“We can tune our mind to
notice the bright side of ambiguous events, bolstering our resilience to stress
and anxiety”
By:
Elaine Fox
Published:
Scientific American Mind; January /February 2013
To access the article, copy paste the following:
http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1038/scientificamericanmind0113-22
To access the article, copy paste the following:
http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1038/scientificamericanmind0113-22
Level
of Difficulty: ****
BEFORE
YOU READ
·
Are you a glass half full or a
glass half empty kind of person? Explain.
·
Have you always felt this way
or have you changed due to some reason?
·
Do you believe optimism and
pessimism are inborn or can they be learnt?
·
How would you go about teaching
a person to be more positive?
QUESTIONS
1. Read the writer’s childhood memory carefully. What conclusion can we
draw from it?
2. Our tendency to interpret such events as a friend not greeting you
in the hall or not getting invited to a party is determined by
………………………………………………………………………………………
3. What does “That frame of mind” near the end of the second paragraph
refer to?
4. A close link has been established between emotional vulnerability
and both …………………………………………………and …………………………………………………………………………………..
5. It is now believed that the ultimate cure of depression and anxiety
disorders lies in…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
6. Read the experiment with the homophones carefully. Now state clearly
what general conclusion we can draw from the experiment.
7. The purpose of the attentional probe task was to
………………………………………………………………….
8. The attentional probe experiment proved that:
·
The letter replacing the
hostile face was a trigger
·
The letter replacing the
smiling face was a trigger
·
Emotionally vulnerable people
are keyed to respond faster
·
All of the above
·
None of the above
9. According to Colin MacLeod’s 2002 study which of the following are
true?
·
The students whose attention
was directed to unpleasant words suffered lower levels of stress when solving
the anagrams.
·
The students whose attention
was directed to neutral words suffered some stress when solving the anagrams.
·
It is possible to deliberately
shift subliminal bias
·
It seems it might be possible
to shift subliminal bias
10. Read the study involving students from Singapore and mark the
correct answer.
·
Threat avoidance training helps
eliminate stress
·
Lack of preparation for a major
life change event can cause stress
·
Preparing the mind for a major
life change is beneficial
·
All of the above
·
None of the above
11. What conclusion can be drawn from the Cambridge study? Be specific!
12. The purpose of the 2008 and 2011 studies was to try and alleviate
the suffering of depression by ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
13. How closely did the result of Michael Browning and his colleagues’ study
correlate with previous ones? Completely, partly or not at all? Explain.
14. The purpose of the Amsterdam study was to suggest that
……………………………………………………..
15. CBM is very practical because ………………………………………………………………………………………………
16. All the suggestions in the last paragraph are examples of
……………………………………………(There are two answers; find them both)
WRITING TASK
You work on a small town newspaper. One Saturday, your editor walks
up to your desk and slams a bunch of papers down in front of you – the text you
have just read – and addresses you as follows: “Now we want a nice little piece
for the third page; take a look at this and write something up. None of your
fancy words mind; not everybody is a ponce like you; we don’t want people
reaching for the dictionary at the breakfast table on Sunday morning And it
needs to fit in here so don’t get carried away! I want it on my desk in 30
minutes so get cracking!” Now write the piece and save your job.
THE ESSENCE OF OPTIMISM
KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES
This wonderful
heartwarming text was a pleasure to read for various reasons the main one being
the scientific experiments that prove a negative mind set can be changed
without resorting to drugs. Because of being a scientific text and the style, it
lent itself to some superb questions of various types so should provide plenty
of practice too. I have couched the summary exercise somewhat differently to
show the students that summarizing is a very necessary skill.
1. How we interpret events in our lives determine their significance to
us
2. A combination of genetics and personal experiences
3. The habit of seeing the glass as either half full or half empty
4. The tendency to draw negative conclusions; the risk of acquiring
disorders of anxiety and depression
5. Cognitive bias modification; OR: turning these negative
predilections around to instill more positive assessments and to bolster our
defenses against stress
6. Biases direct our thinking at several levels, including what we pay
attention to how we interpret our experiences and what we end up storing in
memory
7. Investigate biases in what we pay attention to
8. None of the above
9. 2 and 4
10. All of the above
11.
Inducing a more benign
style of interpreting potentially scary situations can have direct effects on
how well people cope with subsequent stress and anxiety. As with attention our interpretational style can be modified is not
specific.
12.
Improving persistent
tendencies to focus on either threatening or unflattering information, to
interpret environmental cues pessimistically, to recall more unhappy memories. These
symptoms won’t do; an answer has to be specific, to the point and
meaningful.
13. CBM training with word was no better than placebo but CBM using
faces was highly effective in reducing depression symptoms when compared to
placebo training
14. Incorporating a meaningful action – such as rejecting bad items and
embracing positive ones – into CBM training could strengthen this therapy.
15. It can be delivered on computers smart phones and tablets
16. Simple techniques that can shake lose a negative mood; healthy
mental habits
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