The Undefeated Mind
description
Transcript of The Undefeated Mind
THE UNDEFEATED MINDHow Resilience Can Be Learned
Alex Lickerman, M.D.
About Me
• Primary Care Group• Student Health
Expect Obstacles• Our expectations influence our reactions to
experiences• Our expectations about task difficulty
influence our performance
Self-Explanatory Style• Self-explanatory style refers to the style with
which we explain the causes of events• Optimistic• Pessimistic
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Negative life events
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Hirsch et al., 2009
Self-Explanatory Style and Depression
Self-Explanatory Style, cont.• Naïve vs. realistic optimism• Depressive vs. defensive pessimism
Changing Our Self-Explanatory Style
• Practice imagining alternative causes of events
• Avoid blanketing optimistic explanatory biases over all situations
Fresco et al., 2009
Accept Pain• Distraction with something that arouses
emotion• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
(ACT)
Accept Pain, cont.• Identify a situation that causes painful
emotion(s) to arise (e.g., social anxiety)• Identify goals that painful emotion obstructs• Practice non-judgment/acceptance
Let Go• Sense-making• Benefit-finding
SCL-90R Well-being Anxiety Sadness Anger0
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T1 Not Searching, Not Found Meaning
T1 Searching but Not Found Meaning
T1 Searched and Found Some Mean-ing
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Adjustment Measure
Davis et al, 2000
Let Go, cont.• Avoid attempts to “undo” past events
Find Me• [email protected]• www.alexlickerman.com