Psychology: The Power of Thought

In the words of Winston Churchill, "The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." When we are optimistic that we can get a job done, or that we can find a cure for a disease, we are more motivated, and we work harder. A scientist who is pessimistic that they will never find a cure for a specific disease will have a mental mind block against finding a cure for a disease, making it considerably harder for them to find a cure. However, a scientist who is optimistic about finding a cure for a disease will be motivated and more focused on their dedication to discovering a cure for a disease such as cancer. When you are optimistic, you are more motivated, and when you are motivated, you are more productive, consequently making optimism a particularly important priority in everyday

Optimism in some cases is a desirable trait due to its fundamental nature. Being optimistic allows people to keep their head high and keep moving, even through the most dire situations that they may face. Optimism is a priority because it helps people in various ways and, also a very prominent trait in some people. In life, optimism is often viewed as a desirable trait, and something that can benefit somebody’s life.

You feel happy when you are optimistic. This can result in you feeling more energetic, give you brighter eyes, and bring you success and happiness. You also walk with more confidence and have a stronger voice. Also, your positivity can spread to others, however, any negativity can also spread. Some ways to be positive are to not allow what other people say about you get to you. Other ways are to smile more, try to only visualize positive things, use positive words when talking to people, and don’t give up. (Sasson, The Power of Positive Thinking, Paragraphs 1, 14, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 27) These are great examples of why you would want to be optimistic and respond to conflict with positivity.

An article written by Kendra Cherry states, “By nurturing positive emotions, even in the face of terrible events, people can reap both short-term and long-term rewards, including managing stress levels, lessening depression, and building coping skills that will serve them well in the future” (Cherry). Optimism has allowed for people to deal with conflicts in a healthy way. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot in her book The Science of Optimism: Why We’re Hard-Wired for Hope argues that optimism provides an adaptive advantage. According to her, “Expecting our future to be good reduces stress and anxiety, which is good for our health. Researchers studying heart attack patients have found that optimists were more likely than nonoptimistic patients to take vitamins, eat low-fat diets, and exercise, thereby reducing their overall coronary risk” (Popova). Dealing with conflicts positively is better for your health and it decreases bad health

For many, pessimism is not ideal, and optimism is their route of choice, as it develops through the arising

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of optimism is “A disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.” Looking on the more favorable side can help in the most difficult times. Having a positive attitude is the best response to conflict, especially in time of war. Optimists such as Winston Churchill and Anne Frank kept hope for a better future throughout World War II.

The optimism bias pushes people towards positive change because most people want positive change and according to Tali Sharot to make changes in our life we must believe that the changes are possible. Even rather pessimistic people want to change there for they believe it is possible. When a person believes in change and anticipates the change it releases serotonin in the brain and brings about a happy feeling, there for improving their overall wellbeing.

Pessimists tends to think about all the negatives the future will bring thus making them think more carefully and to take health and safety precautions. Also, pessimists being have better relationships with others due to their expectations being low to begin with. If you start out a relationship thinking about the negatives and what might go wrong, you will automatically try to prevent it from happening thus keeping good healthy relationships with the people around you. For example, I occasionally have anxiety attacks and research has proven that pessimism can help provide protection against anxiety. Pessimists will think about all the things they could do wrong. For instance they might think of how they could trip over that stick or spill that glass of milk. Because of this thought process, pessimists apt to think of things they can do to prevent such

You’re either optimistic or you’re pessimistic, meaning you either view the world positively or negatively. Everyone views the world in a different perspective. Everyone is bound to go through challenges in their life. It’s what you make of those challenges that really matters.

Being optimistic is the main principle for most people. We may often hear the statement about “be an optimist, not a pessimist!” shouted by people. Sometimes you do it for yourself too. When facing such a failure or problem, this will not only help to relieve your heart. Being optimistic will help someone to be healthy in physical and mental. An optimist will find the best way in any circumstance and hope for every good thing can come to him/her. You may have gone through thousands of hard times. However, if you are a born optimist then you will not care of anything destructing you.

In the future, I ultimately intend to be a psychologist. With being a psychologist, I am taking on the responsibility on how to lead people into having an overall better life and promote positive change for them. Psychologists often specialize in studying and examining the brain and human behavior. That being said, psychology is a very important branch of science that attempts to help us stay sane!

Optimism is another trait or attribute displayed by Type Bs, Cs, and hardy personalities (see below). Optimists are more inclined to appraise situations as challenging, whereas Type A personalities will appraise the same situation as a threat. Optimists tend to focus on what they can do to change or improve a stressful situation, rather than what they are unable to do. They are content in what they do accomplish, and do not focus on their failures (Schafer, 2000; Morris & Maisto, 2005).

Optimism could be considered a condition of the mind that makes one believe that the best things will always happen to them. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is a glass with water at the halfway point, where the optimist is said to see the glass as half full, but the pessimist sees the glass as half empty. Optimists tend to see adversity as temporary; more specifically they view the obstacle as limited to the situation and not generalized.

“A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother” (Unknown) The amazing thing with a Freudian slip is how the mind inserts a detail from your subconscious that was not intended to be there however the mouth said another. The depth of the human mind is truly limitless from conception till death the mind is interpreting data and responding to the outcomes of life’s experiences. The sums of these equations make up the details in our conscious and sub conscious minds. Studying the details of our mind and how we interact with the world around us resides Psychology.

Quantitative Psychology – involves and usage of mathematical and statistical methods in psychological research and the development of statistical technique in analyzing and illustrating a behavioral data.