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Positive thinking: Stop negative self-talk to reduce stress

Positive thinking helps with stress management and can even improve your health. Practice overcoming negative self-talk with examples provided.

Is your glass half-empty or half-full? How you answer this age-old question about positive thinking may reflect your outlook on life, your attitude toward yourself, and whether you're optimistic or pessimistic — and it may even affect your health.

Indeed, some studies show that personality traits such as optimism and pessimism can affect many areas of your health and well-being. The positive thinking that usually comes with optimism is a key part of effective stress management. And effective stress management is associated with many health benefits. If you tend to be pessimistic, don't despair — you can learn positive thinking skills.

Understanding positive thinking and self-talk

Positive thinking doesn't mean that you ignore life's less pleasant situations. Positive thinking just means that you approach unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way. You think the best is going to happen, not the worst.

Positive thinking often starts with self-talk. Self-talk is the endless stream of unspoken thoughts that run through your head. These automatic thoughts can be positive or negative. Some of your self-talk comes from logic and reason. Other self-talk may arise from misconceptions that you create because of lack of information or expectations due to preconceived ideas of what may happen.

If the thoughts that run through your head are mostly negative, your outlook on life is more likely pessimistic. If your thoughts are mostly positive, you're likely an optimist — someone who practices positive thinking.

The health benefits of positive thinking

Researchers continue to explore the effects of positive thinking and optimism on health. Health benefits that positive thinking may provide include:

• Increased life span
• Lower rates of depression
• Lower levels of distress and pain
• Greater resistance to illnesses
• Better psychological and physical well-being
• Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease and stroke
• Reduced risk of death from cancer
• Reduced risk of death from respiratory conditions
• Reduced risk of death from infections
• Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

It's unclear why people who engage in positive thinking experience these health benefits. One theory is that having a positive outlook enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the harmful health effects of stress on your body.

It's also thought that positive and optimistic people tend to live healthier lifestyles — they get more physical activity, follow a healthier diet, and don't smoke or drink alcohol in excess.

Identifying negative thinking

Not sure if your self-talk is positive or negative? Some common forms of negative self-talk include:

• Filtering. You magnify the negative aspects of a situation and filter out all the positive ones. For example, you had a great day at work. You completed your tasks ahead of time and were complimented for doing a speedy and thorough job. That evening, you focus only on your plan to do even more tasks and forget about the compliments you received.
• Personalizing. When something bad occurs, you automatically blame yourself. For example, you hear that an evening out with friends is canceled, and you assume that the change in plans is because no one wanted to be around you.
• Catastrophizing. You automatically anticipate the worst without facts that the worse will happen. The drive-through coffee shop gets your order wrong, and then you think that the rest of your day will be a disaster.
• Blaming. You try to say someone else is responsible for what happened to you instead of yourself. You avoid being responsible for your thoughts and feelings.
• Saying you "should" do something. You think of all the things you think you should do and blame yourself for not doing them.
• Magnifying. You make a big deal out of minor problems.
• Perfectionism. Keeping impossible standards and trying to be more perfect sets yourself up for failure.
• Polarizing. You see things only as either good or bad. There is no middle ground.

Focusing on positive thinking

You can learn to turn negative thinking into positive thinking. The process is simple, but it does take time and practice — you're creating a new habit, after all. Following are some ways to think and behave in a more positive and optimistic way:

• Identify areas to change. If you want to become more optimistic and engage in more positive thinking, first identify areas of your life that you usually think negatively about, whether it's work, your daily commute, life changes or a relationship. You can start small by focusing on one area to approach in a more positive way. Think of a positive thought to manage your stress instead of a negative one.
• Check yourself. Periodically during the day, stop and evaluate what you're thinking. If you find that your thoughts are mainly negative, try to find a way to put a positive spin on them.
• Be open to humor. Give yourself permission to smile or laugh, especially during difficult times. Seek humor in everyday happenings. When you can laugh at life, you feel less stressed.
• Follow a healthy lifestyle. Aim to exercise for about 30 minutes on most days of the week. You can also break it up into 5- or 10-minute chunks of time during the day. Exercise can positively affect mood and reduce stress. Follow a healthy diet to fuel your mind and body. Get enough sleep. And learn techniques to manage stress.
• Surround yourself with positive people. Make sure those in your life are positive, supportive people you can depend on to give helpful advice and feedback. Negative people may increase your stress level and make you doubt your ability to manage stress in healthy ways.
• Practice positive self-talk. Start by following one simple rule: Don't say anything to yourself that you wouldn't say to anyone else. Be gentle and encouraging with yourself. If a negative thought enters your mind, evaluate it rationally and respond with affirmations of what is good about you. Think about things you're thankful for in your life.

Here are some examples of negative self-talk and how you can apply a positive thinking twist to them:

Practicing positive thinking every day

If you tend to have a negative outlook, don't expect to become an optimist overnight. But with practice, eventually your self-talk will contain less self-criticism and more self-acceptance. You may also become less critical of the world around you.

When your state of mind is generally optimistic, you're better able to handle everyday stress in a more constructive way. That ability may contribute to the widely observed health benefits of positive thinking.

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• Forte AJ, et al. The impact of optimism on cancer-related and postsurgical cancer pain: A systematic review. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 2021; doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2021.09.008.
• Rosenfeld AJ. The neuroscience of happiness and well-being. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 2019;28:137.
• Kim ES, et al. Optimism and cause-specific mortality: A prospective cohort study. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2016; doi:10.1093/aje/kww182.
• Amonoo HL, et al. Is optimism a protective factor for cardiovascular disease? Current Cardiology Reports. 2021; doi:10.1007/s11886-021-01590-4.
• Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. 2nd ed. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://health.gov/paguidelines/second-edition. Accessed Oct. 20, 2021.
• Seaward BL. Essentials of Managing Stress. 4th ed. Burlington, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2021.
• Seaward BL. Cognitive restructuring: Reframing. Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Well-Being. 8th ed. Burlington, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2018.
• Olpin M, et al. Stress Management for Life. 5th ed. Cengage Learning; 2020.
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A Harvard study found that women who were optimistic had a significantly reduced risk of dying from several major causes of death over an eight-year period, compared with women who were less optimistic.  

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How power of positive thinking works

Karen Feldscher

Harvard Chan School Communications

Study looks at mechanics of optimism in reducing risk of dying prematurely

More like this.

Can happiness lead toward health?

Having an optimistic outlook on life — a general expectation that good things will happen — may help people live longer, according to a new study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study found that women who were optimistic had a significantly reduced risk of dying from several major causes of death — including cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, and infection — over an eight-year period, compared with women who were less optimistic.

The study appears online today in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

“While most medical and public health efforts today focus on reducing risk factors for diseases, evidence has been mounting that enhancing psychological resilience may also make a difference,” said Eric Kim , research fellow in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and co-lead author of the study. “Our new findings suggest that we should make efforts to boost optimism, which has been shown to be associated with healthier behaviors and healthier ways of coping with life challenges.”

The study also found that healthy behaviors only partially explain the link between optimism and reduced mortality risk. One other possibility is that higher optimism directly impacts our biological systems, Kim said.

The study analyzed data from 2004 to 2012 from 70,000 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study, a long-running study tracking women’s health via surveys every two years. They looked at participants’ levels of optimism and other factors that might play a role in how optimism may affect mortality risk, such as race, high blood pressure, diet, and physical activity.

The most optimistic women (the top quartile) had a nearly 30 percent lower risk of dying from any of the diseases analyzed in the study compared with the least optimistic (the bottom quartile), the study found. The most optimistic women had a 16 percent lower risk of dying from cancer; 38 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease; 39 percent lower risk of dying from stroke; 38 percent lower risk of dying from respiratory disease; and 52 percent lower risk of dying from infection.

While other studies have linked optimism with reduced risk of early death from cardiovascular problems, this was the first to find a link between optimism and reduced risk from other major causes.

“Previous studies have shown that optimism can be altered with relatively uncomplicated and low-cost interventions — even something as simple as having people write down and think about the best possible outcomes for various areas of their lives, such as careers or friendships,” said postdoctoral research fellow Kaitlin Hagan, co-lead author of the study. “Encouraging use of these interventions could be an innovative way to enhance health in the future.”

Other Harvard Chan School authors of the study included Professor Francine Grodstein and Associate Professor Immaculata De Vivo, both in the Department of Epidemiology, and Laura Kubzansky, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and co-director of the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness. Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor Dawn DeMeo was also a co-author.

The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

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How the Power of Positive Thinking Won Scientific Credibility

Psychologist Michael F. Scheier reflects on his groundbreaking 1985 research, which provided the scientific framework for exploring the real power of optimism.

In just the last year, hundreds of academic papers have been published studying the health effects of expecting good things to happen, which researchers call "dispositional optimism." They've linked this positive outlook on life to everything from decreased feelings of loneliness to increased pain tolerance .

Oddly enough, three decades ago, the outlook for research on optimism didn't look very good. But then, in 1985,  Michael F. Scheier and Charles S. Carver's published their seminal study , "Optimism, Coping, and Health: Assessment and Implications of Generalized Outcome Expectancies" in Health Psychology . Researchers immediately embraced the simple hopefulness test they included in the paper and their work has now been cited in at least 3,145 other published works. Just as importantly, by testing the effect of a personality variable on a person's physical health, Scheier and Carver helped bridge the gap between the worlds of psychology and biology. After the paper, scientists had a method for seriously studying the healing powers of positive thinking.

In the Q&A below, Scheier reflects on his influential work with Carver and shares how their humble study on human motivation ultimately inspired countless studies on mind-body interactions. He also assesses why their optimism scale was an instant hit in the scientific community, how their findings have been adapted by other researchers, and the future of our understanding of hope and well-being.

How did the research come about?

Chuck Carver from the University of Miami and I were doing research on human motivation. We were trying to understand how to think about goal-directed behavior, and expectancies were an important part of our approach. The idea was, and still is, that when people encounter difficulties doing what it is that they intend to do, some sort of mental calculation takes place that results in the generation of an outcome expectancy -- the person's subjective assessment of the likelihood that he or she will succeed. We thought these expectancies played a role in the nature of the affect that was experienced and the person's subsequent behavior.

Initially, we considered outcome expectancies in a very circumscribed way. We focused on specific situations manipulated in controlled experimental contexts to validate our ideas. For example, we studied snake phobics who approached a boa constrictor in a cage. We weren't interested in snakes or phobias per se but in how these expectations drove behaviors.

At some point in the early 1980s, things changed. A number of our colleagues in health psychology -- my wife, Karen Matthews , included -- urged or maybe even challenged us to consider applying some of our ideas to real-world settings, particularly those that might be relevant to well-being. Our formal area of study in graduate school was also personality, and I started to hear the voice of my advisor, Arnie Buss , in my head gently pushing us to do what it was that we had been trained to do.

This confluence of events started us thinking about expectancies in a broader way that might be more reflective of stable expectancies for positive or negative things to occur. And voila! We found ourselves interested in dispositional optimism, which we define as the general expectation that good, versus bad, things will happen across important life domains.

What were your goals? Was there a research gap you were hoping to fill back then?

Once we knew what we wanted to study, we looked around the literature to see if there was a scale that assessed dispositional optimism that was consistent with how we viewed the construct. We couldn't find anything that was right on the mark, so we set out to make our own measure for dispositional optimism using a self-report questionnaire ( PDF of updated version ). Along with that came the job of establishing the statistical characteristics, or psychometric properties, of the scale. This became part of the purpose of our original paper too.

We also wanted to show that differences in optimism and pessimism predicted some health-relevant outcomes, so we explored the development of physical symptoms reported among a group of undergraduates during a particularly stressful portion of the academic semester. We were fortunate to get the paper published in a journal, Health Psychology , that enabled a lot of researchers to become familiar with the scale, findings, and ideas.

I think one reason the work was picked up so much is that we provided a tool that enabled scientists to ask their own questions and do their own research in the area. Prior to the publication of our scale, there were well-known testimonials on "the power of positive thinking," but there was no simple way to verify if the testimonials were correct. I think it also helped that our scale was easy to use and score. It only has six items on it! The brevity enabled lots of people to include it in their work, even if that involved very large epidemiological studies where issues of respondent burden and time limitations are paramount. As a result, an enormous amount of research on optimism has been generated over the years.

How far has our understanding of optimism come since?

A lot of research has been done since we published our first paper, and the vast majority has examined the relationship of optimism and well-being. I think it's now safe to say that optimism is clearly associated with better psychological health, as seen through lower levels of depressed mood, anxiety, and general distress, when facing difficult life circumstances, including situations involving recovery from illness and disease. A smaller, but still substantial, amount of research has studied associations with physical well-being. And I think most researchers at this point would agree that optimism is connected to positive physical health outcomes, including decreases in the likelihood of re-hospitalization following surgery, the risk of developing heart disease, and mortality.

We also know why optimists do better than pessimists. The answer lies in the differences between the coping strategies they use. Optimists are not simply being Pollyannas; they're problem solvers who try to improve the situation. And if it can't be altered, they're also more likely than pessimists to accept that reality and move on. Physically, they're more likely to engage in behaviors that help protect against disease and promote recovery from illness. They're less likely to smoke, drink, and have poor diets, and more likely to exercise, sleep well, and adhere to rehab programs. Pessimists, on the other hand, tend to deny, avoid, and distort the problems they confront, and dwell on their negative feelings. It's easy to see now why pessimists don't do so well compared to optimists.

What don't we know still?

Two things. First, how do optimism and pessimism develop? We know from studies with twins that dispositional optimism is heritable, although the specific genes that underlie the differences in personality have yet to be identified. It's also likely that parenting styles and early childhood environment play a role. For example, research has shown that children who grow up in impoverished families have a tendency toward pessimism in adulthood. Still, the specifics have not been delineated.

The other missing link has to do with how to construe optimism and pessimism. I've been describing them as though they are opposite ends of a continuum, and this may not be the case. Optimism and pessimism may represent related, but somewhat distinct dimensions. This possibility is suggested by the fact that not expecting bad things to happen, doesn't necessarily imply that the person expects good things to happen. The fact that they're somewhat separable leads to the question of what is important for the beneficial health outcomes we see: the absence of pessimism or the presence of optimism?

What have been some surprising reactions to your research?

Three reactions are noteworthy. One comes from the research community, the second from the media, and the third from patients.

For whatever reason, there has been a group of researchers who have been very skeptical of the findings. The work has been criticized because it's not really optimism and pessimism that drive results, but rather characteristics that are related to optimism, such as the depressed mood that comes along with a pessimistic orientation. Others have found fault with individual studies or large scale reviews that have been done. Much of this criticism is part of the healthy process of science, being dubious and wanting further verification, but some of the skepticism seems to go beyond that. It's never been clear to me why this has been the case.

As for the media, they seem to love the work. Whenever a major study gets published showing the benefits of optimism on health, the findings are picked up quickly and get widely distributed. Part of this is prompted, I think, by folklore that surrounds the concepts of optimism and pessimism. I think that people are intrigued that these caricatures have some basis in fact. Whatever the reason, our findings are quick to make their way to the public.

