Thesis Draft

Jessica Kosco
4-20-16
90- I would assess my paper as a 90. I feel that I have used several sources and included quotes
from each. I included my experiences and why I connect with this topic. I also tried to relate to
college students and the So What of the paper. I couldve included more I Say and more
explanation of some of the complex theories in my paper.
When I first starting writing this inquiry paper, I didnt know where to start. I knew that I
needed to research several journals, books, or websites to get a variety of voices for my thesis. I
had to specify where I wanted to go with my question and outline the topics within my question. I
had trouble getting through some of my sources due to the elaboration of the ideas within them. I
chose some of these sources that were more difficult, along others that were easy to understand.
Once I found several sources and took notes on each, I began thinking about how my personal
experiences connect to my topic, and tried to include them in my writing. Once I organized my
thoughts and how I wanted to present the information, I had to keep in mind what key terms I
needed to include. I did some free writing on what key terms I wanted to include and made sure
to cover those words throughout my writing.
The Right State of Mind
I am seldom considered, though I do more to influence everything about you than
virtually any one thing in your life. I often control the time you get up in the morning, the time
you go to sleep, what you eat and drink and the very thought that runs through your head. I can

make you either happy or sad, loving or hateful, cheerful or remorseful, congenial or spiteful and
in doing so, control the very capacity that you have for success.
No, you dont often think of me instead you blame the problem I create on the
shortcoming of others, or the state of the economy, or your family or a million other reasons.
Often at times unable to find anyone else to blame you look for shortcomings within yourself on
which to lay the blame.
When my impact on your life fully is considered in your every thought and action, when
you are mindful of my awesome power, when you nurture and groom me for positive use in your
life, I can become more contagious than the most prolific disease ever witnessed by man. My
influence will spread to every person you come in contact with.
Groomed and nurtured in a positive manner there will be no person or obstacle that can
stand in the way of my success or fail to be impacted for the better.
'I am your attitude'.
Thoughts and attitude have a major role in how someone acts and how they interpret their
experiences. From the story above, a persons thoughts have many effects. Thoughts can
determine how your day is going to go, what you are going to eat, how you are going to treat
others around you, and can affect a persons mood. Thoughts and attitudes are closely related to a
persons state of mind. Blaming can come from not getting the particular outcome that a person
wants. Instead of changing their state of mind or attitude, the person simply blames others.
Ive always wondered how someones state of mind can affect their mood or experience.
A common saying that Ive heard is that bad things happen to good people. When Bad Things
Happen to Good People, a nonfiction book written by a rabbi named Harold S. Kushner who

writes about how bad things happen to good people and how blame can play a role in this.
Kushner explains how blame can play a role in someones state of mind One of the worst things
that happens to a person who has been hurt by life is that he tends to compound the damage by
hurting himself a second time. Not only is he the victim of rejection, bereavement, injury, or bad
luck; he often feels the need to see himself as a bad person who had this coming to him, and
because of that drives away people who try to come close to him and help him. In other words,
Kushner states that people blame themselves or others about what has occurred to them.
Ive come to learn that not all positive thoughts will result in positive experiences. For
example, when I have positive thoughts about passing a test or making a certain grade that
doesnt always happen. I cant depend solely on positive thoughts in order to produce the
outcome that I want. Work effort and perseverance have a role in producing these outcomes. For
many people, they result to blaming if they dont receive the particular outcome that they want.
They will blame others for the circumstance or look for any reason to lay the blame on someone
other than themselves and their attitude.
A persons state of mind can have a large effect on their thoughts, emotions, experiences,
and feelings. State of mind is how someone views a particular idea, event, or experience. State of
mind is the structural information-processing model of positive and negative functions impacting
cognitions. The state of mind model, according to Wong, is investigated for depression, anxiety,
anger, life satisfaction and happiness. This model shows that positive automatic thoughts were
positively correlated with life satisfaction, while negative automatic thoughts were correlated
with anxiety, depression, and anger. The state of mind model was proposed by Schwartz &
Garamoni in 1986.

There are five distinct states of mind, according to Shyh Sin Wong in The Journal of
Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, in which three are dialogic and two are monologic.
The three dialogic are positive dialogue, internal dialogue of conflict, and negative dialogue.
Positive dialogue includes positive feedback or conversation that is without insult or
criticism. Shyh Sin Wong, a psychologist with the Singapore Register of Psychologists and a
certified clinical supervisor, states that The positive dialogue is considered optimal for coping
with stress and provides adaptability for individuals in which internal dialogue not only contains
positive thoughts, but also contains sufficient negative thoughts to be realistically cautious. In
other words, positive dialogue is optimal for coping with stress and allows for individuals to
have both positive thoughts and negative thoughts to be realistic.
Wong states that, The internal dialogue of conflict is defined by the ratio of positive
thoughts to total thoughts and is symmetrically balanced. In other words, the internal dialogue
of conflict consists of positive thoughts more than negative thoughts. Internal dialogue of
conflict includes self criticism or negative self talk. Negative dialogue includes criticizing,
degrading, insulting, or disrespecting.
The two monologic are positive monologue and negative monologue. An example of
positive monologue includes self talk either positive or negative. Telling yourself that you are
going to have a good day is an example of positive monologue. Telling yourself that you are
going to have an awful and long day is an example of negative monologue. Positive monologue
is more optimal than positive dialogue, meaning that monologue is more efficient than dialogue.
Telling oneself to have a better attitude is more effective than another person telling you to have
a better attitude. The negative monologue was associated with the highest mean of depression

