stuff on optimism and explanatory style

More dissertation stuff that I thought might be helpful.  I am tossing this stuff off in the wake and there is a good reason.  It all connects with a larger purpose that I have been getting at.  I may talk about that at some point, but for now feel free to make use of anything in here and follow up with me if I fail to explain this adequately.  I can assure that it is helpful for me, because a lot of this is being incorporated into dissertation, and I would much prefer you telling me that I am making no sense, as opposed to my dissertation panel.  The other point, I have been tremendously fortunate for certain life experiences, support, and professional experience that have guided this process.  I want to point out that this is an ongoing process, and part of the reason for the blog posts is that it helps to clarify my thinking and update the model that will eventually comprise much of my academic work.

As a result, I see things that I had not seen before, and by occasional circumstance, I find that I am doing these things almost unconsciously.  And this fits with the research on automaticity—a ridiculously surprising amount of our daily mental functioning is done automatically.  Self-awareness is a challenge, some have a natural gift, others—I am convinced are nearly devoid of this capacity.  I don’t wish to sound self-laudatory, but I have achieved some gains in this area in the past three months.  It was hard-earned, I assure you.  There were days where I did nearly two hours of meditation, albeit at intervals, and the right readings on Zen hit me in the right moments.  (I still know nothing of Zen, so don’t ask me about it).  What am I getting at, the self-awareness helped me to recognize a change in thought that occurred at the gym tonight.  And this goes to the previous reading on hope.

While, I was having one of the many daily conversations in my head, there was a self-talk statement I caught distinctly—“when I finish my dissertation.”  I can tell you that anyone who has been close to me in the last year will recognize the transition from “if I can finish this dissertation.”  And this fascinates me, one because I am fascinated by psychology, and probably preternaturally self-absorbed (see not even close to Zen).  I have no idea the moment that my mind had decided that I would finish dissertation as opposed to endless fretting over the prospect—that is there was no conscious moment I can detect.  This again, lends support to previous posts about goal setting and motivation and why it is so much more complicated than many people recognize.

So, how did I arrive at a position of hope—and this is hope, in the definition of Hope Theory which concerns agentic and pathway thinking.  I recognized that it was problem because I had also achieved a certain level of optimism.  Please don’t ask at this point, I don’t have the time or space to explain the difference between hope and optimism, and I really don’t want to bore you.  Just trust.  A chance conversation this evening helped me to fill in a crucial detail that builds on the previous post.  Optimism is a better place to start with this whole thing.  In the previous post, I think I wrote something about gratitude being one of the antecedents to hope, that still stands, do it.  Plus, it feels good to express gratitude to others and that will place you in a more positive affective state.  And now, it makes sense to me why hope follows.

One of the single most important books that I read for this project was Martin Seligman’s Learned Optimism.  If you have had Psych 101 you might recall the learned helplessness experiments with dogs. Conditions were set so that the dogs would literally give up in situations that became hopeless, and the purpose of the experiment was to show that it was a cognitive mechanism that produced this effect.  This was at a time where behaviorism still remained a dominant theory for human behavior.  What a lot of people outside of Psych 101 may not be aware, is that the latter portion of the experiment involved reversing the conditions.  The dogs eventually regained hope, once they perceived that their behavioral choices mattered.  The truly revolutionary discovery was that if helplessness could be learned, the opposite was true—hence a theory of learned optimism.

This comprised the bulk of Seligman’s work through the advent of the Positive Psychology movement he helped initiate in 2000 as president of the APA.  In Seligman’s book on optimism there is plenty of research to support his position, optimism is linked to better physical and mental health, wellbeing, authentic happiness, academic and work performance.  The long-term consequences for a condition of helplessness and hopelessness are bleak.  Research supports this, and that is why there is an urgency to Seligman’s work.  He went on to write the Optimistic Child for good reason.  Helplessness and hopelessness can be rewired with the proper cognitive exercise.  It is my guess that this is not being taught in schools.

If you have read these essays in order you will follow my concern.  The conditions of the present world for many of us are filled with risk.  The consequences of despair, trauma, and addiction are everywhere and they are cumulative.  I would guess that this is 80% of what I was trying to treat as a behavioral health professional.  This is why burnout is exceptionally high.  The 20% of symptomology that can be treated with medication and therapy is ground up and spit out by unrelenting and unforgiving societal conditions.  

Fortunately, the cognitive exercise that I was speaking about in the preceding paragraphs is actually quite simple, but it takes consistent application.  And that is ten times more difficult when consumed with the day’s unrelenting and unforgiving stresses.  This is one of the reasons that therapy as it is presently delivered has limited outcomes.  Sometimes, coaching is the necessary intervention.  I tell you sometimes you are treating despair, not depression.

