Untitled Flashcards Set

• Being realistic and having an accurate perception of reality is NOT a critical component of mental health

• Optimism is a general expectation that good things will happen 

  • Future-oriented 

  • Subjective 

  • Cognitive, motivational, and emotional 

• Pessimism - the tendency to expect negative things in the future 

• Optimism and pessimism are not necessarily opposites - you can even experience both at the same time 

• Optimism 

  • inherent part of human nature 

    • Gives us a baseline optimism that’s generally more positive 

  • Individual differences exist 

    • Depends on the situation and person 

    • It's a characteristic that people possess to different degrees

• Dispositional Optimism 

  • A global expectation that good things will happen and bad things will not

  • Benefits: 

    • More active and effective coping 

      • Problem-solving 

      • Planning 

      • Positive reframing 

    • Better adjustment to life transitions 

      • Starting college 

      • New parenthood (lower levels of postpartum depression)

      • Health issues 

    • Better work performance 

      • Motivation

      • Productivity 

      • Interactions

      • Work-life balance

    • Increased health and longevity

      • Fewer illnesses 

      • Stronger immune systems 

      • Faster recovery 

      • Lived 7.5 years longer when positive

• Optimism does not lead people to ignore health issues and minimize threats 

• Optimism does not lead people to persist on goals that are unattainable 

• Optimism as an explanatory style 

  • Martin Seligman 

  • Positive style in thinking about causes of events 

  • It’s the way we think about the causes of events that forms the basis of whether we are pessimistic or optimistic

  • Sometimes referred to as learned optimism

    • It stemmed as an opposite from learned helplessness

  • 3 dimensions of attributions 

    • Stability: stable vs. temporary 

    • Pervasiveness: global vs. specific 

    • Locus of control: interval vs. external

  • Pessimistic 

    • Negative events are stable, global, and internal

  • Optimistic 

    • Negative events are temporary, specific, and external 

  • Explanatory style for bad events is better predictor 

  • Associated with positive outcomes 

    • Chris Peterson - Harvard Study of Adult Development 

      • Better physical health in military veterans 

      • Correlation between optimism and good health weren’t there immediately but it appeared decades later (started around age 45) 

    • Seligman study: winning records in MLB teams

      • Correlation between optimism and pessimism with last season predicting next season outcomes 

    • Better academic and athletic performance 

    • More productive work

    • Better interpersonal relationships  

    • Greater life satisfaction 

2/12 Notes

• Kristen generally feels good about the future and is confident that things will work out for her. This is an example of which type of optimism?

• Dispositional optimism

• Joe’s teacher asks a question and he gives the wrong answer. Joe thinks, “I always get nervous when I have to answer questions.” Joe has made an attribution that is…

• Stable attribution

Myths about Optimism

• You are either optimistic or pessimistic

• Optimists are born not made

• Being an optimist is always better than being a pessimist

• Optimism is necessary for human flourishing

• There are no downsides to optimism

Truths about Optimism

• It varies across domain and situation

• We can change how we think

• One type of pessimism is associated with good task performance

• Possible to be pessimistic and have good well-being

• Optimism can impair planning for future events 

Defensive pessimism

• Negative thinking that channels anxiety about failure into successful achievement 

• Sets low expectations

• Allows planning for worst-case outcomes 

• Associated with good performance, but also more anxiety and neuroticism, lower self esteem

• Sense of control helps to reduce risk of depression compared to other pessimists

Most helpful with

• Negative outcomes that are possible and important

• These outcomes can be prevented

Downsides of Optimism

• Being unprepared for future negative events

• Risk taking behaviors (smoking, seat belt wearing)

• Toxic positivity

• Being too unrealistic

Optimism & Reality

• Optimism can have costs if it is too unrealistic 

• Flexible or realistic optimism is ideal

• Best to be optimistic when the future can be changed by positive thinking, but not otherwise

Too much realism can be problematic

• Common positive illusions

• Self serving bias, rosy future, exaggerated control,Adaptive attributions

• Associated with healthy adjustment

• Depressive realism- people with mild depression have more accurate judgements

Increasing Optimism

• Reflect on positive experiences

• Practice reframing different situations

2/14

Hope

• Two components

• Pathways: the ability to find ways to reach your goals

• Agency: motivation to use those pathways 

• What type of goals?