But perhaps what's most salient to me is the reaction that some patients have expressed about their recovery. They have told me that they feel guilty. They read that optimism is associated with better health among patients recovering from illness, and they think, "If only I would be more optimistic, I'd do better." Yet, they can't put themselves in that frame of mind. Family members may chastise them too for not promoting their recovery by simply expecting good things to happen. Perhaps it was naïve not to have imagined these reactions. Regardless, it is troubling that they have occurred.

How has this study affected your life?

My guess is that, if you asked the research community what I'm known for, they'd say the work that I've done on optimism and pessimism. I've spent the better part of my professional life studying optimism and it's effect on psychological and physical well-being. So if I'm known for something, it might as well be that. Still, the salience of this work has distracted people from other work that I've done that I think is equally interesting, including some of the ideas we've expressed about why people experience emotion.

I also spend a fair amount of time trying to figure out if I'm more optimistic or pessimistic, or how my wife and kids are. I'm guessing that I'm somewhere in the middle, which puts me in some sort of expectational limbo. On the other hand, maybe that view provides the detachment that is necessary to allow a researcher to approach work in an objective way.

Ultimately, I find it very gratifying that a large number of colleagues in the field have found the work valuable enough to incorporate into their own work. Collectively, we've been able to document that links between optimism and physical health do exist.

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How to Think Positive

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk,  "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.

Marko Geber / Getty Images

You have probably heard a thing or two about the benefits of positive thinking . Research suggests that positive thinkers have better stress coping skills, stronger immunity, and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

While it is not a health panacea, taking an optimistic view rather than ruminating on negative thoughts can benefit your overall mental well-being. Fortunately, there are things that you can do to learn how to think more positively.

Benefits of Thinking Positively

Being a positive thinker can have a number of important health benefits. In one study, researchers found that people who had a more optimistic outlook had a lower risk of dying of a number of serious illnesses including:

• Breast cancer
• Colorectal cancer
• Heart disease
• Lung cancer
• Ovarian cancer
• Respiratory diseases

Studies have also shown that optimists tend to be both physically and mentally healthier than their more pessimistic counterparts. For example, research has shown that thinking more positively is associated with improved immunity, increased resilience to stress, and lower rates of depression.

How to Think More Positively

So what can you do to become a more positive thinker? A few common strategies involve learning how to identify negative thoughts and replacing these thoughts with more positive ones. While it might take some time, eventually you may find that thinking positively starts to come more naturally.

Avoid Negative Self-Talk

Self-talk involves the things you mentally tell yourself. Think of this as the inner voice inside your mind that analyzes how you perform and interact with the world around you. If your self-talk centers on negative thoughts , your self-esteem can suffer.

So what can you do to combat these negative self-talk patterns? One way to break the pattern is to start noticing when you have these thoughts and then actively work to change them.

When you start thinking critical thoughts about yourself, take a moment to pause and assess.

Paying attention to your self-talk is a great place to start when trying to think more positively. If you notice that you tend to engage in negative self-talk, you can start looking for ways to change your thought patterns and reframe your interpretations of your own behaviors.

It can be tough to stay optimistic when there is little humor or lightheartedness in your life. Even when you are facing challenges, it is important to remain open to laughter and fun.

Sometimes, simply recognizing the potential humor in a situation can lessen your stress and brighten your outlook. Seeking out sources of humor such as watching a funny sitcom or reading jokes online can help you think more positive thoughts.

Cultivate Optimism

Learning to think positively is like strengthening a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it will become. Researchers believe that your explanatory style , or how you explain events, is linked to whether you are an optimist or a pessimist.

Optimists tend to have a positive explanatory style. If you attribute good things that happen to your skill and effort, then you are probably an optimist.

Pessimists, on the other hand, usually have a negative attributional style. If you credit these good events to outside forces, then you likely have a more pessimistic way of thinking.

The same principles hold true for how you explain negative events. Optimists tend to view bad or unfortunate events as isolated incidents that are outside of their control while pessimists see such things as more common and often blame themselves.

By taking a moment to analyze the event and ensure that you are giving yourself the credit you are due for the good things and not blaming yourself for things outside of your control, you can start to become more optimistic.

Practice Gratitude

Consider keeping a gratitude journal where you can regularly write about the things in life that you are grateful for. Research has found that writing down grateful thoughts can improve both your sense of optimism as well as your overall well-being.  

When you find yourself dwelling on more negative thoughts or feelings, spend a few minutes writing down a few things in life that bring you joy. This simple activity can help shift your focus to a more optimistic mindset.

Keep Practicing

There is no on-off switch for positive thinking. Even if you are a natural-born optimist, thinking positively when faced with challenging situations can be difficult. Like any goal, the key is to stick with it for the long term. Even if you find yourself dwelling on negative thoughts, you can look for ways to minimize negative self-talk and cultivate a more optimistic outlook.

Finally, do not be afraid to enlist the help of friends and family.

When you start engaging in negative thinking, call a friend or family member whom you can count on to offer positive encouragement and feedback.

Remember that to think positively, you need to nurture yourself. Investing energy in things you enjoy and surrounding yourself with optimistic people are just two ways that you can encourage positive thinking in your life.

When to Seek Help

If you are finding it difficult to think positively and instead feel like negative thoughts or emotions are taking over your life, you should talk to your doctor or therapist. Negative emotions that are causing distress or interfering with your ability to function normally may be a sign of a mental health condition such as depression or anxiety .

A doctor or mental health professional can evaluate your symptoms and recommend treatments that can help. Psychotherapy and medications may be used to address symptoms and improve your ability to think more positively.

A Word From Verywell

Learning how to think positively is not a quick fix, and it is something that may take some time to master. Analyzing your own thinking habits and finding new ways to incorporate a more positive outlook into your life can be a great start toward adopting a more positive thinking approach.

Boehm JK, Kubzansky LD. The heart's content: the association between positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular health . Psychological Bulletin , 2012;138(4):655-91. doi:10.1037/a0027448

Kim ES, Hagan KA, Grodstein F, DeMeo DL, De Vivo I, Kubzansky LD. Optimism and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study . Am J Epidemiol . 2017;185(1):21-29. doi:10.1093/aje/kww182

Segerstrom SC, Sephton SE.  Optimistic expectancies and cell-mediated immunity: the role of positive affect .  Psychol Sci . 2010;21(3):448-455. doi:10.1177/0956797610362061

Naseem Z, Khalid R. Positive thinking in coping with stress and health outcomes: literature review . Journal of Research and Reflections in Education , 2010;4(1):42-61.

Santos V, Paes F, Pereira V, et al. The role of positive emotion and contributions of positive psychology in depression treatment: systematic review .  Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health . 2013;9:221-237. Published 2013 Nov 28. doi:10.2174/1745017901309010221

Gillham JE, Shatté AJ, Reivich KJ, Seligman MEP. Optimism, pessimism, and explanatory style . In: Chang EC, ed. Optimism & Pessimism: Implications for Theory, Research, and Practice. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; 2001:53-75. doi:10.1037/10385-003

Sansone RA, Sansone LA. Gratitude and well being: the benefits of appreciation .  Psychiatry (Edgmont) . 2010;7(11):18-22.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

What Is Positive Psychology? A Starting Point

In doing so, it attempts to answer several key questions, including: What is the good life? And, what makes life worth living?

Positive psychology does not suggest that we should dismiss the rest of psychology or that therapists should ignore the very real problems people face (Snyder, 2021).

Here, we bring together many of our most popular articles, exploring this exciting and rapidly developing area of research and its application to human wellbeing.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free . These science-based exercises explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology, including strengths, values, and self-compassion, and will give you the tools to enhance the wellbeing of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains

What is positive psychology an introduction, positive psychology vs traditional psychology.

• Martin Seligman & the History of Positive Psychology

Why Is Positive Psychology Important?

6 examples of positive psychology in practice, 5 key concepts and topics in positive psychology, 4 theories, principles, and models explained, is positive psychology evidence-based 60+ research findings, positive psychology in therapy and coaching, applied positive psychology in the workplace and education, 30+ positive psychology techniques to apply, 20+ popular interventions for your sessions, 28 exercises and activities for individuals and groups, helpful worksheets, workbooks, and resources, assessment tools: 24 tests, questions, and questionnaires, positive psychology training: 20+ bachelor’s degrees and master’s programs, 100+ best courses and online options, 270+ fascinating positive psychology books, common criticisms of positive psychology, a take-home message.

“Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living” (Snyder, 2021, p. XXIII). While not rejecting the psychology that has gone before, it redresses a previous imbalance by focusing attention on our strengths as much as our weaknesses and fostering our most fulfilling lives while repairing the worst (Snyder, 2021).

Positive psychology is more than a one-sided focus on positive thinking and emotions; it uses science-led research to uncover “what makes individuals and communities flourish, rather than languish” (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019, p. 2).

In our article What Is Positive Psychology & Why Is It Important? , we learn more about what positive psychology is and is not. We also clear up some misunderstandings and introduce the tools and techniques that enhance clients’ wellbeing in therapy and outside, in education, the workplace, and beyond.

Positive psychology complements – rather than replaces – traditional psychology (sometimes referred to as the “disease model”), fostering wellbeing in individuals through identifying and cultivating virtues and strengths and creating a path toward meaningful and valued living (Seligman, 2011).

While traditional psychology is typically viewed as studying and treating “disease, weakness, and damage” – or what went wrong – positive psychology focuses on “strength and virtue” and “building on what is right” in our lives (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019, p. 5).

Martin Seligman & the History of Positive Psychology

It then continues by laying out the four waves of psychology that went before its introduction.

In Who Is Martin Seligman and What Does He Do? , we gain a deeper understanding of Seligman’s work on learned helplessness, character strengths, and virtues, along with the introduction of (perhaps) the definitive model of optimal human functioning and wellbeing: the PERMA model (Seligman, 2011; Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019).

In the decades since Seligman’s presidency, positive psychology has gained momentum, with a wealth of supporting research and therapeutic interventions taking the theory and practice further and becoming an established field of study in many high-profile academic institutions (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019).

Download 3 Free Positive Psychology Exercises (PDF)

Enhance wellbeing with these free, science-based exercises that draw on the latest insights from positive psychology.

Download 3 Free Positive Psychology Tools Pack (PDF)

By filling out your name and email address below.

The benefits of positive psychology are many and varied. Most importantly, they are backed up by theory and research and have become an established part of many coaches’, counselors’, and therapists’ toolkits.

The importance and benefits of the approach have been recognized in research through the identification of many triggers and their consequences associated with flourishing and wellbeing, including the following (Snyder, 2021; Lomas et al., 2014).

• Positive emotions are contagious in the workplace, boosting job performance and, ultimately, customer satisfaction.
• Small, simple changes can have a huge impact on creating a fulfilling and meaningful life.
• Focusing on happiness in the present should be accompanied by thinking about our past and future to create meaning.
• Giving creates more meaning in life, but taking can increase happiness in the present. Therefore, by giving back to others while showing gratitude and accepting people’s kindness, it is possible to create a meaningful yet happy existence.
• Positive emotions, such as happiness, are contagious. It is vital to recognize the impact we can have on others and their effect on us.

Positive psychology is vital and exciting because it studies and attempts to understand and promote optimal functioning by stimulating the factors that allow individuals and communities to flourish.

Importantly, positive psychology is not solely a focus on what makes life better. It is more than a prescription for happiness. It is facilitative, encouraging us to identify and use our strengths and virtues to overcome difficult times and create a more fulfilling life (Lomas et al., 2014).

In What Is Applied Positive Psychology? , we learn that the approach is successful for those seeking help and, equally, for those unaware it is needed. By adopting a theory that attends to what goes right in life, making it worthwhile and meaningful, therapists can work with clients to determine and steer them toward their goals.

Positive psychology is so powerful and far reaching that it is being theoretically explored and practically applied in a diverse range of fields of human endeavors, including:

• Social work
• Economics and politics
• Management and leadership
• Business organization

The wide-ranging practical application of positive psychology is evident when we consider that it “encompasses the entire field of psychology”; indeed, “links can be drawn to humanistic psychology, psychiatry, sociology, biology” and far beyond (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019, p. 13).

As we see below, and in our article sharing positive psychology examples , when applied directly or as part of other approaches, positive psychology can positively impact therapy and counseling , education , parenting , the workplace , and even specific communities, such as through building a positive community .

We have included several topics below, along with articles written to better understand the key concepts in more detail.

While we have an immense range of emotions, we often recognize very few (such as being happy, sad, and angry). Each feeling we experience has a strong and intimate connection with our cognition and behavior.

Becoming more aware of our emotions and the difference between positive and negative ones is extremely helpful to our wellbeing (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019), as explored in the following articles:

• Understanding Emotions: 15 Ways to Identify Your Feelings
• What Are Positive and Negative Emotions and Do We Need Both?
• What Are Negative Emotions and How to Control Them?
• What Are Positive Emotions in Psychology? (+List & Examples)
• The Pursuit of Happiness: Using the Power of Positive Emotions

Character strengths and Values in Action

Knowing and using our character strengths and values can boost our positive emotions and engagement (Niemiec, 2018). In the following articles, we explore their importance to positive psychology and individual wellbeing.

• Understanding the CliftonStrengths™ Assessment: A Guide
• Strength-Spotting Interviews: 20+ Questions and Techniques
• Strength-Based Leadership: 34 Traits of Successful Leaders
• 10+ Ways to Build Character Strengths at Work (& Examples)

“Resilience is actually about managing emotions, not suppressing them” and finding a way forward during difficult times; crucially, it can be grown (Neenan, 2018, p. 9). As such, it is a key feature of positive psychology and learning to flourish (Seligman, 2011).

• Resilience Counseling: 12 Worksheets to Use in Therapy
• 5+ Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset Using Grit and Resilience
• Resilience Theory: A Summary of the Research (+PDF)
• What Is Emotional Resilience? (+6 Proven Ways to Build It)

Growth and psychological development are “supported and characterized by intrinsic motivation and active internalization and integration” (Ryan & Deci, 2018, p. 100). The following articles explore motivation and its importance to performance and, ultimately, wellness.

• Intrinsic Motivation Explained: 10 Examples & Key Factors
• What Is Extrinsic Motivation? (Incl. Types & Examples)
• How to Increase Intrinsic Motivation (According to Science)

While reflection is crucial to wellness, so too is learning how “to form intentions and to direct oneself towards a certain path or goal” (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019, p. 158). The following articles introduce why goal setting is key and how it can be performed.

• Goal Setting: 20 Templates & Worksheets for Achieving Goals
• How to Set and Achieve Life Goals the Right Way

In this section, we explore several of the models, theories, and principles that combine multiple elements of positive psychology and how they can be applied.

PERMA model

Perhaps the most pervasive model within positive psychology is Seligman’s (2011) own: the PERMA model (Csikszentmihalyi, 2016).

The articles Martin Seligman’s Positive Psychology Theory and Seligman’s PERMA+ Model Explained: A Theory of Wellbeing provide the ideal introduction.

The five elements that make up the PERMA acronym form the foundation of a flourishing life and a helpful breakdown for working with clients. The following three intrinsic properties characterize each one:

• They contribute to wellbeing.
• They are pursued for their own sake.
• They can be measured and defined individually.

