Defensive Pessimism
Defensive pessimism is a cognitive strategy in which an individual sets a low expectation for their performance, regardless of how well they have done in the past. Individuals use defensive pessimism as a strategy to prepare for anxiety-provoking events or performances. Defensive pessimists then think through specific negative events and setbacks that could adversely influence their goal pursuits. By envisioning possible negative outcomes, defensive pessimists can take action to avoid or prepare for them.Norem, J. K. (2008). Defensive pessimism, anxiety, and the complexity of evaluating self-regulation. ''Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2,'' 121-134. Using this strategy, defensive pessimists can advantageously harness anxiety that might otherwise harm their performance.Norem. J. K., & Cantor, N. (1986Defensive pessimism: Harnessing anxiety as motivation ''Journal of Personality and Psychology, 51,'' 1208–1217. Defensive pessimism is utilized in a variety of domains, an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cognitive Strategy
Cognitive strategies are the specific methods that people use to solve problems and/or exploit opportunities, including all sorts of reasoning, planning, arithmetic, etc. Importantly, a cognitive strategy need not be all "in the head", but will almost always interact with various aspects of what might be called the "execution context". A specific cognitive strategy would be implemented via a set of ordered and overlapping logic. Each logical aspect of a cognitive strategy is either taught or learned and needs to be remembered as situation foreknowledge. These cognitive strategies are memorized for future utilization. They can be thought of as consciously written and remembered "programs" or as the "software" that guides future brain-neuron processing. Each logic process helps to "add up" to a specific decision and resulting action. Examples A commonly used and elegant example of cognitive strategies comes from small-number addition. There are numerous different ways (i.e., differe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Public Speaking
Public speaking, is the practice of delivering speeches to a live audience. Throughout history, public speaking has held significant cultural, religious, and political importance, emphasizing the necessity of effective rhetorical skills. It allows individuals to connect with a group of people to discuss any topic. The goal as a public speaker may be to educate, teach, or influence an audience. Public speakers often utilize visual aids like a slideshow, pictures, and short videos to get their point across. The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, a key figure in the study of public speaking, advocated for speeches that could profoundly affect individuals, including those not present in the audience. He believed that words possess the power to inspire actions capable of changing the world. In the Western tradition, public speaking was extensively studied in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, where it was a fundamental component of rhetoric, analyzed by prominent thinkers. Aristo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nancy Cantor
Nancy Ellen Cantor (born February 4, 1952) is an American academic administrator who is currently President of Hunter College. She was previously the chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark, in Newark, New Jersey from 2014 to 2024 and the first woman chancellor at both Syracuse University from 2003 to 2014 and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2001 to 2004. Early life and education Cantor was born in New York City. She received her A.B. in 1974 from Sarah Lawrence College and her Ph.D. in psychology in 1978 from Stanford University. At Stanford, Cantor initiated a program of research on person prototypes with Walter Mischel inspired by the categorization research of Eleanor Rosch and Carolyn Mervis. Career Early in her career, Cantor held teaching positions at the University of Michigan and Princeton University. As an academic administrator, she served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan from 1997 to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Prefactual Thought Experiment
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pronoun ''thee' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anticipation
Anticipation is an emotion involving pleasure or anxiety in considering or awaiting an expected event. Anticipatory emotions include fear, anxiety, hope, and trust. When the anticipated event fails to occur, it results in disappointment (for a positive event) or relief (for a negative one). As a defence mechanism Robin Skynner considered anticipation as one of "the mature ways of dealing with real stress.... You reduce the stress of some difficult challenge by anticipating what it will be like and preparing for how you are going to deal with it". There is evidence that "the use of mature defenses ( sublimation, anticipation) tended to increase with age", yet anticipation of negative events itself tends to decrease with age. Desire Anticipation has been described as "the central ingredient in sexual desire." As "sex has a major cognitive component — the most important element for desire is positive anticipation". One name for pleasurable anticipation is excitement. More ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thought Experiment
A thought experiment is an imaginary scenario that is meant to elucidate or test an argument or theory. It is often an experiment that would be hard, impossible, or unethical to actually perform. It can also be an abstract hypothetical that is meant to test our intuitions about morality or other fundamental philosophical questions. History The ancient Greek , "was the most ancient pattern of mathematical proof", and existed before Euclidean geometry, Euclidean mathematics, where the emphasis was on the conceptual, rather than on the experimental part of a thought experiment. Johann Witt-Hansen established that Hans Christian Ørsted was the first to use the equivalent German term . Ørsted was also the first to use the equivalent term in 1820. By 1883, Ernst Mach used in a different sense, to denote exclusively the conduct of a experiment that would be subsequently performed as a by his students. Physical and mental experimentation could then be contrasted: Mach asked hi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Neuroticism