• Highly valued

• Short term or long term goals

• Approach oriented or prevention oriented

• Easy or difficult

Sources

• Learned cognitive set

• Cause and effect learning from caregivers

• Strong attachment important

Benefits

• College outcomes

• Athletic performances

• Happiness, satisfaction

• Therapeutic outcomes

• Physical health

Locus of control, self esteem, and personality

Locus of control

• Behavior is shaped by expectations

• Expectations of the degree of personal control we have in our lives

• Internal: outcomes under personal control

• External outcomes are influenced by external factors

• Internal reinforces behavior, external punishes

• Internal associated with self esteem, coping, and life satisfaction

Self-esteem

• Own capacities, own judgement

• The evaluative component of self-concept

• Strongly related to happiness

• Why important?

• Foundation for life satisfaction

• Buffer against stress and anxiety

• Self esteem helps to maintain social relationships

• Sociometer theory: serve as a metric for monitoring social relationships 

• Caveats: the basis for self esteem matters, the pursuit of self esteem is not necessarily advantageous

• Takes attention away from things that yield happiness

Personality

• 5 factor model

• Conscientiousness and extraversion are positively associated with subjective well-being

• Neuroticism: negative affect

• Conscientiousness: strong relationship with life satisfaction, achievements, self direction, health longevity

• Agreeableness/openess: weak relationships

• Similar overall relatioshiops with eudaimonic well-being

• Openess: personal growth

2/17

Goal Pursuit and Change

• Goals

• Desired outcomes that people extend energy trying to achieve

• Motivational concept: energizing and directing our behavior towards the behavior of these outcomes

• What makes us adopt a goal? Research says that commitment to a goal comes from valuable and attainable

• Expectancy Value Theory: goal- directed behavior is determined by expectation of attaining a goal and the incentive value of that goal

Goal characteristics

• Goals more likely to be achieved: concrete

• Better for goals to be more: specific 

• SMART goals

• Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time based

• Put forth more effort when goals are: difficult 

• More likely to achieve goals that are autonomous or controlled? Autonomous 

• Are we more likely to achieve approach goals or avoidance goals? Approach

Approach and Avoidance Goals

• Approach goals: positive outcomes that people move toward

• Avoidance goals: negative outcomes that people try to prevent 

• Avoidance goals are associated with worse perrformance and fewer positive outcomes

• Reasons for the difference: approach goals are easier to regulate and monitor

• Avoidance goals evoke anxiety and self-defensiveness

• Avoidance goals are associated with decreased feelings of competence and self esteem

• Avoidance goals are less likely to feel freely chosen and intrinsically enjoyable 

Materialistic Goals

• Overemphasis on materialistic goals is negatively related to well-being 

• Why the negative relationship?

• Extrinsic goals direct people away from intrinsically satisfying goals

• Financial goals are often controlled not autonomous 

• May develop out of insecurity

Monitoring Goal Progress

• We calculate the discrepancy between current state and desired end-state

• The act to close the gap: higher-than-expected rate-> positive feelings 

• Lower-than-expected rate-> negative feelings and often greater effort 

2/21 Notes

Increasing intrinsic motivation

• Doing something we purely want to

• Things that can increase intrinsic motivation: autonomy, competence, and relatedness, alignment with personal values, removal of barriers, timing of extrinsic rewards

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

• Both are important for performance 

• Intrinsic predicts quality

• Extrinsic predits quantity

Goals and Well-being

• Positive relationships between goal related progress and well-being

• Depends on goal importance and other factors 

• The matching hypothesis: the degree of person-goal “fit” determines the effect on well-being

• Greater likelihood of increased well being with pursuit of goals that express needs, values, and motives or self control

• Personal expressiveness

• Activities that show our true selves

• Pursuit of expressive goals produces feelings of involvement and meaning

• Associated with eudaimonic well-being 

• Autonomous motives: freely chosen goals more likely to increase well-being

Transtheortetical Model of Change

• Precontemplation: not intending to change

• Contemplation: recognizing the need for change 

• Preparation: making plans to change

• Action: actively altering behavior

• Maintenance: continuing new behaviors and avoiding relapse

• Termination: new behavior is fully established

Goal commitment: making a decision and following through

• Keeps us on track when we face challenges 

• Meets our needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy 

• Can be increased by looking for meaning, choosing commitments, and setting priorities

2/24

 The WOOP model

• Goal-setting strategy for initiating and sustaining effort toward goals

• W: Wish

• O: outcome

• O: obstacle

• P: plan

Wish

• What is something you want that is important to you?

Outcome

• What will it be like to accomplish this?

Obstacle

• What is your biggest internal obstacle?

Plan

• How will I navigate this obstacle?