We include each one below along with additional links for more information:

• Positive emotions Fostering our feel-good emotions helps build our skills and resources, improving relationships and creativity.

Check out Positive Mindset: How to Develop a Positive Mental Attitude .

• Engagement When we experience flow, our concentration is heightened, causing us to ignore distractions and perform optimally.

Check out Flow at Work: How to Boost Engagement in the Workplace .

• Relationships Forming relationships and connecting with others is a fundamental human need and helps ensure our health and happiness.

Check out What Is Social Wellbeing? 12+ Activities for Social Wellness .

• Meaning “Meaning within life is essential to fulfilled individuals,” and searching for it may be more important than chasing happiness (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019, p. 98).

Check out 9 Powerful Existential Therapy Techniques for Your Sessions , 15 Ways to Find Your Purpose of Life & Realize Your Meaning , and What Is the Meaning of Life According to Positive Psychology ?

• Accomplishments Those who feel personally engaged and involved in achieving their goals typically experience better health. We must all become better at goal setting and goal achievement for a fulfilling life.

Check out The Science & Psychology of Goal Setting 101 .

Hope theory

Hope (while difficult to define) is a powerful positive emotion that can benefit our lives and help us achieve our goals (Tomasulo, 2020).

In What Is Hope in Psychology? + 7 Exercises & Worksheets , you can find out more about the potential of hope to strengthen your resolve, bolster your resilience, and overcome the most challenging obstacles.

While an important theory and set of practical applications for positive psychology, it is a therapy in its own right and can be explored further in How to Perform Hope Therapy: 4 Best Techniques .

Flow theory

Those moments, however fleeting, when we feel totally immersed in an activity, oblivious to time or our environment, are described as flow by psychologists (Csikszentmihalyi, 2016).

What Is Flow in Psychology? explores this highly enjoyable state of being that has the potential to heighten our creativity, productivity, and happiness, even when performing the most mundane tasks.

In the article Flow Theory in Psychology , we further explore the theory of flow and assess its potential to impact our lives positively, as well as its role in work, education, and sports.

The Sailboat Metaphor

For those new to positive psychology or getting to grips with its terminology, it can be helpful to adopt a metaphor. In PositivePsychology.com’s Sailboat Metaphor , we learn how to create a common language for therapy sessions and interventions that requires little upfront knowledge yet can stimulate ongoing discussions and insights.

The theory and practice of positive psychology are research led; each aspect of the approach is backed by “science that focuses on the development and facilitation of a flourishing environment and individuals” (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019, p. 2).

Over the last few decades, a great deal of research has confirmed the principles of positive psychology and the benefits that related interventions have on our wellbeing and moving toward more fulfilling lives (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019; Seligman, 2011; Snyder, 2021).

We have several articles that include further information on such research findings.

• Money does not influence happiness as much as we may think (Aknin et al., 2009).
• Gratitude is a big contributor to our happiness (Seligman et al., 2005).
• Authenticity is more important to a sense of meaning than putting on a pretense of happiness (Baumeister et al., 2012).
• Being generous to others with our time and money leads to greater happiness for the giver (Baumeister et al., 2012).
• Job satisfaction (Spector, 1986; Miglianico et al., 2020; Hartmann et al., 2020)
• Positive coping (Langford et al., 1997)
• Self-worth (Langford et al., 1997)
• Psychological wellbeing (Langford et al., 1997)
• Commitment (Spector, 1986; Castka et al., 2001; Miglianico et al., 2020; Hartmann et al., 2020)
• Information sharing (Castka et al., 2001)
• Continuous learning (Castka et al., 2001)
• Adaptivity (Miglianico et al., 2020; Hartmann et al., 2020)
• Learning skills faster
• Greater insight into the origins of consciousness
• Improved workplace design
• Invest in their own and their employees’ strengths
• Surround themselves with a good team
• Understand and meet the needs of their followers
• Cardiovascular health (via increased work engagement; Bakker et al., 2014)
• Job performance (work engagement; Bakker et al., 2014)
• Productivity (happiness; Wright & Cropanzano, 2007)
• Satisfaction (work engagement; Bakker et al., 2014)

Positive psychology is backed by science and shaped by research. The theory and interventions continue to be challenged and tested to ensure that it remains at the forefront of scientific research.

Here are two articles that provide useful positive psychology maps for counseling and therapy:

• Applied Positive Psychology Coaching: The Ultimate Guide
• Applied Positive Psychology in Therapy: Your Ultimate Guide

Other favorite topics include:

General skills

Learning communication, social, and parenting skills can support coping and build on our existing positive emotions, benefiting clients inside and outside treatment (Magyar-Moe, 2009).

• Providing Psychoeducation in Groups: 5 Examples & Ideas
• How to Improve Communication Skills: 14 Best Worksheets
• Relationship Therapy Sessions: 45 Questions & Worksheets
• Social Skills Training for Adults: 10 Best Activities + PDF

Positive psychology in therapy builds upon individuals’, couples’, and families’ strengths (Conoley & Conoley, 2009). The following articles embrace many of the principles of the positive psychology approach.

• What Is Positive Psychotherapy? (Benefits & Model)
• What Is ACT? The Hexaflex Model and Principles Explained
• What Is Marriage Psychology? +5 Relationship Theories
• 19 Best Narrative Therapy Techniques & Worksheets [+PDF]

Positive psychology offers a powerful stimulus to coaching sessions, encouraging clients to live their best lives (Driver, 2011).

• What Is the GROW Coaching Model? (Incl. Examples)
• Health Coaching: Your Ultimate Template Toolkit for Success
• 11 Best Tools & Questions for Work-Life Balance Coaching
• 18 Financial Coaching Worksheets, Software & Tools

Positive psychology is less about prescribing behavior and more about facilitating a meaningful life (Lomas et al., 2014).

As such, positive psychology has the potential to be used in a wide variety of situations and with various clients beyond therapy, counseling, and coaching.

The following articles include applications in education, criminology, and at work.

• Positive Psychology in Education: Your Ultimate Guide
• What is Positive Criminology? (+ 14 Theories & Worksheets)
• What Is Positive Organizational Psychology?

For further examples, see the article What Is Applied Positive Psychology?

The following articles offer a sample of the many techniques available that are inspired by or closely aligned to the principles of positive psychology.

• 12 Inspiring Real-Life Positive Psychology Examples – This article introduces five of the most popular positive psychology interventions and how to use them.
• The Science of Coping: 10+ Strategies & Skills (Incl. Wheel) – Our lives are more difficult when we are overwhelmed and stressed, yet there are helpful techniques that support our ability to cope.
• What Is Openness to Experience & How Do We Measure It? – Being open to new opportunities contributes to our authenticity and wellbeing and increases our engagement in relationships and activities.
• Visualization in Therapy: 16 Simple Techniques & Tools – Our imagination can help us explore aspects of our self and possible futures and promote behavior change.

• How to Apply the Wheel of Life in Coaching – One of our favorites for achieving balanced living, the wheel of life helps clients identify and fulfill each of their psychological needs.
• 19 Top Positive Psychology Interventions + How to Apply Them – These techniques focus on building strengths and promoting wellbeing, rather than dwelling on problems.

Activities for individuals and groups that promote wellbeing and life fulfillment can occur inside and outside treatment sessions.

The following offer some valuable ideas for exercises and activities.

• Your Ultimate Online Group Coaching Toolkit (+ Exercises) – This article explores how to set up and structure coaching sessions and introduces some of the best activities and exercises available.
• 19 Top Positive Psychology Exercises for Clients or Students – These exercises support the central tenets of positive psychology, building on clients’ strengths and helping them experience more satisfying and fulfilling lives.
• How to Successfully Teach Positive Psychology in Groups – Positive psychology can be taught to students and clients through a series of exercises that increase positive emotions, behaviors, and thinking in groups.

The following articles include some of our most effective downloads for promoting positive psychology and implementing the tools and techniques that support wellness and working toward life fulfillment.

• 8 PERMA Model Activities and Worksheets to Apply With Clients – These vital downloads support Seligman’s (2011) PERMA model, overcoming challenges while helping live more enriched lives.
• 56 Free Positive Psychology PDF Handouts – These exceptional downloads promote self-awareness, problem-solving, replacing irrational beliefs, and fostering core values and beliefs.
• How to Overcome Perfectionism: 15 Worksheets & Resources – Setting impossibly high standards may lead to increased self-criticism. The techniques within this article help clients recognize that our imperfections and vulnerability are not failings.
• How to Use Mindfulness Therapy for Anxiety: 15 Exercises – The mindfulness workbooks and worksheets help clients develop awareness and a sense of compassion and can reduce anxiety (Shapiro, 2020) by reducing or removing judgment.

The following articles include key assessments, questions, and questionnaires that can be used alongside positive psychology coaching and therapy.

• 5 Quality of Life Questionnaires and Assessments – Recognizing a person’s attitude toward life and their values is particularly valuable in positive psychology.
• 10 Positive Psychology Surveys, Measures, and Questionnaires – These research-led tools have been created to capture life satisfaction, gratitude, and flow scores and can be used in research or treatment.
• 3 Most Accurate Character Strengths Assessments and Tests – Backed up by research, these three character strengths assessments are invaluable for coaching sessions.
• 6 Happiness Tests & Scales to Measure Happiness – Several scientifically validated tests and surveys are available to measure happiness.

Becoming effective as a positive psychologist, coach, or therapist requires training and typically begins at college. The following sample of bachelor’s degrees and master’s programs are available at the time of writing but should be followed up by a thorough online search.

• 20 Top Positive Psychology Degrees & Certificates – This article contains an invaluable list of some of the best institutions for higher study in positive psychology.
• Master of Applied Positive Psychology: The MAPP Program – While the Master of Applied Positive Psychology degree is typically considered the gold standard of training in this exciting field, there are other opportunities to explore as well, which we mention below.

While not necessarily specific to positive psychology, the following course articles offer coaches and therapists valuable educational (online and in-person) opportunities to hone their skills.

• 19 Best Coaching Training Institutes and Programs
• 20 Coaching Courses and Online Opportunities
• How to Become a Relationship Coach: 7 Certification Courses
• Emotional Intelligence Certification & Coaching Programs
• 6 Best Executive Coaching Certifications & Training Programs
• What Is Leadership Coaching? (Including Certification Options)
• How To Become a Therapist: Types & Requirements
• Training in Narrative Therapy: 21 Courses & Online Options
• 18 Behavioral Therapist Certifications & Training Courses
• Training in Educational Psychology: 22 Master’s & Degrees

Before signing up, it is worth considering their location (for example, onsite or remote), cost, and what certification and accreditations are needed for your future career and area.

We have included some of our favorites below, along with others outside the field that bring additional insights.

Books on all aspects of positive psychology

• 88+ Must-Read Positive Psychology Books
• Fostering Self-Forgiveness: 25 Powerful Techniques and Books
• How to Improve Self-Knowledge: 21 Books, Tests, and Questions
• 18 Psychology Books on Authenticity and Being Your True Self
• 27 Books to Improve Self-Esteem, Self-Worth, and Self-Image
• 7 Best Books to Help You Find the Meaning of Life

Coaching and therapy books

• The Top-20 Life Coaching Books You Should Read
• 14 Must-Read Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Books
• 15 Motivational Interviewing Books to Help Clients Change
• 30 Best CBT Books to Master Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Books on other skills and areas of psychology

• Building Assertiveness Skills: Top 12 Books & Workbooks
• 20 Best Sports Psychology Books for Motivating Athletes
• The 20 Best Books on Appreciative Inquiry

17 Top-Rated Positive Psychology Exercises for Practitioners

Expand your arsenal and impact with these 17 Positive Psychology Exercises [PDF] , scientifically designed to promote human flourishing, meaning, and wellbeing.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

In our article defining positive psychology , we learn about people’s common misconceptions and some of the most common criticisms, including:

• It is not possible to be perpetually happy.
• The focus is too much on the individual.
• There is a cultural and ethnocentric bias.
• There is too much emphasis on self-report.

While positive psychology’s creation and ongoing development are driven by research (and typically well validated), it is vital to consider its challenges and what learning or new areas of scientific study they offer.

Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes individuals, couples, families, and communities flourish. It attempts to answer the difficult questions of what makes us happy and our existence meaningful.

Positive psychology is not simply a focus on what is good in our lives; it recognizes the troubles we face and the obstacles we overcome.

While aware of the psychological theories and ideas that have gone before, Seligman (2011) and others have created a series of models and approaches that direct research, coaching, and therapy toward helping us create fulfilling lives that focus on our strengths rather than our weaknesses.

Research has already identified considerable successes in using positive psychology with diverse populations in various situations, including the workplace, education, and healthcare.

The potential of this relatively recent approach to understanding and improving the human condition is considerable. By following the links within the article, it is possible to explore in depth the vast body of research and literature on positive psychology and pick up many of the powerful techniques, skills, and tools for use in your own or your clients’ lives.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free .

• Aknin, L. B., Norton, M. I., & Dunn, E. W. (2009) From wealth to well-being? Money matters, but less than people think. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 523–527.
• Attridge, M. (2008).  A quiet crisis: The business case for managing employee mental health . Human Solutions.
• Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Sanz-Vergel, A. I. (2014). Burnout and work engagement: The JD–R approach.  Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior ,  1 (1), 389–411.
• Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., Aaker, J., & Garbinsky, E. N. (2012). Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life.  Journal of Positive Psychology, 8, 505–516.
• Boniwell, I., & Tunariu, A. D. (2019). Positive psychology: Theory, research and applications . Open University Press.
• Castka, P., Bamber, C. J., Sharp, J. M., & Belohoubek, P. (2001). Factors affecting successful implementation of high performance teams.  Team Performance Management: An International Journal ,  7 (7–8), 123–134.
• Conoley, C. W., & Conoley, J. C. (2009). Positive psychology and family therapy: Creative techniques and practical tools for guiding change and enhancing growth . Wiley.
• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2016). Flow and the foundations of positive psychology: The collected works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi . Springer.
• Driver, M. (2011). Coaching positively: Lessons for coaches from positive psychology . Open University Press.
• Hartmann, S., Weiss, M., Newman, A., & Hoegl, M. (2020). Resilience in the workplace: A multilevel review and synthesis.  Applied Psychology ,  69 (3), 913–959.
• Langford, C. P. H., Bowsher, J., Maloney, J. P., & Lillis, P. P. (1997). Social support: A conceptual analysis.  Journal of Advanced Nursing ,  25 (1), 95–100.
• Lomas, T., Hefferon, K., & Ivtzan, I. (2014). Applied positive psychology: Integrated positive practice . Sage.
• Magyar-Moe, J. L. (2009). Therapist’s guide to positive psychological interventions . Academic Press.
• Miglianico, M., Dubreuil, P., Miquelon, P., Bakker, A. B., & Martin-Krumm, C. (2020). Strength use in the workplace: A literature review.  Journal of Happiness Studies ,  21 (2), 737–764.
• Neenan, M. (2018). Developing resilience: A cognitive-behavioural approach . Routledge.
• Niemiec, R. M. (2018). Character strengths interventions: A field guide for practitioners . Hogrefe.
• Rath, T. (2017). Strengths based leadership: Great leaders, teams, and why people follow . Gallup Press.
• Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2018). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness . Guilford Press.
• Seligman, M. E. (2011). Authentic happiness . Random House Australia.
• Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, S. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions.  American Psychologist, 60 , 410–421.
• Shapiro, S. L. (2020).  Rewire your mind: Discover the science + practice of mindfulness . Aster.
• Snyder, C. R. (2021). The Oxford handbook of positive psychology . Oxford University Press.
• Spector, P. E. (1986). Perceived control by employees: A meta-analysis of studies concerning autonomy and participation at work.  Human Relations ,  39 (11), 1005–1016.
• Tomasulo, D. (2020). Learned hopefulness: The power of positivity to overcome depression . New Harbinger.
• Wright, T. A., & Cropanzano, R. (2007). The happy/productive worker thesis revisited.  Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management ,  26 , 269–307.