So, optimism can be learned.  It actually rests on a fairly simple cognitive mechanism called explanatory style.  I have mountains of research that supports this and you can message me if you would like, but I can save you the read and just offer you the synopsis.  The stories we tell ourselves matter, and the stories that we tell ourselves about our “selves” matter even more.  If you have read the previous essays, I hope I made the case that this is way more complicated than you think it is.  Buddhism suggests that everything before us is an illusion to a degree.  Cognitive psychology supports this contention by exposing how tremendously faulty intuition can be. 

In an effort to leave you in a condition of optimism I am attaching an exercise I developed in my coaching class.  Actually, the handout is just the development, the exercise is credited to Seligman, who built on Albert Ellis’ theory.  Go ahead and tamper with your cognitions, it helped me move past a number of obstacles.  And remember the Stoics believed that the obstacle was the way.

and since i have no idea how to do attachments on here I will cut and paste.  email me if you want a hard copy:

From M. E. P. Seligman (2006)  Learned Optimism.  Credited to Albert Ellis A,B,C,D,E model for altering explanatory style.

Adversity

Belief

Consequence

Disputation

Energization

When confronted with a feeling of pessimism, practice recording what the adverse event is, and the consequences that follow.  There are often belief structures that are influencing the chain of logic in ways that we often fail to catch and address adequately. Skip over belief momentarily. What follows is a generic example of what this might look like in a work setting, but the model is certainly applicable for personal situations common in counseling and coaching:

Adversity:  This meeting is awful, this new supervisor wants to change everything, she doesn’t understand how the system works, it’s clear from what she is saying.  She’s very direct, and the repeated statements “these are my expectations” is really annoying.

Belief:

Consequence:  Feeling: loss of morale.  I had been thinking of applying for the open position which could be a good opportunity.  I can’t imagine that she would give me a good reference.  Start to feel despair—there is going to be all kinds of change, and I’m not sure I have the energy for all of this.

Following the consequence complete the beliefs that you find animating the feelings found within.

Belief:  You aren’t going to be able to tolerate change like this, especially if you don’t get out of this department.  You are way more qualified than what the position offers and if you stay in the position you will be stuck with no opportunity. You clearly annoyed her the other day when you inquired about the other department.

After the beliefs have been properly identified and noted, the fourth step is to move to disputation.  This is the active component in which the belief system is challenged for “pervasive, permanent, and personal” thinking.

Disputation:  First, you have zero evidence that this observation of “annoyance” had anything to do with you.  She seems incredibly direct and demanding, but she also mentioned that she is managing two departments and extremely busy.  You even acknowledged that you are extremely qualified for the position, but do you even want it necessarily?  You are busy, you enjoy the current set up working from home, this will bring added responsibility at a time that you are plenty busy enough.  It is not the end of the world if you don’t get it, because there is a very good chance you may go onto something much different after completing school.

The majority of the sentiments in the belief section have been effectively disputed and challenged by more balanced information/perceptions.  The final step is energization in which we respond with action to mitigate anxiety/pessimism that may have been influence the cycle.

Energization:  All you can do is apply to the open position, maybe it would be helpful to pro/con accepting the position.  Since she noted that she is busy, perhaps you might look for opportunities to offer additional support, she did send an email asking questions about certain procedures and requesting suggestions. (Email was later sent detailing a recommendation). Continue to focus on school, it’s way more important than a position change.

Here is what the complete logic chain would look like:

Adversity:  This meeting is awful, this new supervisor wants to change everything, she doesn’t understand how the system works, it’s clear from what she is saying.  She’s very direct, and the repeated statements “these are my expectations” is really annoying.

Belief:  You aren’t going to be able to tolerate change like this, especially if you don’t get out of this department.  You are way more qualified than what the position offers and if you stay in the position you will be stuck with no opportunity. You clearly annoyed her the other day when you inquired about the other department.

Consequence:  Feeling: loss of morale.  I had been thinking of applying for the open position which could be a good opportunity.  I can’t imagine that she would give me a good reference.  Start to feel despair—there is going to be all kinds of change, and I’m not sure I have the energy for all of this.

Disputation:  First, you have zero evidence that this observation of “annoyance” had anything to do with you.  She seems incredibly direct and demanding, but she also mentioned that she is managing two departments and extremely busy.  You even acknowledged that you are extremely qualified for the position, but do you even want it necessarily?  You are busy, you enjoy the current set up working from home, this will bring added responsibility at a time that you are plenty busy enough.  It is not the end of the world if you don’t get it, because there is a very good chance you may go onto something much different after completing school.

Energization:  All you can do is apply to the open position, maybe it would be helpful to pro/con accepting the position.  Since she noted that she is busy, perhaps you might look for opportunities to offer additional support, she did send an email asking questions about certain procedures and requesting suggestions. (Email was later sent detailing a recommendation). Continue to focus on school, it’s way more important than a position change.