Recognize the cognitive factors that affect your coping with problems and managing your emotions

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)

• Emotional coping: I don't worry about little things or the past; I don't demand perfection; I accentuate the positive most of the time; I avoid the "blame game;" I realize "you can't win them all," etc.
• Behavioral coping: I do something when I'm unhappy; I see problems as challenges; I accept that unpleasant jobs have to be done; I cheer myself on rather than criticize myself; I carefully think through how to handle most problems; I handle things pretty well most of the time, etc.

Destructive thinking: (the less of this, the better you cope)

• Categorical thinking: I feel people are either for you or against you; if someone does something wrong, they should be punished; I am quick to judge people; I usually believe I know the right way to do something; people are either good or bad.
• Superstitious thinking: Wishing for something or talking about it keeps it from happening; it seems like a string of good luck is followed by bad luck; there are good and bad omens; some people just have bad luck; I don't walk on cracks or under ladders or across a black cat's path.
• Mystical thinking: I think there are ghosts and spirits; I believe in my good luck charm; some people can predict the future and some can read minds; my astrology sign is pretty accurate; occultism scares me; the future is more determined more by spiritual forces than by humans.
• Unwarranted optimism: If you have enough willpower, you can do anything; everyone should love their parents; after a success, I feel I can do anything; religious people can be depended on; I think good things will happen to me if I am good; my family calls me a lucky person, so I will do well in life.

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.