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3 Positive Psychology Tools (PDF)

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Positivity Is Not Magic. It’s Science.

Achieving workplace positivity comes down to neuroscience and psychology, not mystery and chance, writes Ana García Villas-Boas.

How can I keep my team motivated in the face of uncertainty? How can I inspire individuals to be proactive and take action? How can I encourage innovation? These are just some of the questions I hear from my clients these days. Leading people has always been a challenge – and these days particularly so, thanks to the pandemic and the increased stress it has caused for organizations and the people inside them.

Thus, in addition to the traditional business activities, leaders must now manage the emotions of their teams. To do this, leaders must also manage their own emotions more mindfully and learn to focus on and prioritize their own self-care.

Yet, the end of the quarter is always looming, the bottom line ever-present. So how can leaders keep this in mind, sustain motivation and productivity among workers while conveying a sense of calmness? Advances in neuroscience and the science of positive psychology provide insight here.

Barbara Fredrickson, a professor of Psychology and Director of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been investigating the effect of positive emotions for more than thirty years. Her research shows that people with a positive attitude overcome difficulties more quickly and are more resilient. Based on her research, she developed the broaden-and-build theory , which uses positive emotions to solve developmental and growth challenges instead of solving survival issues.

A positive mindset is the breeding ground for creativity, expansive and visionary thinking, empathy, cooperation, and connection. Moreover, broadening one’s mindset makes people better equipped to overcome adversity. Her findings shed light on how people with a positive mindset become stronger and develop exponentially in overcoming obstacles. In the world of business, Frederickson’s research shows that high-performing teams use at least a 3:1 ratio of positive messages as opposed to negative ones.

Marcial Losada and Emily Heaphy, who studied the impact of team conversations , calculate that the ratio of positive versus negative interactions in high-performing teams is 6:1. Their research clearly demonstrates the impact of the type of conversations on team performance, and therefore on results:

The first question leaders should ask themselves is: what type of conversations do we have amongst the team? in the hallways? via email and web chats? with superiors and with colleagues? Are these productive conversations or do they stir up emotions that are unproductive, even toxic and destructive?

Resonant leaders attract while dissonant leaders repel. Richard Boyatzis, a professor at Case Western University, has studied the relationship between inspirational leadership and its impact on relationships from a neuroscience perspective. In their book, Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence , Boyatzis, Daniel Goleman, and Annie McKee coined the term “resonant leader” to describe a figure who is “attuned to people’s feelings” and “moves them in a positive emotional direction.”

Thanks to advances in magnetic resonance research on the movement of brain neurons, studies have shown that resonant leaders connect and activate one part of the brain, while dissonant leaders, who send out negative emotions, activate another part of the brain. This is produced by the effect of mirror neurons which, as their name indicates, reproduce the reflection of what they perceive. This brain-to-brain transmission takes place primarily below consciousness.

Resonant leaders turn on brain circuitry that makes people become receptive to new ideas and enables them to observe and analyze business and social environments. However, a different circuit is triggered in dissonant leaders. The socializing brain circuit is disabled and the areas of the brain that focus on problem-solving and efficient job performance are activated. When the task-execution circuit is turned on, the circuit that activates receptiveness to new ideas and environmental observation is turned off.

Therefore, when leaders help people around them to feel positive, these people are receptive to building relationships; they can think creatively and they are open to different ideas, thus ratifying Frederickson’s broaden-and-build theory. Dissonant leaders, however, have the opposite effect – by focusing primarily on weaknesses and problems, these leaders make others feel threatened and activate their brain’s survival mode, which literally encourages them to flee.

What can leaders do to ensure teams are motivated and with a positive attitude?

• Use consistently positive language. Construct sentences around what you want to achieve and avoid what you don’t want. For example, instead of saying “we cannot afford the number of incidents to increase,” say “let’s do everything we can to increase service quality and decrease the number of incidents.”  
• Look on the bright side. Try starting meetings with an appreciative warmer by asking, “What is the best thing that has happened to you this week? What has been the best business or customer service interaction?” These simple questions tap into positive emotions and activate the brain’s circuitry of expansion, building, and connection.
• Ask generative questions that focus on making the best of the situation, and even improving it. For example, when is your customer most satisfied? How can everyone contribute to the success of this project? If you were starting the project from scratch, how would you go about it? What is important to you in this particular project?
• Nurture the positive energy. It is important to surround yourself with people with whom you can have productive conversations and a mutual investment in each other’s goals. In addition, building a network of positive relationships – and this requires an investment of time and focus – create a support system for when we are discouraged or confused.
• Take responsibility for your self-care. Looking after one’s mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health is a priority for everyone and particularly so for leaders because they have many others who depend on them. It is important to find the time to recharge, relax, and open up space for reflective thinking. This can be done through regular exercise, healthy eating, mindfulness practice, and spending time with family and friends.

MADAVI, where I work as an appreciative facilitator, recently conducted a project with the Spanish supermarket chain, Eroski, in which we focus on helping managers and employees discover what they do best in terms of customer service and find ways to improve upon it even more. Just nine months after the initiative got off the ground, Eroski customer satisfaction rose from 68% to 87%.

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• Published: 01 March 2023

The effect of positive thinking on resilience and life satisfaction of older adults: a randomized controlled trial

• Zahra Taherkhani 1 ,
• Mohammad Hossein Kaveh 2 ,
• Arash Mani 3 ,
• Leila Ghahremani 1 &
• Khadijeh Khademi 4  

Scientific Reports volume  13 , Article number:  3478 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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• Health care

The cumulative effects of adversity and unhappiness affect life satisfaction and quality of life in the growing older adult population. Most of the interventions aimed at improving the health and quality of life of older adults have adopted a problem-oriented or weakness-focused approach. However, a positive or strengths-focused approach can also have a virtuous but more effective capacity to contribute to the well-being and life satisfaction of older adults. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of positive thinking training on improving resilience and life satisfaction among older adults. A randomized controlled trial was conducted on 100 older adults with simple random sampling. The intervention group received 90-min weekly sessions for eight weeks on positive thinking training through written homework for reflection, group discussion, and media. The data were collected using Ingram and Wisnicki Positive Thinking Questionnaire, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and Tobin Life Satisfaction Questionnaire at baseline and one week and two months after the training. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS software 26. P values below 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Positive thinking training led to better thinking ( p  < 0.001), higher resilience ( p  < 0.001), and greater life satisfaction ( p  < 0.001). The study's findings showed the effectiveness of the positive thinking training approach in improving resilience and life satisfaction in older adults. It is recommended to evaluate the long-term outcome in populations with different social, economic, and cultural statuses in future studies.

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Introduction

The older adult population is growing because of improved healthcare and education systems. These individuals encounter physical, psychological, and social adjustments that challenge their sense of self and capacity to live. Many people experience loneliness and depression episodes in old age due to living alone or lacking a close family, which results in the inability to participate in community activities 1 . The simultaneous effects of health disorders experiences and socioeconomic problems throughout life lead to life satisfaction challenges and low tolerance of problems during old age 2 . Older adults care programs have often focused on secondary care for some physical and psychological illnesses with a negative health approach. Psychological research and theory on welfare and quality of life have also focused on the influence of negative aspects 3 . In contrast to this traditional attitude, however, the past two decades have witnessed the occurrence of an alternative positive viewpoint, which originates from developmental psychology and explores the personal and environmental factors that can improve psychological happiness and quality of life, particularly during hardship or stress 4 , 5 .

New positive approaches have focused on the importance and role of individual components and skills, including resiliency, and increased emphasis on ideal or successful aging 6 . Several features of resilience, including physical, mental, and social features, have been well-known among older people 7 , 8 , 9 , representing the multi-dimensionality of this feature. High resilience during later years of life has been accompanied by ideal outcomes, such as reduced depression and anxiety, increased quality of life, and improved lifestyle behaviors 10 , 11 , 12 . In general, individual factors, such as level of education, cognitive and emotional abilities, self-care skills, beliefs, and attitudes, as well as physical-social environment factors, including family, healthcare system, social welfare, and physical environment facilities for the safe presence of older adult's individuals in the community have vital effects on their physical and mental health. In this way, these factors can affect their efficiency and life satisfaction 13 , 14 . Studies have indicated that life satisfaction and happiness do not depend solely on external conditions; individual mental states, such as hope, self-esteem, and a sense of efficiency, are also important. Individuals with a positive mental structure can evaluate many negative events positively 15 , 16 . Resilience is one of the most important determining factors of older adults’ mental health. Resilience refers to individuals’ traits and skills that empower them to thrive in the face of hardship or a disruptive event 10 , 11 . Resilient people have flexibility, high confidence, life expectancy, the ability to forgive others, purposefulness, social participation, and a positive view of life and the future that prevents anxiety and depression in older adults 17 . In addition to internal and personal factors, external and environmental factors affect resiliency 18 . Thus, resilience is not a static phenomenon. In this context, resiliency can be improved by interventions, such as positive thinking techniques, reviewing past events, having social participation, strengthening self-confidence and motivation, using a semantic approach, e.g., yoga, and reinforcing internal powers 19 , 20 .

The pattern of individual thinking is important; individuals with positive thinking can overcome problems, while negative thoughts can lead to greater problems. Therefore, people can overcome life difficulties and events by abandoning negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones 21 , 22 . The positive approach aims to identify the structures and methods that lead to well-being, happiness, and increased life satisfaction. Therefore, using positive training techniques to increase older adult's individuals’ resilience can act as a barrier to the physical and emotional weaknesses of older adults. Studies in Iran have evaluated the impact of positive thinking on older adults' mental health, psychological well-being, life expectancy, and loneliness 23 , 24 , 25 . However, these studies have not been able to directly investigate the impact of positive thinking on the improvement of resilience in this population. In other countries, the effects of positive thinking skills on increasing the resilience level have been somewhat proven 18 , 23 , 26 . However, resilience is an individual-social process that is significantly affected by culture and religion. Even the aging phenomenon is defined differently in various societies 19 , 24 .

In Iranian society, older adults are highly respected, and there is a positive attitude toward their knowledge and experiences, which gives them a deep sense of usefulness. However, negative stereotypes about their abilities prevent them from being active in society and interfere with their creativity, liveliness, and care priorities. Accordingly, overcoming these negative stereotypes leads to a sense of empowerment, resilience, and life satisfaction. Thus, providing effective educational, emotional, cultural, and social interventions can be helpful 27 .

Hence, the results of these studies cannot be generalized to Iranian society without independent evaluations. To our knowledge, no empirical studies were found in the current research framework. Additionally, the previous studies have only considered a part of the relationships, and a few similar studies have yielded inconclusive results. Considering the transition to old age in Iranian society and considering cultural, social, religious, and economic factors that vary among communities, the present study aims to investigate the effects of positive thinking training on increasing the resilience level and life satisfaction in a population of Iranian older adults.

Ethical considerations

This study was conducted with the clinical trials registration number IRCT20171212037844N1 and the registration date of 15/01/2018. In addition, all methods were carried out following relevant guidelines and regulations. The study objectives and procedures were explained, and the participants were asked to sign the written informed consent forms.

Study design and population

This educational randomized controlled trial was conducted in Shiraz, Iran, in 2018. The study population included people aged 60–70 covered by the older adult daycare centers affiliated with Welfare Organization in Shiraz. Based on a similar study 23 , using the appropriate formula with the type I error rate of 5% and the test power of 80%, considering a 10% attrition rate, the sample size was calculated as 45 participants in each group. Participants were selected in each center with the simple random sampling technique. For this purpose, the list of names of older adults covered by the center was considered the basis for sampling. The sampling interval was calculated by considering almost equal sex proportions using a randomization number between 1 and 10. The selected people were checked in terms of the inclusion criteria, and in case of ineligibility, the next person was selected from the list. All the participants had normal vision and hearing, scored ≥ 26 on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and had the physical and mental ability to answer the questions. The participants had no psychiatric or neurological disorders and received no psychoactive drugs. Writing and reading literacy was another inclusion criterion. However, the exclusion criteria were being absent for more than two sessions, participating in similar training courses, and reluctance to continue participating in the study. The CONSORT diagram of the study is shown in Fig.  1 .

The CONSORT diagram of the study .

Data collection

The participants were asked to complete four questionnaires, including the Persian version of the Ingram and Wisnicki Positive Thinking Questionnaire 28 , the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 29 , the Tobin Life Satisfaction Questionnaire 30 , and a demographic information questionnaire.

The demographic data included age, sex, level of education, marital status, having children, housing situation, employment status, monthly income, and suffering from diseases.

Ingram and Wisnicki's Positive Thinking Questionnaire contained 30 items, e.g., "I have a good sense of humor"; scored using a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Thus, the total score of this questionnaire ranged from 30 to 150, with an average score of 90. Total scores above 90 and closer to 150 indicate a higher degree of positive thinking. The reliability index of this questionnaire was found to be 0.92 using Cronbach’s alpha 28 , which was 0.96 in the present study.

Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale included 25 items graded on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (always false) to 5 (always true), with higher scores reflecting greater resilience. An example of the items in this questionnaire is "I take pride in my achievements." The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89 29 , which was 0.97 in the present study.

Tobin Life Satisfaction Questionnaire consisted of 13 items. Five items had negative contents, e.g ., "I have gotten more of the breaks in life than most of the people I know." The rest had positive content, e.g., "I have made plans for things I’ll be doing a month or a year from now." The statement “I do not know” was assigned two scores. In addition, positive statements received three scores for positive responses and one for negative ones. In contrast, negative statements were assigned three scores for negative responses and one for positive ones. Thus, the total life satisfaction score ranges from 13 to 39, with higher scores representing a higher level of life satisfaction. The reliability coefficient was calculated as 0.93. Cronbach’s alpha and Guttmann coefficients were found to be 0.79 and 0.78, respectively 30 . Cronbach’s alpha was 0.96 in the present study.

Baseline (Pre-test) and demographic data were collected one week before starting the training sessions. Post-intervention data were collected one week (Post-test) and two months (Follow-up) after the end of the intervention.