Neuroticism is a personality trait associated with negative emotions. It is one of the Big Five traits. Individuals with high scores on neuroticism are more likely than average to experience such feelings as anxiety, worry, fear, anger, shame, frustration, envy, jealousy, pessimism, guilt, depressed mood, and loneliness. Such people are thought to respond worse to stressors and are more likely to interpret ordinary situations, such as minor frustrations, as appearing hopelessly difficult. Their behavioral responses may include procrastination, substance use, and other maladaptive behaviors, which may temporarily aid in relieving negative emotions and in generating positive ones. People with high scores on the neuroticism index are thought to be at risk of developing common mental disorders ( mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders have been studied), and the sorts of symptoms once referred to as " neuroses". Individuals who score low in neu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Self-esteem
Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth, abilities, or morals. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself (for example, "I am loved", "I am worthy") as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Mackie define it by saying "The self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, is the positive or negative evaluations of the self, as in how we feel about it (see self)." The construct of self-esteem has been shown to be a desirable one in psychology, as it is associated with a variety of positive outcomes, such as academic achievement, relationship satisfaction, happiness, and lower rates of criminal behavior. The benefits of high self-esteem are thought to include improved mental and physical health, and less anti-social behavior while drawbacks of low self-esteem have been found to be anxiety, loneliness, and increased vulnerability to substance abuse. Self-esteem can apply to a specific attribute or globally. Psychologists usu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Self-criticism
Self-criticism involves how an individual evaluates oneself. Self-criticism in psychology is typically studied and discussed as a negative personality trait in which a person has a disrupted self-identity. The opposite of self-criticism would be someone who has a coherent, comprehensive, and generally positive self-identity. Self-criticism is often associated with major depressive disorder. Some theorists define self-criticism as a mark of a certain type of depression (introjective depression), and in general people with depression tend to be more self critical than those without depression. People with depression are typically higher on self-criticism than people without depression, and even after depressive episodes they will continue to display self-critical personalities. Much of the scientific focus on self-criticism is because of its association with depression. Personality theory Sidney Blatt proposed a theory of personality which focuses on self-criticism and dependency. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pessimism
Pessimism is a mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is "Is the glass half empty or half full?"; in this situation, a pessimist is said to see the glass as half empty, or in extreme cases completely empty, while an Optimism, optimist is said to see the glass as half full. Throughout history, the pessimistic disposition has had effects on all major areas of thinking. Etymology The term pessimism derives from the Latin word ''pessimus'', meaning 'the worst'. It was first used by Jesuit critics of Voltaire's 1759 novel ''Candide, ou l'Optimisme''. Voltaire was satirizing the philosophy of Leibniz who maintained that this was the 'best (optimum) of all possible worlds'. In their attacks on Voltaire, the Jesuits of the ''Revue de Trévoux'' accused him of ''pessimisme''. As a psychological disposition In the ancient world, psycho ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Self-handicapping
Self-handicapping is a cognitive strategy by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem. It was first theorized by Edward E. Jones and Steven Berglas, according to whom self-handicaps are obstacles created, or claimed, by the individual in anticipation of failing performance.Feick, D.L., & Rhodewalt, F. (1997). The Double-Edged Sword of Self-Handicapping: Discounting, Augmentation, and the Protection and Enhancement of Self-Esteem. ''Motivation and Emotion, Vol. 21, No. 2. '' Self-handicapping can be seen as a method of preserving self-esteem but it can also be used for self-enhancement and to impression management, manage the impressions of others.Rhodewalt, F., & Vohs, K. D. (2005). Defensive strategies, motivation, and the self. In A. Elliot & C. Dweck (Eds.). ''Handbook of competence and motivation''(pp. 548-565). New York: Guilford Press. This conservation or augmentation of self-esteem is due to changes in attribution (psychol ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Likert Scale
A Likert scale ( ,) is a psychometric scale named after its inventor, American social psychologist Rensis Likert, which is commonly used in research questionnaires. It is the most widely used approach to scaling responses in survey research, such that the term (or more fully the Likert-type scale) is often used interchangeably with '' rating scale'', although there are other types of rating scales. Likert distinguished between a scale proper, which emerges from collective responses to a set of items (usually eight or more), and the format in which responses are scored along a range. Technically speaking, a Likert scale refers only to the former. The difference between these two concepts has to do with the distinction Likert made between the underlying phenomenon being investigated and the means of capturing variation that points to the underlying phenomenon. When responding to a Likert item, respondents specify their level of agreement or disagreement on a symmetric agree-disa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |