In 2005, the National Science Foundation published an article summarizing research on human thoughts per day. It was found that the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those thousands of thoughts, 80% were negative, and 95% were exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before. What if we could understand how our “explanatory style” can reduce negative thinking patterns?
If you were to closely monitor your thinking patterns for a week, would you find more positive interpretations of events or negative interpretations? Would you find more examples of self-limiting thoughts – I can’t handle this; this is too hard – or more thoughts like, How is this possible; maybe if I stay at it, I’ll figure it out? If you trip up over a frustrating situation, say maybe a wrong turn or you miss an exit on the freeway, or indulge in a bigger piece of cake, are your thoughts marked with self-criticism? Of course, we can’t control most of these events that happen in our lives, but we can control our reactions to them. This article offers some insights about controlling our reactions.
How We Explain Events
Behavioral psychologists used to recommend (maybe still do) wearing a rubber band around the wrist and snapping it in every instance of negative self-talk. It can be a fairly effective technique. Besides the discomfort, it does make the observer more aware of his or her thinking patterns. The prescription is pretty clear: If you don’t want to subject yourself to walking around with a rubber band on your wrist, you’ll be more careful to limit those negative thoughts.
Even though our thinking patterns have been with us likely since childhood, the first step toward change is to be more aware of the pattern. We often don’t realize how often we say negative things in our head, or how much it affects our experience. The first step in changing the way we look at something and our experience of it, is to be aware of it, to educate our self about our explanatory styles.
Explanatory Style
This is a term that refers to how people explain the events of their lives. There are three domains describing how people can explain or label a situation that can lean toward optimism or pessimism. The event is:
- Stable or Unstable: Unchanging across time or changing and unpredictable across time.
- Global or Local: Universal throughout one’s life or specific to a part of one’s life.
- Internal or External: Cause of an event is within oneself or outside oneself.
Differences between Optimists and Pessimists
Optimists have positive explanatory styles, or a positive way of explaining events in their lives. Here’s what research has told us about optimists. They:
- explain positive events as having happened because of them – internal, i.e., they are the cause.
- view events as evidence that more positive things will happen in the future – stable (i.e., not changing across time). And such events are global or universal, i.e., similar to what happens in other areas of their lives.
- see negative events as not being their fault – external (i.e., the cause is outside oneself).
- label negative events as being flukes – isolated – that have nothing to do with other areas of their lives or future events – i.e., local, not universal.
For example, if an optimist gets a promotion, she will likely believe it’s because she’s good at her job (the cause is internal), and she will receive more benefits and promotions in the future (such events are global and stable. If she’s passed over for the promotion, it’s likely because she was having an off-month – local and unstable. And it’s because of extenuating circumstances – external – but she will do better in the future.
Benefits of Optimism
Research shows that the benefits of optimism and a positive frame of mind are huge. Optimists enjoy
- better health
- stronger relationships
- are more productive, and
- experience less stress in the face of difficult or unpleasant events.
This is because optimists tend to take more risks, and blame external circumstances if they fail. They maintain a “try again” mindset. This makes them more likely to succeed in the future, and are less upset by failure in general.
Pessimists, on the other hand, tend to blame themselves when things go wrong. They tend to become more reluctant to try again with each negative experience in life. Positive events in their lives are seen as “flukes” that have nothing to do with them. They typically expect the worst. In this way, optimists and pessimists both create self-fulfilling prophecies.
Increased Awareness of Our Explanatory Style
With practice, optimism can be learned, and our self-talk can be changed at any age. Be aware of your inner dialogue – how you talk about what you are experiencing, your explanatory style. Once you understand your current way of seeing things, you can look at things and events differently.
Want to see if there is some increased awareness?
Try a little exercise: take a recent physical setback, loss, or disappointment and list 3 or 4 negative statements about this event (e.g., This always happens to me; I must have deserved this again) and then make another list of 3 or 4 positive statements (e.g., This disappointment is tough to handle, but it was out of my control; What a heavy loss but it was an exception to what usually happens for me). Is one list easier to write than the other? If so, which one? True, this is not always black and white, but trends are important, just the same.
No Loss of Enthusiasm
Aging brings with it a fair share of events and obstacles that must be reckoned with. Fortunately – or unfortunately – we get plenty of chances to improve our explanatory style. I like the words of Winston Churchill, someone who saw more than his fair share of disastrous events: “Success is the ability to move from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm.” One of the oldest examples may be the best: Is the glass half full or half empty? An 8-ounce glass with 4 ounces of water is both half full and half empty. You decide.