Passage 1
Passage 2
In Defense of
"Defensive Pessimism"
How many times have you been having a
less-than-awesome day when some wise guy
comes along and tells you to look on the
bright side? Or suggests that the glass is half
full? We live in a culture that celebrates the
power of positive thinking, but it's high time we
acknowledge that a little realism is sometimes
just what the doctor ordered.
New research supports the notion that
reframing disappointing situations as positive
can actually have the opposite effect. The
psychologist Denise Marigold, for example,
recently conducted a study in which
participants whose negative experiences
1 2 3 4
Drag each sentence to the correct box to
compare and contrast how the authors of
Passage 1 and Passage 2 use reasoning to
argue for their points of view.
Passage 1
Passage 2
Both
::argues that thinking habits are innate
argues for using a carefully-chosen outlook to deal
with setbacks
::argues for reframing one's perceptions
::argues for acknowledging difficulties honestly