Procedure and intervention

The individuals in the intervention group participated in training sessions on positive thinking consisting of one 90-min session per week for eight consecutive weeks. The session's content was based on the theories of positive psychology 31 , 32 in the field of positive thinking, including Strengths of Character (Homework 1, 2, 3), Engagement and Flow (Homework 4, 5, 6,7), and Meaning (Class Assignment). The training was performed using teaching/learning methods, including Interactive lecturing, group discussion, and media, such as PowerPoint presentations and audio and video clips. Based on scientific evidence, writing thoughts, feelings, and experiences, especially in combination with their expression, strengthens the character, reduces distress, and improves mental health. It is important to note that group discussions are more effective in these cases 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 . Hence, at the end of each session, participants were given written homework for reflection at home to practice positive thinking; they explained and discussed it in the group at the beginning of the next session (Except session 8). It should be noted that their practical experience was introduced as a method of positive thinking. The topics, as well as the objectives of each training session, are summarized in Fig.  2 . In addition, a detailed description of the intervention program is shown in Appendix A .

The topics and objectives, and homework of each training session.

Statistical analysis

The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in the SPSS software version 26 38 and G-Power 3.1.9.2 (Düsseldorf, Germany). Data normality was checked by Shapiro–Wilk test. Additionally, a chi-square test was used to analyze the demographic data. Moreover, Repeated Measures ANOVA and independent T-test were performed to compare the research constructs' means. Bayesian inference was also used to update the probability of the hypothesis as more evidence or information became available. In all statistical tests, a p value below 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All the participants were required to complete a written informed consent form. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (IR.SUMS.REC.1396.122).

The descriptive findings of this study showed no statistically significant differences in terms of the mean age (year) between the control group (M = 64.58, SD = 3.7) and the intervention group (M = 65.32, SD = 3.63); there was moderate evidence for the equal mean of age between two groups [t (98) = -0.639, p  = 0.52; BF = 5.36]. The frequency distribution of other demographic data in the control and intervention groups is summarized in Table 1 .

Accordingly, there was no significant difference between the two study groups ( p  > 0.05). Most participants had high school and lower degrees, were married, had children, lived in their own houses, were retired, received one-two million Tomans as their income, and suffered from at least one underlying disease. The most and least frequent diseases were cardiovascular disorders and cancer, respectively.

The results revealed anecdotal evidence for the equal mean score of positive thinking between the control and intervention groups before the intervention (BF = 1.69). However, moderate evidence for the difference was observed between the two groups in this regard 1 week after the intervention [t (98) = −2.87,  p  = 0.005] and in the follow-up phase [t (98) = −2.73,  p  = 0.007]. In the intervention group, there was very strong evidence for the mean scores difference of positive thinking in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages [F (1.05, 51.89) = 50.48,  p  < 0.001], and the effect of the intervention was maintained over time (Table 2 ).

The results indicated moderate evidence for the equal mean of resiliency score at the pre-test stage between the control and intervention groups (BF = 5.69). Nonetheless, extreme evidence for the difference was found between the two groups in this regard after the intervention [t (87.5) = −11.152, p  < 0.001] and in the follow-up phase [t (98) = −5.81,  p  < 0.001]. In the intervention group, there was extreme evidence for the difference in the mean score of resiliency in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages [F (1.68, 82.61) = 77.16,  p  < 0.001] (Table 3 ).

Anecdotal evidence was found between the control and intervention groups regarding the equal mean of life satisfaction score in the pre-test stage (BF = 1.72). However, extreme evidence for the difference was found between the control and intervention groups in this regard after the intervention [t (98) = −4.53,  p  < 0.001] and in the follow-up phase [t (98) = −4.43,  p  < 0.001]. In the intervention group, there was strong evidence for the difference in the life satisfaction scores in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages [F (1.23, 60.71) = 69.60,  p  < 0.001] (Table 4 ).

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of positive thinking training on increasing resilience levels and life satisfaction in a population of Iranian older adults. Designed positive thinking interventions are very sparse, specifically those targeting older adults. Most existing projects and studies have focused on high-risk younger adults, most of which are theoretical research studies with methodological weaknesses, small populations, and no exact outcome measures, which are inaccessible or invalid for older adults. Considering the cultural and social differences amongst societies, the lack of a similar study on an Iranian population, and low scores of positive thinking, resilience, and life satisfaction among Iranian older adults based on the present study findings, it seems necessary to perform appropriate interventions. The results of this study showed that the positive-thinking intervention significantly increased the mean scores of positive thinking, resilience, and life satisfaction in the intervention group one week and two months after the intervention. Several studies have been conducted on promoting resilience through older adults’ capability to enjoy positive experiences, activities to predict future events, and tools to reinforce relationships that activate feelings of pleasure and well-being 17 . Similarly, Ruiz-Rodríguez et al. conducted an interventional study and reported a significant relationship between social support, positive thinking, and social relationships with the degree of resilience 39 . Lysne PE et al. reported a significant positive correlation between resilience and different dimensions of health and life satisfaction 40 . Resiliency leads to life satisfaction through improving mental health and indirectly affects life satisfaction. In other words, resilience leads to a positive attitude and life satisfaction by affecting individual feelings and excitement 41 . The current study's clear and practical results can be implemented as training programs for many similar aging centers. However, this study had several limitations, including limited follow-up for only two months, selection of the study groups from older adult centers, and non-generalizability of some findings, such as resilience due to ethnic and cultural differences.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the current study findings revealed a relationship between resilience and positive thinking. Positive thinking and interventions can increase older adults’ resilience, and thereby improve their quality of life. High quality of life can lead to greater life satisfaction. In addition, positive psychological training can directly contribute to positive and healthy thinking, ultimately leading to a better dynamic life for older adults.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Mini-Mental State Examination

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Shiraz university of medical sciences.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Health Promotion, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Zahra Taherkhani & Leila Ghahremani

Department of Health Promotion, School of Health, Institute of Health, Research Center for Health Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, 71536-755, Iran

Mohammad Hossein Kaveh

Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Institute of Health, Research Center for Health Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Student Research Committee, Department of Health Promotion, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Khadijeh Khademi

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M.H.K. supervised and reviewed and revised the manuscript; Z.T. collected the data and drafted the original manuscript; K.H. K.H. analyzed the data, edited and revised the manuscript; A.M and L. G.H. were the advisors and reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Taherkhani, Z., Kaveh, M.H., Mani, A. et al. The effect of positive thinking on resilience and life satisfaction of older adults: a randomized controlled trial. Sci Rep 13 , 3478 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30684-y

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• Positive Psychology

Think Positive: 11 Ways to Boost Positive Thinking

The complete guide to positive thinking, according to science..

Posted March 6, 2018 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

• What Is Positive Psychology?
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When you harness the power of positivity, it's amazing the impact it has on your life. It can decrease stress and make every moment worth experiencing. By thinking positive, you just can't help but be optimistic , even when everyone around you is miserable. As a result, you are happier, less depressed , and more satisfied. I believe in positive thinking so much that I touch on the topic in just about every chapter of my book, Outsmart Your Smartphone , and I created a whole happiness program based on Positive Psychology to help you boost happiness .

The benefits of positive thinking are vast. So how do you train your brain to think positive?

1. Ask yourself, "Do I think positively?"

Not sure whether you're a negative nelly? Take this well-being quiz , which not only gives you a score on "positivity," but can help you identify the other skills that can most help you improve your happiness and well-being. If you're someone who needs to work on your positivity, keep reading.

2. Strengthen your memory for positive information.

Did you know that you may be able to increase your positivity just by memorizing lists of positive words? It's because when you force your brain to use positive words frequently, you make these words (and their basic meaning) more accessible, more connected, and more easily activated in your brain. So when you go to retrieve a word or idea from your memory , positive ones can come to the top more easily.

Not sure which words are positive? Psychologists have painstakingly measured thousands of words to determine how positive and negative they are. I've compiled only the most positive of the positive words into a positive word workbook for adults , and a positive word workbook for kids . If you're struggling to think positive, try this strategy first. It can help develop your brain in ways that may make the other positive thinking strategies easier to implement.

3. Strengthen your brain's ability to work with positive information.

Once your brain has built strong neural networks for positive words, try to extend these networks by asking your brain to use positive information in new ways. For example, you could memorize positive words and set an alarm that reminds you to recall these words, in reverse order, an hour later.

Or, you could print out these positive words on cards (from my positivity workbook ), cut them into two pieces, shuffle them all together and then find each card's match. For example, the word " laughter " would be cut into "laug" and "hter." To match the word pieces, your brain has to search through lots of positive information to find what it's looking for. This positive memory recall task may make it easier when you try to think positive.

4. Strengthen your brain's ability to pay attention to the positive.

Are you one of those people who notices the bad stuff—like when someone cuts you off in traffic or your food doesn't taste quite as good as you wanted it too? Then you likely have trained your brain to focus on the negative, and your brain has gotten really good at it. It can be really challenging to undo this training. So instead, train your brain to be even better at focusing on the positive.

Just routinely focus on positive information and direct your attention away from the negative. Need help paying attention to the positive? Check out these positivity games .

5. Condition yourself to experience random moments of positivity.

Did you know that you can condition yourself for positivity? If you've ever taken an intro to psychology course, you've probably heard about the study of Pavlov's dog. Here is a quick refresher:

Pavlov had a dog. Pavlov would ring a bell to tell his dog that it was almost feeding time. Like most dogs, Pavlov's dog would get really excited when he was about to get fed. So he'd drool all over the place. What happened? Well, suddenly Pavlov's dog started getting excited just by the sound of that bell, even when food wasn't present. Eating food and the sound of the bell became linked in the dog’s brain. Something as meaningless as a bell was now making the dog excited.

This effect is called classical conditioning . It's the idea that when two stimuli are repeatedly paired, the response that was first elicited by the second stimulus (food) is now elicited by the first stimulus alone (the bell). This happens all the time without us even realizing it. For example, the favorite food for many of us is something that we ate as a child with our families. What likely happened was the positive feelings of being with family and the particular food got paired in our brains. As a result, we now get the warm-fuzzy feelings that we got from spending time with family just from eating the food alone, even if our family is not currently present when we eat it.

Although your environment is conditioning you to react in particular ways all the time, if you know what you're doing, you can use classical conditioning to boost your positivity . You do exactly what Pavlov did. You just repeatedly link boring things (like a bell ringing) with positive thoughts and feelings over and over again. Pretty soon, these boring things will generate positivity automatically. That's classical conditioning at work. This can help you think positive because when you are going about your life, maybe even feeling bummed about stresses or challenges, you’ll have these little positive moments that keep you energized and in a good mood.

6. Think positive, but not too much, and think negative when you need to.

Of course, thinking positive has its benefits. But thinking positive isn't always the best response. Negative thoughts sometimes have benefits, too.

When we are sad or grieving, thinking negative thoughts and showing the emotions that these thoughts create helps us communicate to others that we need their support and kindness. When we are treated unfairly and get angry, our thoughts can help motivate us to take action, make changes in our lives, and change the world. Casually pushing these negative emotions aside without seriously considering their origins can have negative consequences. So when you focus on the negative, ask yourself, is this negative emotion resulting in action that improves your life ? If so, then keep it. If not, then work on changing it.

7. Practice gratitude

I'll be the first to admit that there are an infinite number of things to be angry, sad, or anxious about. But the truth is that there are also an infinite number of things to feel passionate, joyful, and excited about. It's up to us to decide which we want to focus on.

One way to train your brain to focus on the positive it to practice gratitude. Gratitude is when we feel or express thankfulness for the people, things, and experiences we have. When we express gratitude at work, we can more easily gain the respect and camaraderie of those we work with. When we are grateful for our partners or friends, they are more generous and kind to us. When we are grateful for the little things in our day-to-day lives, we find more meaning and satisfaction in our lives.

Need to build a gratitude habit? Try these 5 ways to practice gratitude .

8. Savor the good moments

Too often we let the good moments pass, without truly celebrating them. Maybe your friend gives you a small gift or a colleague makes you laugh. Do you stop to notice and appreciate these small pleasures that life has to offer? If not, then you could benefit from savoring.

Savoring just means holding onto the good thoughts and emotions we have. You can savor by holding on to the emotions you're feeling in positive moments. Or you can savor by thinking about positive experiences from long ago. Savoring is a great way to develop a long-lasting stream of positive thoughts and emotions.

9. Generate positive emotions by watching fun videos

The broaden-and-build theory suggests that experiencing positive emotions builds our psychological, intellectual, and social resources, allowing us to benefit more from our experiences and be happier . So how do we infuse our lives with small bursts of positive emotion?

One way is to watch positive or fun videos. Watching cat videos or inspirational videos can generate a quick boost of positive emotions that can help fuel an upward spiral of positive emotions. Just be sure to mentally hang onto the positive emotions that emerge, through strategies like savoring, so that you take your good mood with you when you leave the couch. And be careful not to get sucked in for too long or you may end up feeling guilty for not getting more done.

10. Stop minimizing your successes

We have a bad habit of downplaying our successes and not fully appreciating our wins. For example, we may say, “Anyone could memorize positive words,” or “I didn’t increase my happiness as much I wanted to.” But this fails to recognize the effort that you put in—effort that not everyone would put in. These phrases minimize your small successes instead of celebrating them.

I struggle with this one a lot. People will praise me for building my own business—a business that helps people increase their happiness and well-being. But I’ll say, “Anyone could do it. I just got lucky.” This kind of thinking downplays all the small efforts I put in to make my business successful. Anyone could do it, but they didn’t ; I did.

The same is true for you. Even reading this post all the way to this point means you are putting effort in to improve your ability to think positive. Give yourself some credit for that. As you pursue positive thinking, happiness, or well-being—whatever your goal is—take note of your wins. After every small win, celebrate a little bit.

11. Stop all-or-nothing thinking

All-or-nothing thinking is when we view a situation as all good or all bad. This is another tough negative thinking habit to overcome. For example, I might think I’m a failure because I have not been particularly successful at helping kids cultivate the skills that help them think positive and increase happiness. I even had to shut down my first business which aimed to cultivate well-being in kids.

On the other hand, I have had great success in working with businesses to help them develop their happiness apps, writing content for these products and courses, and selling workbooks to help people learn happiness skills . What do you think? Does this make me a failure or success? If I was prone to all-or-nothing thinking, then I'd have to choose one or the other.

There is always room for improvement, but be careful not to start thinking you’re a complete failure just because you’re not a complete success in all the ways you hoped to be. You win some, you lose some. That’s life.

For more tips, visit berkeleywellbeing.com .

Tchiki Davis, Ph.D. , is a consultant, writer, and expert on well-being technology.

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The ethics of positive thinking in healthcare

In continuation with the New Thought movement that arose in the United States in the 19 th Century, there is now a massive self-help industry that markets books and seminars. This industry has also extended to healthcare in the form of positive thinking, i.e., the idea that happy thoughts are essential for health. While some of these claims may seem reasonable and commonsensical, they are not free of problems. This article posits that positive thinking has some ethical underpinnings. Extreme positive thinking may promote alternative forms of medicine that ultimately substitute effective treatment, and this is unethical. The emphasis on positive thinking for cancer patients may be too burdensome for them. Likewise, unrestricted positive thinking is not necessarily good for mental health. After considering the ethics of positive thinking, this article proposes a more realistic approach.

Introduction

Pessimism and Optimism as Philosophies

“ Positive thinking” suggests that in order to accomplish good things and pursue happiness, human beings must constantly have positive thoughts and prevent negative thoughts from entering their mind. This can be done by envisioning success, repeating constant affirmations, continuously saying good things to oneself in order to build self-esteem, and arousing happy thoughts that may block stressing ideas from one’s mind.

