首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Some Suggestions for Pessimists [A]Obesity and smoking may be the most conspicuous causes of illness in this country, but physic
Some Suggestions for Pessimists [A]Obesity and smoking may be the most conspicuous causes of illness in this country, but physic
admin
2016-08-29
43
问题
Some Suggestions for Pessimists
[A]Obesity and smoking may be the most conspicuous causes of illness in this country, but physical factors don’t account for everything. Your psychology—namely, your personality and outlook on life— can be just as important to your well-being as exercising and eating right. And especially these days, with the world’s economy tumbling toward a depression, it’s a good time to prevent yourself from slipping into one too.
[B]An entire science has grown up around the risks of negative thinking(as well as the power of positive psychology), and the latest findings confirm that a pessimistic outlook not only fuels anxiety, which can put people at risk for chronic mental illnesses like depression, but may also cause early death and set people up for a number of minor physical illnesses, ranging from the common cold to heart disease and immune disorders.
[C]Optimism, meanwhile, is associated with a happier and longer life. Over the course of a recent eight-year study, University of Pittsburgh researchers found that optimistic women lived longer than pessimistic ones. Which may be good news for the active people out there, but what about the rest of us who aren’t always so cheerful? Are we destined for sickness and failure? Or is it possible to master the principles of positivity the same way we might learn a new hobby or follow a recipe?
[D]The answer from the experts seems to be yes. But it does take effort. Seeing the sunny side doesn’t come easily.
Be an "Optimalist"
[E]Most people would define optimism as being eternally hopeful, endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half full. But that’s exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that positive psychologists wouldn’t recommend. "Healthy optimism means being in touch with reality," says Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor who taught the university’s most popular course, Positive Psychology, from 2002 to 2008. "It certainly doesn’t mean thinking everything is great and wonderful."
[F]Ben-Shahar, who is the author of Happier and The Pursuit of Perfect, describes realistic optimists as "optimalists"—not those who believe everything happens for the best, but those who make the best of things that happen.
[G]In his own life, Ben-Shahar uses three optimalist exercises, which he calls PRP. When he feels down— say, after giving a bad lecture—he grants himself permission(P)to be human. He reminds himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner: some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction(R). He analyses the weak lecture, learning lessons for the future about what works and what doesn’t. Finally, there’s perspective(P), which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really doesn’t matter.
[H]Studies suggest that people who are able to focus on the positive aspects of a negative event—basically, cope with failure—can protect themselves from the physical toll of stress and anxiety. In a recent study at the University of California, San Francisco(UCSF), scientists asked a group of women to give a speech in front of a stone-faced audience of strangers. On the first day, all the participants said they felt threatened, and they showed fear hormones(荷尔蒙). On subsequent days, however, those women who had reported rebounding from a major life crisis in the past no longer felt the same subjective threat over speaking in public. They had learned that this negative event, too, would pass and they would survive. "It’s a back door to the same positive state because people are able to tolerate and accept the negative," says Elissa Epel, one of the psychologists involved in the study.
Accept Pain and Sadness
[I]Being optimistic doesn’t mean shutting out sad or painful emotions. As a clinical psychologist, Martin Seligman, who runs the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, says he used to feel proud whenever he helped depressed patients rid themselves of sadness, anxiety or anger. "I thought I would get a happy person," he says. "But I never did. What I got was an empty person." That’s what prompted him to launch the field of positive psychology, with a groundbreaking address to the American Psychological Association in 1998. Instead of focusing only on righting wrongs and lifting misery, he argued, psychologists need to help patients foster good mental health through constructive skills, like Ben-Shahar’s PRP. The idea is to teach patients to strengthen their strengths rather than simply improve their weaknesses. "It’s not enough to clear away the weeds," Seligman says. "If you want roses, you have to plant a rose."
[J]When a loved one dies or you lose your job, for example, it’s normal and healthy to mourn. You’re supposed to feel sad and even depressed. But you can’t put yourself in sadness for too long. A study by UCSF researchers of HIV-positive men whose partners had died found that the men who allowed themselves to grieve while also seeking to accept the death were better able to bounce back from the tragedy. Men who focused only on the loss as opposed to, say, viewing the death as a relief of their partner’s suffering, tended to grieve longer, presumably because they couldn’t find a way out of their sadness.
Smile in Your Profile Picture
[K]If all else fails, try "catching" happiness from your friends. We are social beings, of course, and our outlook is influenced to no small degree by that of our friends and family.
[L]Christakis and his colleague James Fowler at the University of California, San Diego, are now studying happiness infection in perhaps the largest social network of all, Facebook. They noticed that people who smiled in their Facebook profile pictures tended to have other friends who smiled. This might simply be peer pressure at work, with members feeling obliged to flash a smile to fit in with the rest of the group, but Christakis and Fowler are investigating whether there isn’t a more infectious phenomenon at work.
