"One of the most significant findings in psychology in the last twenty years is that individuals can choose the way they think."
- Learned Optimism, page 8
"What if optimism is a learned skill, one that can be permanently acquired?"- Learned Optimism, page 14
Seligman’s team studied pessimism by inducing helplessness in dogs. These dogs learned that nothing they did turned off the mild shocks in their cages, so even when they could escape, they didn’t.
About a third of the dogs, though, never succumbed. They couldn’t be forced to feel helpless. What if this immunity could be learned?
When helpless dogs were pulled back and forth over a small divider, repeatedly shown they could escape the shocks, 100% unlearned the helplessness.
Unlearned it so well that they were inoculated against helplessness for life.
Experiments with humans, using frustrating puzzles and noises, produced identical results. Helplessness could be learned, and it could be unlearned. Once it was unlearned, the effects were permanent.
"We have found over the years that positive statements you make to yourself have little if any effect. What is crucial is what you think when you fail, using the power of 'non-negative thinking.'"- Learned Optimism, page 15
Knowing a positive perspective in the face of adversity was based on beliefs, Seligman’s team created a process to learn optimism by exploring different beliefs using a system Seligman calls ABCDE.
When you suffer some Adversity, if you analyze what you Believe about it you’ll see the Consequences as a logical result.
What if you change your Belief?
For instance, the boss asks you to rewrite the conclusion of your report (Adversity.)
If your Belief is “The boss is looking for an excuse to fire me” the Consequences will be bad feelings and poor performance.
If you changed your Belief to “This report must be extremely important upstairs” the Consequences could be determination and an excellent job.
That’s ABC: Adversity, Belief, Consequences.
D is Disputation: reasoning ourselves into accepting another Belief. I’ll cover this in more detail in insight #2.
E is Energization: what we’re motivated to do because we’ve Disputed a pessimistic Belief.
For the next two weeks, every time something goes wrong, write down the ABCs:
Once you’ve recognize those ABCs, it’s time to inject some Disputation into the process.
"Learned optimism works not through an unjustifiable positivity about the world but through the power of 'non-negative' thinking."- Learned Optimism, page 221
The Disputation process involves another acronym: EAIU, for Evidence, Alternatives, Implications, and Usefulness.
Should you decide the belief is true, and there’s nothing you can do about it right now, distraction techniques can keep you from ruminating on the adversity, which is a prime cause of pessimism and depression.
Seligman’s research began in earnest about the time I was 15 years old. If I’d known that someone somewhere was researching how we could choose to be optimists, I would have rejoiced. Also, I would have found them and forced the answer from them and changed my life.
During the past 10 years I’ve read dozens of books based on Seligman’s work and its practical application. I’ve taken a long slow road from severe pessimism and depression to a life of great optimism.
Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., is the Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, the director of the Positive Psychology Network, and former president of the American Psychological Association. Among his twenty books are Learned Optimism and The Optimistic Child.