In the last three decades, this trend has been massively popular in psychology, and it has also been extended to healthcare and the business world. Positive thinking is also the foundation of the self-help industry, which is estimated to make around 10 billion US$ every year in products such as books and seminars. The healthcare industry has also borrowed ideas from this movement by assuring patients that their prognosis will be dramatically improved if they think positive thoughts.

Although it may seem like a recent phenomenon (with all the marketing techniques of advanced capitalism), in fact, positive thinking is a very ancient movement, long defended by many philosophers. Some philosophers are optimists; others are pessimists. The dialectic between optimism and pessimism is an ancient one, and to a certain extent, discussions about the merits of positive thinking in healthcare and elsewhere reflect this ancient dialectic.

Pessimist philosophers are prone to see the world as a hopeless place. Perhaps the most notorious of all pessimist philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer, presented this view in no ambiguous terms: “Human life must be some kind of mistake. The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man is a compound of needs and necessities hard to satisfy; and that even when they are satisfied, all he obtains is a state of painlessness, where nothing remains to him but abandonment to boredom. This is direct proof that existence has no real value in itself; for what is boredom but the feeling of the emptiness of life?” ( 1 ). Although he founded no school of philosophy, Schopenhauer had considerable influence over thinkers such as Nietzsche and Freud, both of whom also leaned towards grim understandings of human nature and the world. More recently, philosopher David Benatar is so disappointed with life, that he makes the ethical case for not having children: “Each one of us was harmed by being brought into existence. That harm is not negligible, because the quality of even the best lives is very bad – and considerably worse than most people recognize it to be. Although it is obviously too late to prevent our own existence, it is not too late to prevent the existence of future possible people” ( 2 ).

By contrast, religious thinkers tend to affirm the other end of the spectrum, i.e., optimism. In their view, inasmuch as the world is God’s creation, by necessity it is a good place. Obviously, there appear to be many imperfections in the world, but these philosophers typically go to great lengths in order to prove that those imperfections are actually part of a cosmic plan for a greater good. This approach, known as “theodicy”, attempts to justify God’s ways to man, and by doing so, attempts to present the world in an optimistic light. Perhaps the most notorious philosopher in this regard was Leibniz, who affirmed that this is by necessity “the best of all possible worlds” ( 3 ).

Leibniz’ brand of optimism was more cosmic, and it did not provide much solace to people. In his philosophy, the world may seem like a terrible place, but in fact, it is the best one there can ever be. By contrast, some American philosophers and religious authors were presenting a more radical form of optimism by the 19 th century. This school of thought came to be known as New Thought ( 4 ), and its main principle was that “our mental states are carried forward into manifestation and become our experience in daily living” ( 5 ). This basically means that our minds are sufficiently powerful to bring about whatever we desire, also presented in the phrase “mind over matter”. In religious terms, this was upheld by the Christian Science, a movement founded by Mary Baker Eddy, whose main thesis is that disease is fundamentally a state of mind that can be mentally reversed.

In the late 20 th century, this approach was additionally upheld by New Age spirituality. New Age actually encompasses a wide variety of beliefs, but one of its recurring themes is the appeal to Hindu idealist traditions. According to these doctrines, the material world is an illusion, and it can be changed with the power of the mind. As we shall see, The Secret , a major promoter of positive thinking, relies on a variant of Hindu idealism adapted to Western cultural markets.

This is in fact a major shortcoming of positive thinking in the West. In non-Western cultures, there are numerous traditions that posit specific ideas about wellness. In the last century, these ideas have been introduced in Western cultures, and they have been applied in very different contexts from where they originally arose. The result has often been a misapplication of these ideas to entirely different cultural settings (such as Ayurvedic medicine in the West), with negligible results.

Schopenhauer’s gloomy approach is certainly not supportive of health. Although Schopenhauer was not apologetic about suicide, his pessimistic views about the human condition and the purpose of life may easily lead to neglect of health, for one may wonder what the point of healthy living is, if life is horrible anyways. Yet, the kind of optimism embraced by Leibniz and the New Thought movement is not without its problems. In fact, although Voltaire’s Candide is not an entirely accurate representation of Leibniz’s philosophy, he did raise a legitimate criticism: sometimes optimism can be as cruel as pessimism. To tell someone that they must cheer up in the face of tragedy because this is the best of possible worlds, or because in every crisis there is an opportunity, is despotic on its own.

Voltaire was not a pessimist. In fact, he seemed to lead a happy life, and he was confident that Enlightenment was guiding humanity through a good path ( 6 ). However, he was aware that optimism can be problematic as well, especially by compelling people to put a smile on their faces when the circumstances do not allow for it.

This middle-ground position ought to be defended as the philosophical approach in healthcare. Patients should be encouraged to cheer up as far as possible, because optimism can be a good strategy in healthcare. Physicians such as Patch Adams should be ethically praised for their efforts to bring joy to patients through comedy. But ethics also require that limits be placed on the positive thinking trend that is becoming increasingly popular in healthcare, since unrestricted optimism feeds magical thinking (as in mind-over-matter thinking), and the fostering of delusions can never be ethical. As it is usually the case with magical thinking, positive thinking encourages an excessive illusion of control (the tendency to overestimate the ability to control events), and this illusion can lead to unethical outcomes ( 7 ).

Furthermore, unrestricted positive thinking has significant downsides in terms of psychological development, cultivation of healthy habits and care of terminally ill patients, as well as detrimental, larger societal effects. In what follows, I shall explore the ethics of positive thinking in healthcare, pointing out what is reasonable and acceptable, and also highlighting how positive thinking in healthcare sometimes becomes unethical. I will work under the hypothesis that, with some exceptions, positive thinking has increasingly become unethical in healthcare, and healthcare professionals need to be aware of this in order to make the necessary corrections.

Positive Thinking and General Health Effects

For many centuries, people have had the intuition that stress has detrimental effects on health. Hans Selye’s studies began to empirically test this hypothesis, and his case was fairly convincing, even though there are some concerns about the motivations of his research (he was financed by tobacco companies, who were interested in placing guilt on stress for many diseases, so as to release tobacco of responsibility for health failings) ( 8 ). This was even more impressively confirmed by Robert Ader in a famous experiment ( 9 ). He fed rats with a combination of saccharin-laced water, and the drug Cytoxan to induce nausea and taste aversion. This combination induced classical conditioning in rats, who came to associate the saccharine-laced water with the drug. Afterwards, the rats were fed only the saccharine-laced water, but they died in great numbers nevertheless. Ader concluded that even without taking the drug, the rats’ immunological system had been suppressed with the mere stress of drinking water that had previously been associated with nausea through classical conditioning.

This experiment laid the basis for what has been called the field of psychoneuroimmunology. This discipline purports to study the interactions between the nervous system and the immune system, and as Ader’s experiment adequately proves, high levels of stress result in a diminished immunological response, and therefore greater exposure to sickness.

It is also true that placebo effects can be powerful, and may be effective in up to 30% of their applications ( 10 ). In that regard, encouraging patients to have constant positive thoughts may actually be helpful in the treatment of many conditions. However, the rate of effectiveness of placebos should actually be reduced by considering the Hawthorne effect, Rogers’s phenomenon, and the Simpson paradox ( 11 ). Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that not all diseases have a psychosomatic aspect, and in some diseases (asthma being the most notorious), placebos can actually be detrimental, for they may take care of the symptoms, but not the disease itself. This can be very dangerous, as the patient does not seek medical care because he/she feels fine, when in fact he/she is not ( 12 ). Moreover, the application of placebos also has ethical shortcomings, as it is a form of deceit, and this goes against the basic principle of informed consent ( 13 ).

On the basis of the findings of psychoneuroimmunology, new theories have emerged. It is reasoned that if intense stress results in sickness, then most (if not all) immunological failings are due to lack of positive thinking. And, of all diseases interpreted through this lens, cancer occupies a central place. Thus, enthusiasts of positive thinking typically claim that cancer may appear as a result of too much stress, and positive thinking is a very efficient way of preventing it and even curing it. For example, in a book called 9 Steps to Reversing or Preventing Cancer and Other Diseases , Shivani Goodman argues that this disease comes as a result of “toxic attitudes” and “emotional pain” ( 14 ). Physician Deepak Chopra argues that cancer can be cured by visualizing being well ( 15 ). Even an oncologist, Carl Simonton, argues that cancer happens as a result of a weakened immunological system ( 16 ), and inasmuch as the immunological system has a strong connection with the nervous system (as research in psychoneuroimmunology suggests), thoughts do play a significant role in this disease.

There are many reasons to doubt all of these claims. It is beyond question that stress affects health negatively, but that does not imply that constant positive attitudes, unrestrained optimism, happy thoughts and reaffirmations are causes of good health. There certainly is a correlation between optimism and health. For example, optimism is related to a lower mortality rate ( 17 ), better standards of health and faster recovery rates in some diseases ( 18 ) and improved immunological response ( 19 ). We should not assume, however, that happiness and optimism cause good health, since the reverse may actually be the case: someone with a good immunological system seldom gets sick, and as a result, has better opportunities to be happy. In fact, some studies point in that direction ( 20 ). We simply do not know sufficiently well the direction in causality, and should not rush to conclusions.

Be that as it may, when it comes to cancer, there are greater doubts that a positive attitude can cure it, or that even the immunological system is involved. If the latter theory were true, common sense would indicate that patients with HIV are at greater risk of developing cancer, since the HIV virus attacks the immunological system; likewise, chemotherapy would strengthen patients’ immunological response. Both of these hypotheses are incorrect, and this points in the direction that the immunological system plays little role in cancer.

Thoughts and mental attitudes are even less relevant in the pathogenesis of cancer. Much has been made of alleged personality types being related to cancer ( 21 ), but this in fact has been debunked by more competent studies ( 22 ). Positive attitudes may be a factor in helping to cope with the burdens of cancer treatments, but they are not a factor in the treatment of cancer itself. These empirical data suggest that although the desirable effects of positive thinking on health may have some basis, this is not fully confirmed by science. In a scientific approach, promoters of positive thinking should follow a more cautious outlook, as the evidence is not entirely supportive of their claims.

Cancer and Positive Thinking

In principle, it makes sense to propose that positive thinking is a much-needed resource in the treatment of cancer. Patients struggle throughout the course of this disease, and in order to keep going, they need to find some meaning in their experience. In fact, finding meaning in the face of adversity is an important predictor of survivability. Victor Frankl’s famous memoir of his days in an extermination camp, Man’s Search for Meaning , makes a strong case that those who find meaning in things (even if they otherwise seem pointless), have greater probability of survival ( 23 ). That is why positive thinking has become such a major aspect of cancer treatment.

However, the way positive thinking is conducted with cancer patients has many ethical shortcomings. Very often, patients’ autonomy is violated. Sadness and stress in the face of adversity is a normal response, yet cancer patients are usually overly pressured not to feel sad. Joy becomes an obligation, and the concept of “mandatory fun” has an uncanny totalitarian aspect: patients are deprived of their emotional autonomy, and are forced to feel in a particular way.

The result is typically that, apart from the burden of dealing with the stress of cancer and the side effects of its treatment, patients now have the additional stress of having to be positive all the time. If they fail to do so (and naturally, most of them do, given the state of their condition), they feel additional sadness, for failing to meet the expectations. Cancer patients are not allowed to have autonomy in their feelings, and they end up being conducted by others about how they should feel.

By having this autonomy removed, cancer patients are treated as underage subjects (precisely those that, in standard conditions, do not have autonomy). Barbara Ehrenreich went through this process as a cancer patient, and in her investigation of the positive thinking culture, she provides many examples of the infantilization of cancer patients ( 24 ). For example, breast cancer patients are offered pink ribbons and teddy bears, as objects to encourage positive attitudes. Other objects frequently distributed to breast cancer patients are boxes of crayons, pink objects, perfumes, body creams, and many other items typically reserved for children. Ehrenreich also makes the observation that this kind of infantilization is typical in breast cancer patients, but not in, say, prostate cancer patients. She therefore sees some patriarchal overtones in the positive thinking movement, arguing that men see female cancer patients as less than adults.

Positive thinking is frequently forced on cancer patients in the form of group therapy. Patients are encouraged to support each other by sharing their experiences and offering encouragement. Of course, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this approach. However, the way these group therapies are framed makes it too invasive for the patient. The peer pressure coming from the group, overly encouraging the patient to keep a positive mind frame, ends up placing excessive stress on the patient, who feels that his/her sense of autonomy is eroded. In fact, there are studies that show that support groups do not increase survival rates amongst cancer patients ( 25 ). Even David Spiegel, who had originally published prominent research advocating support group therapy for the treatment of cancer, later on agreed that those therapeutically efforts offer no significant results, and concluded that cancer survival is not influenced by a patient’s emotional status ( 26 ). In fact, there is hard data suggesting that women who see cancer as something positive (as in the title of one such book, The Gift of Cancer ), end up having worse mental functioning ( 27 ).

Group therapy for cancer patients has other ethical shortcomings. The positive thinking movement has made strides in the business world and in self-help literature. One particular persistent idea in those settings is the ostracization of negative people, as part of a strategy for positive thoughts. Self-help books frequently contain passages such as this one: “That may sound harsh, but the fact is that negative people do suck. They suck the energy out of positive people like you and me. They suck the energy and life out of a good company, a good team, a good relationship…. Avoid them at all costs. If you have to cut ties with people you’ve known for a long time because they’re actually a negative drain on you, then so be it. Trust me, you’re better off without them” ( 28 ). On the basis of this idea, cancer support groups occasionally opt to expel those patients that have metastasis ( 29 ). The rationale is that these patients bring too much negativity to the group, and thus represent a danger to it. It is not hard to see the ethical problems with these procedures. Patients with metastasis are unfairly discriminated against, which goes against the ethical principle of justice. Furthermore, they are abandoned and withdrawn from the group, precisely at the moment when they may need the greatest support.

This excessive emphasis on positive thinking amongst cancer patients often leads to physicians giving false assurances to patients. Again, this is ethically problematic, as false assurances violate the principle of autonomy by depriving the patient of a full opportunity for informed consent ( 30 ).

More deeply unethical are those therapies that urge cancer patients to abandon conventional treatments and opt for alternative methods that rely entirely on positive thinking. The more radical varieties of positive thinking ultimately go back to the mind-over-matter approach of New Thought. One particularly recent trend in this movement is the so-called “law of attraction”, made popular by the best-selling book and film, The Secret. According to this law, thoughts attract realities. Therefore, if someone is diagnosed with cancer, all he/she has to do is to think hard about getting better, and those thoughts have the power to attract health and make cancer go away. With this reasoning, no conventional therapy is needed.

Needless to say, the “law of attraction” is a form of very naïve magical thinking, which borders on being delusional. Parapsychologists have long been interested in studying how the mind may be able to move matter remotely (psychokinesis), but all studies have failed in coming up with evidence for these claims ( 31 ). As often happens with promoters of magical thinking in recent decades, these ideas are usually covered with a superficial veneer of scientific-sounding jargon. Thus, proponents of the “law of attraction” usually claim that quantum physics proves that the mind has the power to actualize thoughts via remote influences on matter. This is in fact a very misguided interpretation of quantum entanglement ( 32 ).

