When people are in doubt or do not know what to do to better their lives, some will turn to self-help books or pamphlets for guidance. Psychologists at the University of New Brunswick found that positive self-statements often enmeshed in these books, phrases such as “I will succeed” or “people love me”, actually worsen the attitude of those with low self-esteem when they are told to repeat it to themselves. Self-help in this manner usually does not work!
The researchers discovered this by using two groups of people who consider themselves to have low self-esteem. One group gave themselves the positive mantra and actually felt worse after doing it than those who did not use the techniques. The reason? The individuals who tell themselves unreasonably positive statements, like “I completely accept myself”, begin to have contradictory negative thoughts about themselves. The negative thoughts in turn become more prominent and overwhelm the effect of positive statements the individual is being told to say to him or herself. Interestingly, the researchers gave these individuals a negative mantra to tell themselves and it ended up having a positive effect on their self-esteem.
No comments:
Post a Comment