The model is practical and evidence based

• Can apply it in a lot of different ways

• Related to success with our goals

Self Regulation

• Ability to initiate and guide actions towards the achievement of a desired future goal

• “Marshmellow test”: children who could delay gratification had more positive future outcomes

• Observed in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood

Benefits

• Better adjustment and less psychopathology

• Better relationships and social skills

• Fewer addiction problems

• Better academic performance

Control Theory

• Regulation is directed toward reducing the discrepancy between current state and future positive goals

• Emotional experience depends on rate of progress, not actual discrepancy

• 4 components: standards, monitoring, strength/will power, and motivation

Planning for success

• Planning in advance has a large effect on self-regulation success

• Two types of intentions: goal intentions (desire for outcome) & implementation intentions (plan for action)

• Specifying implementation intentions is an integral component in goal achievement 

• Creates markers that make self regulation more efficient, automatic, and less susceptible to distractions

Other important factors

• Commitment: degree of determination and willingness to persevere

• Confidence: belief about ability to accomplish a task

Self Control Failures

• Excuses: failures in self control typically viewed negatively 

• To avoid negative inferences, we create explanations 

• Excuses: self serving explanations that aim to reduce personal responsibility, thereby disengage core components of self from the incident 

2/26

Self regulation failures

Excuses

• advantages

• Protects self esteem

• Reduces guilt & self blame

• Motivates improvement

• Helps relationships 

• Disadvantages 

• Problematic when used excessively

• Reduces self control

Irresistable impulses

• Irritability to resist temptations and strong emotions 

• Evidence suggests that beliefs about control may be most important 

Procrastination

• Example of self regulation failure

• Voluntary delay of intended action despite being worse off 

• Produces short term benefits but long term costs

• Reduced stress and fewer health problems early 

• More stress and health problems later

• Lower quality work

More factors-> procrastination

• Age: negitively correlated 

• Neuroticism: small positive correlation

• Conscientiousness: large negative correlation

• Impulsiveness: large positive correlation

• Intelligence and positive affect: weak to nonexistent relationships

• Self handicapping

• Most likely to procrastinate on tasks that are boring or unpleasant

• Intentions are unrelated 

Grit 

• Passion and perseverance for long term-and meaningful goals 

• Having direction and commitment 

• Persisting even after experiencing difficulty or failure 

• Predicts success beyond what talent and intelligence contribute 

3/10

Developing grit

• Develop a fascination

• Daily improvement 

• Greater purpose

• Growth mindset

The growth mindset

• Fixed mindset: believing your qualities are carved in stone

• Growth mindset: believing your basic qualities can be cultivated through efforts 

Associated with…

• Embracing challenges

• Persisting

• Valuing effort

• Learning from criticism

• May have a bidirectional relationship with grit

Goal Disengagement

• Letting go of unattainable goals is often advantageous

• No obvious indication of when we should disengage

• Emotional consequences more significant for highly important goals

Benefits

• Higher SWB

• Less stress

• Greater self mastery

• Greater investment in new goals 

Flow

• An intrinsically rewarding and enjoyable state of complete absorption with an activity

• Defining feature: intense involvement  

How do we measure flow?

• Often measured with the experience sampling method

Characteristics of Flow

• Challenge skill balance: skills and balance at hand

• Clear goals and unambiguous feedback

• Action-awareness merging

• Complete concentration

• Sense of control

• Loss of self consciousness

• Autotelic experience

Who experiences flow?

• Universal across classes, genders, age, cultures

• But there are individual differences in capacity to experience flow

3/12

Big 5 personality trait associated with flow

• conscientiousness-> negatively correlated with neuroticism and positively correlated with conscientiousness

What happens to the brain during flow?

• Decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex

• Synchronization of cognitive control and reward networks

• Increased dopamine activity

Benefits of Flow

• Psychological benefits

• Focus on concentration

• Intrinsic motivation

• Emotional well-being and happiness

• Emotional regulation

• Cognitive benefits

• Learning and skill development

• Creativity and problem solving

• Faster mastery

• Practical benefits

• Work and productivity

• Education and learning

• Sports

• The arts 

Examples of flow activities

• Listening to or playing music 

• sports/athletics

• Video games/technology

• Work tasks

• hobbies

• Can be solitary or social

• Jobs that have autonomy, creativity, complexity produce flow but flow can still happen in any job 

Suggestions for achieving flow

• Eliminate external distractions

• Eliminate internal distractions

• Work at your biological peak time

• Listen to music

• Work on one very specific task at a time

• Choose the right level of challenge

• Have a clear outcome or goal

• Create a mental cue