TV broadcaster Oprah Winfrey made sure The Secret would get massive readership. Eventually, many viewers decided to stop conventional treatment for curable cancer altogether based on the tenets of The Secret ( 33 ). Most ethicists agree that alternative and folk medicine is mostly harmless, and therefore medical students are encouraged to respect patients’ cultural worldviews. However, alternative medicine becomes a problem when it substitutes evidence-based treatments. Many alternative medicine treatments rely on positive thinking, and in some cases, patients are encouraged to abandon conventional treatments, so as to fully dedicate to think positive thoughts. Ryke Geerd Hamer’s New Germanic Medicine was a movement that actively recommended patients to abandon science-based treatments in favor of mental cures ( 34 ). Hamer claimed that all diseases are controlled by the brain, and therefore their cure can be wholly mental. His approach to medicine was deeply unethical, and predictably, his medical license was removed, as many of his patients died from curable diseases. It is important, however, to understand that even if Hamer’s approach was extreme, it was still embedded in positive thinking, and his case is an illustration of the unethical variants that unrestrained positive thinking can lead to.

One further ethical problem with excessive emphasis on positive thinking is that it ultimately leads to victim-blaming. Inasmuch as cancer can be cured with positive thoughts, if someone is not cured or “loses the battle”, it must be because that person did not try hard enough to affirm himself/herself, or envision a cure. Thanks to the work of Melvin Lerner, we now know that the “just world” bias is deeply enshrined in the human mind ( 35 ). According to this way of thinking, people usually think that everyone gets what they deserve: virtuous actions are rewarded in life, and bad deeds are punished with misfortunes. Even though this is a very popular way of thinking, let us not forget that it is a bias. Bad things happen to good people, and vice versa. Regrettably, The Secret does not even have a moral dimension: according to this book’s thesis, disease comes, not necessarily to bad people, but to those who have not had positive thoughts. Ultimately, if they do not manage to get better, it is their own fault, for not wanting it and thinking about it hard enough. Extreme positive thinking eventually becomes a form of victim-blaming, and this is deeply unethical. As documented by Chaple et al., this kind of thinking leads to stigma and shame amongst patients, further adding to their unfortunate condition ( 36 ).

Positive Thinking and Mental Health

In all the realms of healthcare, positive thinking has surely been the most enthusiastically upheld by mental healthcare providers. There is in fact a massive industry of books, films, seminars and even branding objects (caps, shirts, key chains, etc.) that repeat ad nauseam the tenets of New Thought and positive thinking, promising better results in terms of psychological well-being. This industry usually bypasses conventional approaches in psychotherapy (psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, humanistic), and aims for the procurement of products that allow people to cope on their own, simply by reading books or listening to tapes. It is thus called the “self-help” industry.

Barbara Ehrenreich acutely observes that since psychopharmacology has made impressive advances in the last two decades, psychologists feel the threat of being left without much to do in the treatment of mental health. Thus, they now have an agenda in pushing positive thinking as the last resource of talking cures, thus strengthening the self-help empire.

We know that despite massive revenues, the self-help industry has been deeply ineffective, as the millennial generation is experiencing higher rates of anxiety and depression compared to the previous generations ( 37 ). In fact, investigative journalist Steve Salerno discovered that the most likely reader of a self-help book is a person who had previously bought a similar book not long before ( 38 ). The self-help industry executives seem to be fully aware that their products are ineffective, but they unethically remarket the same products over and over again, thus making huge profits. Indeed, self-help books are written in repetitive prose. Even during the heyday of one of the best-selling self-help books of all time (Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking ), critics already noted that “…The chapters of his books could easily be transposed from the beginning to the middle, or from the end to the beginning, or from one book to another. The paragraphs could be shuffled and rearranged in any order” ( 39 ). These books are notoriously simplistic, and require little engagement from readers. They thus unethically contribute to the dumbing down of society. In fact, some self-help authors such as Jeffrey Gittomer explicitly recommend readers not to read or watch news, because they are too negative ( 40 ). Needless to say, this kind of willful ignorance of current events is detrimental to the adequate education of society.

Admittedly, some sectors in academia have presented a more respectable form of positive thinking and self-help. The so-called “positive psychology” school, founded by Martin Seligman, purports to focus on the development of the positive aspects of life, and aspires to document the benefits of happiness and optimism in health and life in general ( 41 ).

Nevertheless, even positive psychology is not without its problems. For one, its concepts are too elusive. Happiness is never truly satisfactorily defined by scholars of positive psychology. Although Seligman’s Authentic Happiness Inventory seems to have acceptable levels of validity and reliability ( 42 ), he purports to measure happiness in an equation which is ill-formulated ( 43 ).

Be that as it may, the truth is that positive thinking has its shortcomings in mental health as well. Positive psychology has been additionally criticized for pushing the agenda to pathologize grief. The Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-5 ) opted to remove the grief exclusion in the diagnosis of major depression, and this has met with strong criticism ( 44 ), for it places excessive pressure on patients to not feel sad, even when their loved ones have passed away.

Julie Norem has done extensive research documenting how some people may satisfactorily use pessimism as a defense mechanism. She proved how “individuals may sometimes use low expectations to cope with their anxiety so that it does not become debilitating… low expectations may help individuals negotiate risky situations by showing that interference with the defensive-pessimism strategy impairs performance” ( 45 ). Consequently, in people who use pessimism as an efficient defense mechanism, constant positive thinking may actually backfire, as subjects are left without a good resource to deal with anxiety.

In fact, Wood et al. have done important research showing that subjects who kept on making positive self-statements such as “I am a lovable person” or questioned the truth of that statement felt worse compared to those who did not repeat positive self-statements or did not concentrate on the fact that it was true and false at the same time ( 46 ). The key aspect is self-esteem. Positive thinking may work better in subjects with higher self-esteem, but in those with lower self-esteem, positive thinking is counterproductive, as subjects easily come to realize that they are engaging in self-deceit, and that leads to increased depression. In fact, hyper-optimism carries an additional risk of depression, for the hyper-optimist subject may not be adequately prepared in the event of a failure.

Excessive positive thinking may also lead to overconfidence in doing tasks, and consequently to poor performance. For evolutionary reasons, stress has an important physiological function, i.e., warning of dangers via the sympathetic nervous system and the fight-or-flight reaction. Admittedly, it is true that our current living conditions are different from the African savannah in which most of human evolution took place, but some measure of stress is needed for everyday living. Per the Yerkes-Dodson law, we know that there is an empirical relationship between arousal and performance that becomes manifest as a curve, and while too much anxiety is prejudicial for performance, too little is prejudicial as well ( 47 ). Positive affirmations may induce too much relaxation in a task, which may consequently be poorly done. In this regard, a stronger critique of positive thinking is warranted.

In fact, we know that negative thinking can make people more analytical so that they will engage more in critical thinking. These are skills that are required for good functioning and adequate mental health. In a review study Joseph Forgas reports that “negative affect can improve memory performance, reduce judgmental errors, improve motivation, and result in more effective interpersonal strategies” ( 48 ). One study by Shigehiro Oishi documents that moderately happy people are more successful professionally and economically than extremely happy people ( 49 ).

Likewise, Von Helversen et al. found that depressed subjects are better at decision-making ( 50 ). Daniel Kahneman has also done extensive studies showing that people may easily engage in optimism bias, and this may lead to a planning fallacy (thinking that tasks may require far less time), ultimately harming performance tasks ( 51 ). This may also have implications in physicians’ performances: one particular study showed that this kind of bias can lead to medical errors, thus affecting healthcare as a whole ( 52 ). Of course, this does not imply that depression is a good thing by itself, but it does suggest that positive thinking must have limits, because unrestrained optimism can be very distorting.

Positive thinking has notorious prejudicial aspects in other areas related to healthcare. For example, overly positive people may neglect insurance coverage. People buy insurance thinking of adverse scenarios in advance. According to the “law of attraction”, this would be a sure way of inviting catastrophe, and therefore should be avoided. In countries with socialized medicine this is not necessarily a big problem, but in countries with no socialized medicine (such as the United States), this is a major hassle, for individuals that refused to think about adverse events may end up without adequate healthcare.

One study shows that people who do not buy health insurance prefer to spend money on things like alcohol and tobacco ( 53 ). Surely, in the short term both tobacco and alcohol propitiate happier thoughts and positive thinking than risk assessments. This is related to the fact that positive thinking also tends to suspend delayed gratification. By insisting that one must pursue whatever makes one feel good in order to arouse positive thoughts, excessive positive thinking engages in a kind of destructive hedonism that completely disregards risks. It is thus no surprise that excessively optimistic people eat unhealthier foods ( 54 ) and have unprotected sex more often ( 55 ).

Academic positive psychology aptly warns that money cannot buy happiness and positive psychology scholars often state that lottery winners ultimately revert to their original happiness levels ( 56 )); however, the more popular variants of positive thinking do emphasize the value of conspicuous consumption. The positive thinking movement is closely associated with the motivational drive that prevails in the sales and business world, and accumulation and display of wealth is an important aspect of this association. Self-help classic books such as Wallace Wattles’ The Science of Getting Rich or Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich insist on using positive affirmations as a way of getting rich. Failing to be rich (and to show it, of course) would be an indication of poor mental habits (i.e., not enough positive thinking). This also seems to be the message of the so-called “prosperity theology”, although with a religious twist: being rich is an indication of God’s favor, and therefore people must strive to be rich through positive thinking.

This excessive emphasis on conspicuous consumption and motivation to accumulate wealth can lead to very dysfunctional behaviors that ultimately result in impaired mental health. There is great self-entitlement in self-help literature and the positive thinking movement as a whole. For example, in the film version of The Secret , a woman desires a necklace exhibited in a store; she then concentrates on the thought of getting it and, lo and behold, the film shows her wearing it. We may be left wondering whether she robbed the store, just to accomplish her dreams. Motivational literature typically exhorts to go beyond limits; unfortunately, this may occasionally include going beyond moral limits.

Excessive positive thinking also carries the risk of isolating subjects. For example, the self-help book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind recommends getting rid of negative people ( 57 ). It provides no opportunity whatsoever to improve relationships with negative people. Obviously, this kind of thinking induces divorce and straining of relationships with some people, just because they happen to not be as positive.

Apart from the ethical shortcomings of positive thinking that directly affect patients, there are wider prejudicial effects in healthcare. Given its reliance on magical thinking (i.e., the “law of attraction”), the self-help industry incentivizes alternative medicine, and this has ethical problems of its own ( 58 ). Products that promote self-help and positive thinking are not effective, even though they constantly claim positive results. This kind of deceit is deeply unethical as well.

There are also concerns with positive thinking that go beyond healthcare. Excessive positive thinking may affect society in many ways, and this may ultimately lead to harmful epidemiological affects. For example, Ehrenreich makes a convincing case that the 2008 global financial collapse was deeply influenced by excessive optimism from brokers and bankers. Likewise, Makridakis and Moleskis aptly document how positive illusions facilitate wars, since politicians are too confident of victory and undermine risks ( 59 ), and that itself also leads to problems of public health.

None of this implies that one must assume a Schopenhauerian pessimism, and recommend it to patients in health practice. Happiness is important, and indeed, it can be sought. When it is achieved, happiness can certainly lead to better health. However, ancient philosophers long knew about the so-called “paradox of hedonism”: the more one tries to find pleasure, the less one finds it. Ethicists frequently warn that happiness cannot be sought directly ( 60 ). This is not entirely true, as for instance according to William James’ facial feedback hypothesis, smiling constantly does bring about greater happiness, and Botox injections may even be a treatment for depression ( 61 ). But it is important to note that this is about doing things to be happier, not just having positive thoughts and being irrationally optimistic, in the vain hope that thoughts will magically attract good things.

Be that as it may, the kind of happiness that is sought should also be based on a deeper philosophical insight. John Stuart Mill was certainly no pessimist, and his utilitarian philosophy is wholly about happiness and pleasure. But he was onto something when he argued that it is “better to be Socrates than a fool satisfied” ( 62 ); i.e., happiness is important, but what we should be after is a kind of higher and sublime happiness. Unfortunately, positive thinking induces more conspicuous consumption, as in self-help guru Marianne Williamson’s infamous “seek ye the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Maserati will get here” ( 63 ).

As Barbara Ehrenreich wisely points out, the alternative to positive thinking is not negative thinking, but rather realism. The world can be a nice place, but in those instances when it is not, it is pointless to delude ourselves and believe that just by thinking it is a good place, it will become so. This applies to patients and health practitioners, as adequate treatments come with adequate diagnoses, but positive thinking runs the risk of dispensing with them. To sum up, wishful thinking is a common logical fallacy, and it should be avoided.

Likewise, ethics requires that patients be given the right to be sad. Urging people to be happy in the face of tragedy is a very oppressive act. Voltaire’s contempt for Leibniz’s optimism was precisely a protest against the insensitivity of people who believed they had found meaning and joy in things such as the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. Voltaire demanded more empathy from people, so they could understand what sufferers go through. Medical ethics require the same from health practitioners.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge Ajman University for providing the bibliographic resources in order to carry out this research.

Conflict of Interests

The author declares that there is no conflict of interests.

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Improving student mental wellbeing and tackling the stigma attached to mental illness.

Improving mental health and wellbeing support for Scotland – Think Positive Research

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Research by BSV Associates for the National Union of Students Scotland.

Think Positive, funded by the Scottish Government, commissioned research to evaluate the effectiveness of student mental health support in Scotland and to support the FE and HE sectors to further develop appropriate practice in the delivery of mental health and wellbeing services to students.

It is believed to be the first of its kind in Scotland, covering both further and higher education students.

The key objectives of the research were:

• To identify the main causes and triggers of poor mental health and wellbeing amongst Scottish college and university students;
• To establish a clear picture of what services are on offer to students at their institutions, student experience and demand for these services;
• To identify best practice across colleges and universities.

The research included a survey of over 3,000 college and university students, alongside in-depth analysis of the mental health and wellbeing services of eight case-study institutions.

Some of the key findings of the research include:

• Almost half of students surveyed (49.9%) cited lack of money or financial pressures as negatively impacting on their mental health.
• Students are most likely to have concerns about mental health at the start of their studies with 72% citing their first year of study as a time when they had concerns about their mental health and wellbeing.
• Students cited a range of factors associated with study as impacting negatively on their mental health: almost half (48.7%) cited coping with course workload.
• Of those students surveyed who used a support service, institutional or external (e.g. NHS or third sector), more than half of respondents (59.6%) had to wait to access the support they needed. For those students who had to wait just over half (53.8%) waited more than a month, and 20.8% waited more than three months.
• Institutions that took part in the research reported the practice of ‘backfilling’ NHS services because of under-capacity in the health service.
• Around four times as many higher education (78.4%-81%) than further education students (19%-21.6%) were aware of mental health and wellbeing support available to them.