[M]If you still aren’t convinced that your negative ways can ever be changed, consider this: only about 25% of a person’s optimism cannot be changed in his genes, according to some studies. That’s in contrast to the 40% to 60% heritability(遗传可能性)of most other personality traits, like agreeableness and conscientiousness. Science suggests that the greater part of an optimistic outlook can be acquired with the right instruction—a theory borne out in a study of college freshmen by Seligman. Pessimistic students who took a 12-week optimism-training course devised by Seligman—which included exercises like writing a letter of gratitude then reading it aloud to someone—were less likely to visit the student health center for illnesses during the next four years than their similarly pessimistic peers who weren’t tutored in positive thinking. And a larger study of more than 3,000 middle-school students who are being taught recovery techniques is under way in England. "It’s the largest-scale validation(确认)that optimism can be taught," says Seligman, who developed the techniques used in the study.
[N]The thing about being optimistic, though, is that it takes hard work—and that’s a drag. It’s an active process, say psychologists, through which you force yourself to see your life a certain way. Indeed, the leading optimism and happiness experts consider themselves born pessimists. But if they have learned over time and with lots of practice to become more hopeful, take heart. So can you.
In social network, people who have smiling pictures in profile are likely to have smiling friends perhaps simply due to peer pressure.
选项
答案
L
解析
根据smiling pictures,profile,smiling friends等词定位到L段第2~3句。原文说在Facebook头像上微笑的人往往有其他的微笑朋友;这可能仅仅是同伴压力在起作用,因为各成员觉得应该给出笑脸以适应群里的其他人。本题句子是原文的简化内容。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/seG7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Asfoodistothebody,soislearningtothemind.Ourbodiesgrowandmusclesdevelopwiththeintakeof【B1】______nutritiousf
A、Hecan’trecallwherehelefthisportablecomputer.B、He’sgotaterribleheadacheandforgetsthingseasily.C、He’ssometro
A、Hewilllendhisbiketoher.B、Hedoesn’trememberwherehisbikeis.C、Hisbikeisoutofwork.D、HewillmeetProfessorBl
Cosmeticorplasticsurgeryoftenevokesimagesoffamouspersonalitieswantingtoaltertheirappearancesthrough【B1】______surg
ItiscommonlybelievedintheUnitedStatesthatschooliswherepeoplegotogetaneducation.Nevertheless,ithasbeensaidthatto
A、AsoneofthegreatestAmericanscholars.B、AsoneofAmerica’smostingeniousinventors.C、Asoneofthefoundingfathersof
A、Ridingahorse.B、Shootingamovie.C、Playingagame.D、Takingaphoto.D
A、Movieswithsound.B、Nylon.C、Theradio.D、Thecomputer.C19世纪后半期,许多伟大的发明出现了,有照相机,电灯和无线电。
Overacenturyafteritended,theCivilWarremainsthefundamental【B1】_____inAmericanhistory.Itproducedalossoflife【B2】
A、Itsavestime.B、Itincreasesparkingcapacity.C、Itensuresdrivers’safety.D、Itreducescardamage.B短文提到,开发者对此项技术很有信心,使用它可
随机试题
固定资产折旧计提方法包括
女性,60岁,高血压病史13年,近3年来常感乏力,加重半年。化验结果:血清肌酐4.7mg/dl,尿素氮44mg/dl。腹部超声检查显示:两侧肾脏对称性萎缩,表面呈均匀弥漫的细小颗粒状。肾脏穿刺活检发现肾小球人球小动脉玻璃样变性,部分肾小球萎缩。该患者的诊断
炙甘草汤的组成药物中含有
《城市规划编制办法》于1991年9月2日正式发布实施,该办法共包括()。
下列设备中,属于通用设备的有()。
背景资料:某运营商新建光缆线路工程初步设计已完成,工程估算价为2500万元,通过招标确定了一家施工单位,并委托一家监理单位对本工程实施监理。中标施工单位做好了充分准备,在收到开工令后,工程顺利开工。本工程直埋部分与一条地下自来水管交越,
证券投资咨询公司的从业人员可以从事( )。
生活是一切艺术创作的源泉,这是每一位创作者熟记于心的创作_______。然而在这喧嚣浮躁的尘世中,真正能_______万千诱惑而一头扎进生活,却并不是一件十分容易的事情。填入划横线部分最恰当的一项是:
甲、乙、丙3个试管中各盛有10克、20克、30克水。把某种浓度的盐水10克倒入甲管中,混合后取10克倒入乙管中,再混合后从乙管中取出10克倒入丙管中。现在丙管中的盐水的浓度为0.5%。最早倒入甲管中的盐水浓度是:
正如来到这块土地上的移民一样,乡村音乐是过去和现在、借鉴和创新的完美结合。(combination)
最新回复
(
0
)