Depressed About Work? Don’t Try Positivity
Dancing can work, though
Job hunters often get depressed from their hunt, and it’s probably even worse in a stagnant, depressed economy like we’re in today. One of the coping techniques that misguided but well-meaning people teach them is to use Positive Thinking. People regularly use these techniques and believe strongly that they are effective.
Nice, except that it will often backfire.
ScienceDaily reports that three Canadian researchers — Joanne V. Wood and John W. Lee (University of Waterloo) and W.Q. Elaine Perunovic (University of New Brunswick) — “found that individuals with low self-esteem actually felt worse about themselves after repeating positive self-statements.”
Even people with high self-esteem didn’t get much benefit from repeating “self-affirming” statements.
Good grief! If something as beloved as Self Affirmation doesn’t work, can anything work?
It turns out the answer is “yes”, and luckily for us, it’s not that hard. It’s just a bit more complex than telling yourself “I’m a likeable person”.
It comes with some caveats.
October 22, 2009 No Comments