The research poses a series of recommendations for institutions, students’ associations and other sector bodies to help improve student mental health and wellbeing support in Scotland’s colleges and universities. Key recommendations address the factors negatively impacting student mental health and wellbeing, including making further improvements to student cost-of-living support, and embedding mental health and wellbeing in learning and teaching practice. The recommendations also look to improve the student experience of accessing mental health support by suggesting consideration is taken to improve waiting times for NHS services, ensuring equity of access to counselling services, and embedding mental health and wellbeing in learning and teaching practice.

The full findings and recommendations can be found in the research report or executive summary.

Improving mental health and wellbeing support for Scotland

NUS Mental Health Research Executive Summary

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5 Networking Tips for Introverts (and Anyone Else)

• Samantha Dewalt

A new study reveals the make-or-break factors for developing networking skills.

Even if you’re an introvert who dreads the notion of networking, you can develop your skills to get out there and do it. Research by the Lehigh@NasdaqCenter, a partnership between Lehigh University and the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, identified make-or-break factors for developing networking skills. They include: the ability to adapt your thinking swiftly in response to changing situations; combating a tendency to focus more on avoiding errors and negative results and instead striving for positive outcomes; consciously trying to have faith in your networking prowess; being persistent; and focusing more on the future.

Professionals who are extroverts are better equipped than introverts to form social connections, right? After all, they’re outgoing and more comfortable talking with strangers.

• Willy Das is a research scientist at the Lehigh@NasdaqCenter , an exclusive education-industry partnership between Lehigh University and the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center.
• Samantha Dewalt is managing director of the Lehigh@NasdaqCenter , an exclusive education-industry partnership between Lehigh University and the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center.

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9 facts about americans and marijuana.

The use and possession of marijuana is illegal under U.S. federal law, but about three-quarters of states have legalized the drug for medical or recreational purposes. The changing legal landscape has coincided with a decades-long rise in public support for legalization, which a majority of Americans now favor.

Here are nine facts about Americans’ views of and experiences with marijuana, based on Pew Research Center surveys and other sources.

As more states legalize marijuana, Pew Research Center looked at Americans’ opinions on legalization and how these views have changed over time.

Data comes from surveys by the Center,  Gallup , and the  2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health  from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Information about the jurisdictions where marijuana is legal at the state level comes from the  National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws .

More information about the Center surveys cited in the analysis, including the questions asked and their methodologies, can be found at the links in the text.

Around nine-in-ten Americans say marijuana should be legal for medical or recreational use,  according to a January 2024 Pew Research Center survey . An overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (88%) say either that marijuana should be legal for medical use only (32%) or that it should be legal for medical  and  recreational use (57%). Just 11% say the drug should not be legal in any form. These views have held relatively steady over the past five years.

Views on marijuana legalization differ widely by age, political party, and race and ethnicity, the January survey shows.

While small shares across demographic groups say marijuana should not be legal at all, those least likely to favor it for both medical and recreational use include:

• Older adults: 31% of adults ages 75 and older support marijuana legalization for medical and recreational purposes, compared with half of those ages 65 to 74, the next youngest age category. By contrast, 71% of adults under 30 support legalization for both uses.
• Republicans and GOP-leaning independents: 42% of Republicans favor legalizing marijuana for both uses, compared with 72% of Democrats and Democratic leaners. Ideological differences exist as well: Within both parties, those who are more conservative are less likely to support legalization.
• Hispanic and Asian Americans: 45% in each group support legalizing the drug for medical and recreational use. Larger shares of Black (65%) and White (59%) adults hold this view.

Support for marijuana legalization has increased dramatically over the last two decades. In addition to asking specifically about medical and recreational use of the drug, both the Center and Gallup have asked Americans about legalizing marijuana use in a general way. Gallup asked this question most recently, in 2023. That year, 70% of adults expressed support for legalization, more than double the share who said they favored it in 2000.

Half of U.S. adults (50.3%) say they have ever used marijuana, according to the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health . That is a smaller share than the 84.1% who say they have ever consumed alcohol and the 64.8% who have ever used tobacco products or vaped nicotine.

While many Americans say they have used marijuana in their lifetime, far fewer are current users, according to the same survey. In 2022, 23.0% of adults said they had used the drug in the past year, while 15.9% said they had used it in the past month.

While many Americans say legalizing recreational marijuana has economic and criminal justice benefits, views on these and other impacts vary, the Center’s January survey shows.

• Economic benefits: About half of adults (52%) say that legalizing recreational marijuana is good for local economies, while 17% say it is bad. Another 29% say it has no impact.

• Criminal justice system fairness: 42% of Americans say legalizing marijuana for recreational use makes the criminal justice system fairer, compared with 18% who say it makes the system less fair. About four-in-ten (38%) say it has no impact.
• Use of other drugs: 27% say this policy decreases the use of other drugs like heroin, fentanyl and cocaine, and 29% say it increases it. But the largest share (42%) say it has no effect on other drug use.
• Community safety: 21% say recreational legalization makes communities safer and 34% say it makes them less safe. Another 44% say it doesn’t impact safety.

Democrats and adults under 50 are more likely than Republicans and those in older age groups to say legalizing marijuana has positive impacts in each of these areas.

Most Americans support easing penalties for people with marijuana convictions, an October 2021 Center survey found . Two-thirds of adults say they favor releasing people from prison who are being held for marijuana-related offenses only, including 41% who strongly favor this. And 61% support removing or expunging marijuana-related offenses from people’s criminal records.

Younger adults, Democrats and Black Americans are especially likely to support these changes. For instance, 74% of Black adults  favor releasing people from prison  who are being held only for marijuana-related offenses, and just as many favor removing or expunging marijuana-related offenses from criminal records.

Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have legalized small amounts of marijuana for both medical and recreational use as of March 2024,  according to the  National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws  (NORML), an advocacy group that tracks state-level legislation on the issue. Another 14 states have legalized the drug for medical use only.

Of the remaining 12 states, all allow limited access to products such as CBD oil that contain little to no THC – the main psychoactive substance in cannabis. And 26 states overall have at least partially  decriminalized recreational marijuana use , as has the District of Columbia.

In addition to 24 states and D.C.,  the U.S. Virgin Islands ,  Guam  and  the Northern Mariana Islands  have legalized marijuana for medical and recreational use.

More than half of Americans (54%) live in a state where both recreational and medical marijuana are legal, and 74% live in a state where it’s legal either for both purposes or medical use only, according to a February Center analysis of data from the Census Bureau and other outside sources. This analysis looked at state-level legislation in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to pass legislation legalizing recreational marijuana.

About eight-in-ten Americans (79%) live in a county with at least one cannabis dispensary, according to the February analysis. There are nearly 15,000 marijuana dispensaries nationwide, and 76% are in states (including D.C.) where recreational use is legal. Another 23% are in medical marijuana-only states, and 1% are in states that have made legal allowances for low-percentage THC or CBD-only products.

The states with the largest number of dispensaries include California, Oklahoma, Florida, Colorado and Michigan.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published April 26, 2021, and updated April 13, 2023.  

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Americans overwhelmingly say marijuana should be legal for medical or recreational use

Religious americans are less likely to endorse legal marijuana for recreational use, four-in-ten u.s. drug arrests in 2018 were for marijuana offenses – mostly possession, two-thirds of americans support marijuana legalization, most popular.

About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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Four Years Out, Some Voters Look Back at Trump’s Presidency More Positively

A new poll by The New York Times and Siena College finds that voters think highly of the former president’s record on the economy, but memories of his divisiveness largely remain intact.

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By Lisa Lerer and Ruth Igielnik

Views of Donald J. Trump’s presidency have become more positive since he left office, bolstering his case for election and posing a risk to President Biden’s strategy of casting his opponent as unfit for the presidency, according to a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College .

While the memories of Mr. Trump’s tumultuous and chaotic administration have not significantly faded, many voters now have a rosier picture of his handling of the economy, immigration and maintaining law and order. Ahead of the 2020 election, only 39 percent of voters said that the country was better off after Mr. Trump took office. Now, looking back, nearly half say that he improved things during his time as president.

The poll’s findings underscore the way in which a segment of voters have changed their minds about the Trump era, recalling those years as a time of economic prosperity and strong national security. The shift in views about his administration comes even as Mr. Trump faces dozens of felony counts and will appear in a New York courtroom on Monday for jury selection in one of his four criminal trials.

How respondents’ views of

Trump have changed

From 2020 to now

Approve of his handling

of the economy

Think he left the

country better off

Approve of his handling of

maintaining law & order

of unifying America

of the Supreme Court

From 2016 to now

Think electing him is

a “safe” choice

Think he respects women

How respondents’ views of Trump have changed

Approve of his handling of the economy

Think he left the country better off

Approve of his handling of maintaining

law & order

Approve of his handling of unifying America

Approve of his handling of Covid

the Supreme Court

Think electing him is a “safe” choice

Many voters still remember Mr. Trump as a divisive and polarizing figure, giving him low ratings on race relations and unifying the country. Yet, a larger share of voters see Mr. Trump’s term as better for the country than the current administration, with 42 percent rating the Trump presidency as mostly good for the country compared with 25 percent who say the same about Mr. Biden’s. Nearly half say the Biden years have been mostly bad for the country.

Many of Mr. Trump’s key constituencies, such as white voters without a college degree, are particularly likely to have a fond view of his time in office. But a broad swath of the country — including Hispanic voters, voters over 30 and most lower- and middle-income voters — now see Mr. Trump’s years in office as more good than bad.

Maya Garcia, 23, described herself as a former “Trump hater.” But now, she says, she has come to believe that Mr. Trump’s contentious style helped control crime and maintain order in the country.

“When he was first running, I was, like, what is this guy even yapping about? Like, what is he even saying? Like, he’s saying all the wrong things,” said Ms. Garcia, a restaurant worker from Canoga Park, Calif. “But to be honest, if you look deep into his personality, he actually cares about the country.” She added: “You know at first I didn’t like it. But sometimes we need that type of person in our lives.”

Do you generally remember the years that

(this candidate) was president as mostly

good years for America, mostly bad years

for America, or not really good or bad?

Mostly good

for America

good or bad

Don’t know/

declined to say 1%

Do you generally remember the years that (this candidate)

was president as mostly good years for America, mostly

bad years for America, or not really good or bad?

declined to say1%

Ms. Garcia voted for Mr. Biden four years ago but has been unhappy with his handling of the border, crime, mental health and the rising cost of living. She plans to back Mr. Trump in November.

The shift in the perception of Mr. Trump is not unusual: Presidents are typically viewed in a better light after leaving office. President George W. Bush’s average approval rating while in office was 49 percent; voters now give him a 57 percent approval rating for his time in the White House. And President Barack Obama received a 15 percentage point bump after leaving the White House, according to Gallup .

What’s unusual about the 2024 race is that Mr. Trump is running again, transforming sentiment about his presidency into a salient and potentially influential voting issue.

Some of the changed opinions about Mr. Trump may stem from his diminished visibility. Since leaving office, Mr. Trump has faded some from public view, spending the bulk of his time at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla., and at court hearings. He dominated the Republican presidential primary without participating in any debates; his social media posts on his own platform get less attention than they did on Twitter; and while he still holds large rallies, they are not covered to the same extent as his previous campaigns.

The most improved views of Mr. Trump center on the economy, with several voters saying they have struggled to keep up with higher costs and increased inflation during Mr. Biden’s presidency.

Marecus Maupin, 41, said he now looked back at the Trump years as a time of economic prosperity, even though he is making more money with Mr. Biden as president. He voted for Mr. Biden and now plans to back Mr. Trump.

“We all had a little bit more money in our pockets when he was in office. I think he gave out more money than any other president that I have had in my lifetime,” he said of Mr. Trump. “It now feels like, although I’m making more, I’m not seeing it.”

When asked the one thing they remembered from Mr. Trump’s time in office, a vast majority of positive comments referred to the state of the economy. Many specifically remembered the stimulus checks with his signature printed on them that were sent to tens of millions of Americans during the waning days of his presidency.

Still, large segments of the electorate’s recollection of Mr. Trump’s presidency remain unchanged. Views of his handling of the Supreme Court are nearly identical to 2020, and Mr. Trump’s low approval ratings for unifying the country remain fairly similar. The bulk of negative comments about Mr. Trump’s time in office from participants mentioned the former president’s personality and behavior.

“He’s horrific. He’s a narcissist. He’s dishonest. He’s a misogynist,” said Dodee Firestone, 74, a Biden supporter from Boca Raton, Fla. “I could never, ever, ever vote for Trump.”

But other voters said that while they disapproved of Mr. Trump’s inflammatory style, they wondered whether they had placed too much emphasis on his personality in past elections.

While 70 percent of participants said that Mr. Trump had at one point said something they found offensive, those statements were a distant memory for many. Nearly half of that group said he had not said anything offensive recently. Young voters were especially likely to say it had been a while since Mr. Trump said something they found offensive.

President Biden has devoted a significant portion of his campaign to reminding voters of some of Mr. Trump’s most inflammatory statements and failed policies, particularly regarding his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and controversial comments about Black and Hispanic voters.

And while the issue of abortion rights has been front and center in the general election campaign, less than 2 percent of voters mentioned abortion or Mr. Trump’s role in the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade as the main thing they remember from his presidency.

Some of the visceral fear about Mr. Trump’s presidency also seems to have faded. In October 2016, 40 percent of voters said they were scared of what Mr. Trump might do if elected. Now, 31 percent say they are scared.

Nearly identical shares of voters also say both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden would be a risky choice for the country.

Angie Leon, a 23-year-old Mexican American, said she never liked how Mr. Trump talked about Latinos. But looking back, she wonders whether Mr. Trump’s incendiary remarks about immigrants and building a border wall were just a political tactic to bolster his campaign. After backing Mr. Biden in 2020, she plans to switch her vote to Mr. Trump in November.

“I felt like it was just his marketing, in the way that he would get the attention of people,” said Ms. Leon, a human resources recruiter from Gilroy, Calif. “The country was better when he was running it, despite his comments toward the community.”

Camille Baker contributed reporting.

Here are the key things to know about how this Times/Siena poll was conducted:

We spoke with 1,059 registered voters from April 7 to 11, 2024.

Our polls are conducted by telephone, using live interviewers, in both English and Spanish. More than 95 percent of respondents were contacted on a cellphone for this poll.

Voters are selected for the survey from a list of registered voters. The list contains information on the demographic chara cteristics of every registered voter, allowing us to make sure we reach the right number of voters of each party, race and region. For this poll, we placed nearly 127,000 calls to more than 93,000 voters.

To further ensure that the results reflect the entire voting population, not just those willing to take a poll, we give more weight to respondents from demographic groups underrepresented among survey respondents, like people without a college degree. You can see more information about the characteristics of our respondents and the weighted sample on the methodology page , under “Composition of the Sample.”

The poll’s margin of sampling error among registered voters is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. In theory, this means that the results should reflect the views of the overall population most of the time, though many other challenges create additional sources of error. When computing the difference between two values — such as a candidate’s lead in a race — the margin of error is twice as large.

You can see full results and a detailed methodology here . If you want to read more about how and why we conduct our polls, you can see answers to frequently asked questions and submit your own questions here .

Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades. More about Lisa Lerer

Ruth Igielnik is a polling editor for The Times, where she writes and analyzes surveys. She was previously a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. More about Ruth Igielnik