Recognize the cognitive factors that affect your coping with problems and managing your emotions. Discover your self-help Achilles' heel.
It
is obvious that some mental errors are self-inflating, others are
self-defending, some are "leftovers" from emotional experiences, and
some may be due to the quirkiness of our cognitive processes. 626u206g What are the more
common obstacles to living wisely and effectively? Seymour Epstein (1993) tried
to answer that by asking his students to record their most pleasant and most
unpleasant emotion each day for a month. They also recorded their automatic
thoughts associated with these emotions. From this data and further research,
he identified six characteristics of "constructive thinking ,"
i.e. the most successful players in the game of life. He found two constructive
ways of thinking and four destructive ways. Here are sample items:
Constructive thinking: (the more of this, the better you cope)
Destructive thinking: (the less of this, the better you cope)
You
can estimate how you would do on Epstein's tests designed to predict success in
living. The subtests may reveal weaknesses you need to change. Obviously, some
of the constructive thinking comes from the rational mind and some from the
experience-based mind; this includes relaxing, planning, being positive and
active. The destructive thinking comes mostly from the intuitive (experiential)
mind; this includes over-simplifying, inflexibility, being judgmental,
believing in fate, luck, and superstitions, believing in mystical forces and
psychic powers, and a vague belief that things will turn out wonderful. Wonder
why beliefs in luck, superstitions, and spiritual-mystical-psychic powers are
associated with poor coping? Perhaps because these people
depend on outside forces to solve their problems, rather than depending on
their own constructive thinking.
|