However, there are a lot of positive things in the world: children, who are born every day, people, who get new life opportunities, happy marriages, etc. The greatest gift is to see the positive sides of life, without concentrating our attention on negative. According to Winston Churchill, a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. In my opinion, it is really true, because the positive or negative attitude towards life can highly influence our chances to success, feelings and even health. Positive thinking can be the best treatment for those, who don’t know what to do, in a problematic life situation. Optimistic attitude can help the person to live longer, recover faster from the mortal diseases like cancer and coronary heart disease, and avoid alcoholism and psychological problems(like depression). Optimistic attitude is a great way to feel better, even during bad times. The interesting question is, whether it can help the optimistic person to live the happy time longer, than his / her pessimistic colleague. The scientists (Maruta, Colligan, Malinchoc, and Offord (2000)) studied this question. They made an experiment: using the data gathered in the mid-1960, they divided the patients in three main groups. The first group was the optimistic, second – mixed, and the last pessimistic. The results were quite unambiguous: for every ten points increase in person’s score on their optimism scale, the risk of early death decreased by nineteen percents. It is a very good result, because, as we can see, the level of optimism is making the life of the peop... ... middle of paper ... ... Psychology: The Benefits of Living Positively. Psych Central. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com Maruta, T., Colligan, R. C., Malinchoc, M., & Offord, K. P. (2000). Optimists vs. pessimists: Survival rate among medical patients over a 30-year period. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 75, 140–143. Ohannessian, C. M., Hesselbrock, V. M., Tennen, H., & Affleck, G. (1993). Hassles and uplifts and generalized outcome expectancies as moderators on the relation between a family history of alcoholism and drinking behaviors. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 55, 754-763. Schou, I., Ekeberg, O., & Ruland, C. M. (2005). The mediating role of appraisal and coping in the relationship between optimism-pessimism and quality of life. Psycho-oncology, 14, 718-727. Wong, S. (2009). Always look on the bright side of life ... Notes & Theories. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com
The world, through different means, will always try to degrade people’s existence, but it’s up to us to rise up and act. For Nietzsche, Beauvoir and Voltaire, people should act and take the responsibilities. According to Nietzsche, people give meaning to their life by growing spontaneously, seeking out to say ‘yes’ to life to saturate it with happiness and passion. For Beauvoir, people, especially women, give their life meaning by not condemning to immanence, instead affirming their independence and transcending themselves to justify their existence. As per Voltaire, excessive optimism fades one’s sense of responsibility, taking away his or her freedom to take productive action. For Voltaire, optimism is good only when it compels people to take action, and bad when it forces people into believing that failure is inevitable.
Ever hear one say, “Sometimes I’m busy making others happy, that I forget to make sure I’m okay.”? After reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided I have learned that balancing both positive and negative thinking is the single most important life lesson shown throughout the book. Ehrenreich tells readers that the power of positive thinking Is undermining America and how being too positive and too optimistic, can lead to trouble. One that knows how to balance the amount of positivity and negativity will create a proper outcome for their future.
This shows that positive thinking can get in the way of all your hopes and dreams. You may have an image of a life that seems perfect, but you need to be able to separate that from reality and not get the two mixed. It sometimes blinds you from the true reality. Also in the same text, it stated ‘’the pressure of positive thinking can result in suppressing any pessimistic thoughts or unpleasant emotions because they might attract bad things. You deprive yourself of access to the complete picture and the full range of emotions.
