SELF HELP:FORGET POSITIVE THINKING, TRY POSITIVE ACTION

By: Richard Wiseman

Published: The Guardian; 30 June 2012; http://www.guardian.co.uk

Level of Difficulty: ***

BEFORE YOU READ

1.       Is it one’s destiny to lack confidence and be unsuccessful?

2.       How can one become more confident and more successful?

3.       Does positive thinking help in your experience?

4.       Read the title of the text. What does this title imply? Does it make sense in your view?

WHILE YOU READ

While you read the text and answer the questions, annotate it. You are going to need your notes for the writing task.

QUESTIONS

1.       What does “it” refer to in the phrase “in practice it often proves ineffective” in paragraph one?

2.       Read the experiments conducted by Lien Pham and Gabriele Oettingen. What conclusion can we draw from these experiments?

3.       Read the story of the publication of The Principles of Psychology. Why did William James’ approach work so well? Use your own words.

4.       What past view concerning the relationship between emotion and behavior did James refute?

5.       Did James Laird’s experiment prove or disprove William James’ theory and what overall conclusion can we draw from this experiment?

6.       In the study led by Iris Hung, the increase in willpower seemed to be positively correlated to ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

7.       In Dana Carney’ experiment, there was seen to be a negative correlation between increase in confidence and ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

8.       According to the text, how exactly does a power pose lead to more confidence?

9.       Read Langer’s 1979 experiment to the end. Which of the following best summarizes the findings of the experiment? Support your answer with information from the text.

·         The experiment proved that the “as if” principle can make you feel younger.

·         The experiment proved that the “as if” principle can lead to physical improvements.

·         The experiment proved that the “as if” principle has positive effects both at an emotional and a physical level.

10.   What is the function of paragraphs 21 and 22? How do you know? Explain.

WRITING TASK

Use the notes you made while working on the text to write a summary. The purpose when writing a summary is to include all the necessary information and none of the details. A good summary is concise and to the point. If you have doubts about how to write a summary, refer to the summary file on this blog. Summary writing is one of the best careful reading activities in the world so get to it.

SELF HELP TEACHER’S NOTES AND KEY

This heartwarming text turns all we know about boosting confidence and other positive attributes on its head and thus has a most definite wow factor. It is also an ideal text to summarize; the ultimate reading into writing activity which, in my view, few tasks can beat. I have also included questions like question three, which are brilliant comprehension questions that really throw the students in at the deep end and prepare them for those pesky multiple choice questions on tests. After answering questions like number 3, the multiple choice questions on tests will be a piece of cake. It might be a good idea to check out videos you can introduce the topic with too.

1.       Changing how you think.

2.       Visualization doesn’t work. OR Imagining the perfect life is not good for your life.

3.       Possible answer: He was unconventional even eccentric and this attracted attention. It was a brilliant marketing ploy.

4.       The relationship between behavior and emotion is a one way street. (Best answer); OR that emotion causes behavior; OR that behavior comes from emotion.

5.       Proves it. By acting as if you are certain type of person, you become that person.

6.       Behaving as if motivated (Best); OR tensing their muscles OR making their hands into a fist… As a teacher, you need to explain why the first is the best answer as the aim is for them to find this one rather than the lesser alternatives.

7.       Poses that weren’t associated with dominance.

8.       Those power posing had significantly higher levels of testosterone.

9.       The third.

10.   They form the conclusion. They go beyond the information thus far and connect back to the beginning. A typical conclusion is more general than the development and links back to the introduction. One of the best ways to learn about how to write conclusions is questions of this kind in my experience.