I don't think there's actually a disconnect here,
though I can see how students can finde the lines blurred and the matter a bit
confusing. Seligman was referring to how people see causes
of problems in their lives (internal, global and stable attributions are
correlated with depression, while external, specific and unstable attributions
are not).
The study that found mildly depressed people making
accurate predictions about future life events is on a different
plane. Depressives don't have that "rosy glow of optimism" that
characterizes non-depressed people. But that optimism has been shown to be
more inaccurate than the more morose view of depressives. (Think of the
people of Lake Wobegon, "where all the men are strong, all the women are
good-looking, and all the children are above average.") Whenever I pass
out the questionnaire asking the students in my class to estimate where they
feel they stand with respect to other members of the class on such measures as
how well they will do in this class, how successful they'll be in life, how much
they'll like their job, how long they'll live, how successful their marriage
will be, etc., etc., almost all rate themselves as above average. When the
results are discussed, they usually have a good laugh at themselves, realizing
that of course the majority of people can't be above average. (Except in
Lake Wobegon.)
So what we seem to be seeing is that although the
pessimistic view may not be accurate, it's less inaccurate than
over-the-top optimism.
But give me the rosy glow every
time...
Beth ("Rosy") Benoit
University System of New Hampshire
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hetzel, Rod" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 10:28
AM
Subject: Student question about
cognition
about the causes of events in their life. The other cognitive theorists
said that depressed people do cognitive distortions. If that is true,
how do you make sense of the social psychological research showing that
mildly depressed people make more accurate judgements and evaluations
about their lives?"
______________________________________________
Roderick D. Hetzel, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
LeTourneau University
Post Office Box 7001
2100 South Mobberly Avenue
Longview, Texas 75607-7001
Office: Education Center 218
Phone: 903-233-3893
Fax: 903-233-3851
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Homepage: http://www.letu.edu/people/rodhetzel
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