Optimism is a hopefulness for the future. People who are optimistic generally expect the best from situations. Overall, optimists tend to be healthier than pessimists. Optimism can aid in maintenance of psychological health when faced with physical health problems. This claim is evident with Bob Salvini in the Young at Heart film. Bob, having looked death in the eyes multiple times, managed to pull through when the odds were against him. Bobs strong will and optimism for live and his situation helped him live happily for as long as he did, before he unfortunately died in May of 2006. While still in the ICU, Bob stayed positive and was determined to make the show in less than three weeks. Sadly, Bob passed away the night before the show (Walker & George,
Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of the speech “Smile or Die,” she uses this speech to inform her listeners about the ideology of mandatory positive thinking and how it is not always the answer. Ehrenreich talks about what people are forced to learn and how they are forced to think: if they want something bad enough, no matter what that thing may be, that wishing for it and having a positive attitude will put it in their possession. Wanting something bad enough is all it supposedly takes, yet Ehrenreich has an opposite perspective and she educates her audience on her opinion of “thinking positively” using her own personal experiences such as cancer, background knowledge and real-life examples. She wants people to understand that being positive
If someone thinks negatively towards something the outcome will not be good, and vice versa. Thinking you can achieve the American dream is a major key in doing so, and some Americans are already on the right track. In the U.S., a survey showed that 36 percent of Americans say they have achieved the dream, and another 46 percent believe they are on the path of achieving it. It is not so easy, though, to always look on the bright side. Sometimes it seems as if nothing is going right; that is when negativity occurs. People can argue that mindset has little impact on the outcome, or that it does not matter how positive a person is because some things are just not meant to be. An article, however, proves this wrong. The paper argues how negative emotions prevent humans from flourishing; it also states, “if your ratio of positive to negative emotions is greater than 2.9013 to one, you will flourish both physically and psychologically.” If a person believes in themselves, they are more likely to accomplish their
Optimism is applicable to both crises and normal living. It has been shown how optimism brings about the good life amidst catastrophe, but what happens between major life events? One cannot live the good life without a sense of purpose. Optimism encompasses both goals and one’s hope in their accomplishment, giving one a sense of purpose and an anticipation of happiness in times of comfort or distress and keeping the individual progressing within their life story. Thus, a positive view of the future is critical to the good life in adversity or
Alcoholism is common among many families around the world. Alcoholics in the world feel as if they’re able to handle their addiction alone, but most of them need help freeing themselves from the drug. The family is a system composed of members in constant and dynamic interaction with each other (Wormer, 2008). Many times families feel the best thing for their family member who’s dealing with the alcohol abuse within the family. This causes a family to have a pattern in the way they handle their family member with that suffers from alcoholism. Any change in the behavior of one of its members affects not only each of the others but the system as a whole (Trondalen, 2012).
INTRODUCTION: Alcoholism can affect anyone. It has enormous costs as it pertains to societies, families, and individuals. It is not prejudicial towards any race, color, sex, religion, or economic level. Although we do have ideas as to what alcoholism is, what we do not know is the exact cause(s) of this problem. Researchers are continually seeking answers to the long-standing nature versus nurture debate. Different views are split between a biological paradigm and a physchological paradigm. No one explanation seems to be better than another is. I will present views of the effects alcoholism has on society and an insight to the factors that serve to fuel the nature or nurture debate concerning alcohol abuse and alcoholism.
Psychology’s history is a relatively rough one and has only recently been considered a science. According to Martin Seligman (2000), negative psychology is psychology that deals with recovery and healing, using the disease model. This type of psychology has been popular in America since the end of World War II because of grants given to the industry during that time (Seligman, 2000). That time period left positive psychology, the psychology of developing ones skill and wellbeing and perfecting what is already there, overlooked and forgotten. But what psychologist have recently recognized is that positive psychology can be just as useful as negative psychology but it is a vastly under developed area. Thus many scientists have embraced the new frontier of positive psychology. I did a study on the subject of positive psychology. I took two life experiences, one that I found personal pleasure in, and another that wasn’t as fun at the time but benefited others and compared and contrasted the resulting feelings of happiness.
Latham, P.K., & Napier, T.L. (1992). Psychosocial consequences of alcohol misuse in the family of origin. The International Journal of the Addictions, 27, 1137-1158.
Firstly, people who show an optimism bias feel more happy and satisfied with their life. These people are also more in control of and engaged in their life’s goal, they will not just think about happy thoughts and wait for life to pass, instead they will be engaged in a meaningful life and do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals. They are also less likely to give up on a difficult situation and will cope with it. These are people who will not wait for the rain to pass but who learn to dance in the rain in order to fulfil their life’s goal. Unrealistic optimism shows an increased well-being and happiness. With this increased well-being, unrealistically optimistic people are also more able to pick themselves up after a major life
than just "doing," then you can have the joy of not only being in the
All of the theories/concepts discussed in this paper have helped to change the course of my life in a very positive way. Being mindful has taught me to be more open to new experiences and points of view; being religious helped me cope with many negative situations in my life; using Fredrickson’s undoing hypothesis taught me how to think positive in negative situations; having flow taught me how to be more focused; having time affluence taught me how to value the more important things in life over money; and having hope keeps my spirit up and prevents me from giving up on my goals. All these concepts/theories are very important towards positive living and they have definitely helped me deal with many situations in a more positive manner.
The optimist sees the rose and not its thrones; the pessimist stares at the thrones, oblivious to the rose. There are two types of people in the world—optimistic and pessimistic. Optimistic persons always look the positive side of the thing even in tragic consequences and live a cheerful life. On the other hand, pessimistic persons always look at the dark side of a thing even in happy conditions. The negative attitude of these persons makes their life tragic and full of tension.