and anxiety scores. This means that by negative self talk and criticism, depression and other
anxiety issues can be a result of this.
It is thought that positive thoughts will result in positive outcomes or experiences.
Likewise, that negative thoughts will result in negative outcomes or experiences. However this is
not always accurate. Based on my personal experiences, positive thoughts dont always result in
positive experiences.
Positivity is a general determinant of well-being. The label of positivity has been used to
cluster positive emotions of people's day to day lives and to construct behavior and evaluative
tendencies including sense of mastery, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and coping. The stability of
positivity effects a persons life across diverse domains of functioning, like health, work
performance, psychological well being, and social adjustment (Caprara). Positivity is believed to
be based on the functioning from thoughts of self and to the external stimuli regarding the self.
The frequency of positive affect such as feelings and emotions that reflect a pleasurable
engagement with the environment has been viewed as a key indicator of well-being. Joy,
happiness, bliss, delight, comfort and satisfaction are examples of positivity. Optimism and life
satisfaction have been recently traced to a common disposition known as positivity.
Positive automatic thoughts refer to immediate thought that is enlightening. Positive
automatic thought has been associated with many positive healthy outcomes through the effects
on social relationships, cognition, coping, and resiliency. Positive automatic thought is primary
in promoting the sense of personal satisfaction and achievement that one can call happiness.
Happiness is a state of mind and is currently defined by The Journal of Social
Psychology, as a predominance of positive over negative affect and as satisfaction with life as a

whole. Happiness is commonly seen as a trait or an emotional state. Happiness highlights states
of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own potential and is able to engage in
rewarding relationships with others, value life and experience, turn challenges into opportunities
for growth, work productively, and actively promote his or her own health (Caprara). Happiness
can vary due to cultural views and ideas. For instance, Luo Lu a psychologist at National Taiwan
University in Taipei studied the cultural values of happiness on the Chinese culture: Chinese
peoples conception of happiness roughly includes material abundance, physical health, a
virtuous and peaceful life, and relief of anxiety about death. In other words, happiness has a
variety of effects and looks different on others in other cultures. Culture generally refers to social
norms, roles, values and life practices that are shared by a social group and are transmitted across
age generations. Ideals, values, and philosophical traditions influence the conceptions of a life
well-lived and of happiness in other cultures (Brdar).
Behavior is another key component in how thoughts and attitudes affect a persons state
of mind. Three major sources of influence on behavior include basic human nature, culture, and
personality. Human nature is defined by ways of thinking, feeling and acting. Humans tend to do
these three things naturally and are usually defined by culture. As states above, culture has a
large impact on how well being and happiness can affect ones life. Also that happiness and well
-being looks differently in different cultures. Personality also has an impact on how behavior
affects well-being. Someones thoughts and feelings can be portrayed in their personality, and
most of the time is.
Well-being can be described through behaviors and activities that contribute to shape the
good life in accordance with shared values, moral principles, and universal features of the
human nature(Fave). Well-being is based on six quality of life categories including life

evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors and basic
access. Life evaluation includes if someone is thriving, struggling or suffering. Emotional health
includes happiness, worry, being treated with respect, and stress. Work environment includes job
satisfaction or supervisors treatment. Physical health includes obesity, feeling well rested, or
sickness. Healthy behaviors include eating healthy food, not smoking, and exercising frequently.
Basic access includes access to clean water, medicine, enough money for food, shelter, or
healthcare.
Negativity refers to terms such as lack of affection, understanding, and empathy.
Negativity in relationships have been associated with physical and mental health indicators
including depression. Negative exchanges such as arguing, criticizing, being let down, or the
feeling that the other person makes undue demands, causes tension, or gets on ones nerves. The
accumulation of negative exchanges over time could predict a negative outlook, less successful
problem solving, and stress coping. This increases the chances of anxiety problems and
depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms can greatly affect a persons life and can include
difficulty concentrating, fatigue, feelings of guilt, feelings of helplessness, insomnia, or loss of
interest in activities. These symptoms can lead to deeper depression disorders such as bipolar
disorder, chronic depression, or major depressive disorder (Depression Symptoms).
Major depressive disorder is one of the most common mental disorders and is diagnosed
when a persistent and unreactive depressive mood, and the absence of positive affect are
accompanies by a range of symptoms. Major depressive disorder is characterized by enhances
negative information processing. Meaning that mainly negative thoughts and views are being
displayed from that person. Depressive patients have frequent negative automatic thoughts about
themselves, their future, and the world (Koseki).

Negative automatic thoughts are immediate thoughts of a dismissive nature. Negative

automatic thoughts have been found to be associated with depression, anxiety, or anger. Negative
automatic thoughts have been negatively associated with wellbeing such as happiness. There are
ten different forms of negative automatic thoughts that include overgeneralization or coming to a
general conclusion based on a single event, filtering or concentrating on the negatives while
ignoring the positives, all or nothing thinking or thinking in black and white terms, personalising
or taking responsibility for something thats not your fault, catastrophizing or overestimating the
chances of disaster, emotional reasoning or mistaking feelings for facts, mind reading or making
assumptions, fortune telling error or anticipating an outcome and assuming your prediction as a
fact, should statements or setting unrealistic expectations of yourself and others by using
should, and magnification or the tendency to exaggerate the importance of negative
information or experiences while reducing the significance of positive information or
experiences.
State of mind plays a role in everyday life for every person. Thoughts and
attitudes can determine how your day is going to go, what you decide throughout the day, and if
you are going to stay positive or become negative. Students especially benefit from a positive
state of mind because it affects their schoolwork and how focused they are. If a student doesnt
particularly care about a specific assignment or subject, then they will likely have trouble
remaining focused or staying motivated.

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