87. Yes, I Suck: Self-Help Through Negative Thinking
By John Cloud TIME Wednesday, Jul. 08, 2009

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In the past 50 years, people with mental problems have spent untold millions of hours in therapists' offices, and millions more reading self-help books, trying to turn negative thoughts like "I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed." For many people including well-educated, highly trained therapists, for whom "cognitive restructuring" is a central goal the very definition of psychotherapy is the process of changing self-defeating attitudes into constructive ones.
But was Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking? A study just published in the journal Psychological Science says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.
The study's authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin with a common-sense proposition: when people hear something they don't believe, they are not only often skeptical but adhere even more strongly to their original position. A great deal of psychological research has shown this, but you need look no further than any late-night bar debate you've had with friends: when someone asserts that Sarah Palin is brilliant, or that the Yankees are the best team in baseball, or that Michael Jackson was not a freak, others not only argue the opposing position, but do so with more conviction than they actually hold. We are an argumentative species.

A. 어휘
untold 막대한, 말하지 않은, 밝혀지지 않은. therapist 임상의사, 치료사.
cognitive restructuring 認知(인지)개조작업. definition定義(정의).
psychotherapy 정신 요법. Norman Vincent Peale “적극적 사고방식의 힘”(The Power of Positive Thinking)의 著者(저자). the opposite effect 반대효과.
highlight ...을 두드러지게 하다, 강조하다. author 著者(저자).
proposition 命題(명제). skeptical 懷疑的(회의적)인, 의심 많은.
adhere 밀착하다, 固守(고수)하다. debate 토의, 토론. assert 주장하다.
Sarah Palin 2008년 미국대통령선거 부통령후보. freak 변종, 괴물.
conviction 신념, 확신. argumentative 논쟁적인, 토론하기를 좋아하는.
species 種(종).

B. 구문
- you need look no further . . . you've had with friends:
[늦은 밤 술집에서 친구들과 벌린 토론보다 더 멀리 생각할 필요도 없다]

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And so we constantly argue with ourselves. Many of us are reluctant to revise our self-judgment, especially for the better. In 1994, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published a paper showing that when people get feedback that they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you try to tell your dim friend that he has the potential of an Einstein, he won't think he's any smarter he will probably just disbelieve your contradictory theory, hew more closely to his own self-assessment and, in the end, feel even dumber. In one fascinating 1990s experiment demonstrating this effect called cognitive dissonance in official terms a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write hard-hearted essays opposing funding for the disabled. When these participants were later told they were compassionate, they felt even worse about what they had written.
For the new paper, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students on their self-esteem. The students were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds during those four minutes, one randomly assigned group of the students heard a bell. When they heard it, they were supposed to tell themselves, "I am a lovable person."

A. 어휘
constantly 불변하게, 항상. argue 토론하다, 논쟁하다.
reluctant 싫어하는, 내키지 않는. revise 修正(수정)하다. self-judgment 자체판단.
journal 정기간행물, 잡지, 일기, 신문. personality 인성, 개성, 인물.
feedback 피드백, 送還(송환). overly 과도하게, 지나치게. positive 긍정적인.
dim 이해력이 둔한. potential 가능성, 잠재력. smart 똑똑하다.
contradictory theory 모순적인 이론. hew...to 고집하다, 따르다.
self-assessment 자체평가. feel even dumber 훨씬 더 둔하다고 느끼다.
fascinating 매혹적인, 황홀케 하는. demonstrate 증명하다, 論證(논증)하다, 설명하다.
cognitive 인식의, 知覺(지각)의. dissonance 부조화. official terms 공식적인 용어.
participants 실험참여자들, 실험대상자들. hard-hearted 非情(비정)한, 몰인정한.
funding for the disabled 장애인들에게 자금을 지원하는 것.
compassionate 인정 깊은, 동정적인, 측은히 여기는. measure 측정하다.
self-esteem 자존, 자부심. randomly 無作爲(무작위)로. assign 배정하다, 할당하다.
randomly assigned group 無作爲選定群(무작위선정군).

B. 구문
- when people get feedback . . . they actually feel worse, not better.
[사람들은 자신에 대해서 지나치게 긍정적으로 평가하고 있다고 믿게되는 피드백을 가지게 되면 그들은 실제로 자신에 대해서 더 나쁘게(부정적으로) 생각하게 된다.]