Anticipatory and post hoc cushioning strategies: Optimism and defensive pessimism in ?risky? situations

Norem, Julie K.; Cantor, Nancy

doi:10.1007/bf01173471

Cited by 330 publications

(296 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Nevertheless, we distinguished between short-term and long-term adaptiveness. Giving up control willingly (Rothbaum, Weisz, & Snyder, 1982) or expressing pessimism regarding one's performance (Norem & Cantor, 1986) appear to be maladaptive in the short term, but may be adaptive in the long run. Likewise, an individual's goal to demonstrate scholarly prowess at a cocktail party may be achieved by an ostentatious display of knowledge, but such a behavior deprives the individual's colleagues of the opportunity to display their own scholarly talent and may alienate them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On when self-enhancement and self-criticism function adaptively and maladaptively.

Sedikides¹,

Luke²

2008

Self-Criticism and Self-Enhancement: Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications.

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It would be an understatement of sorts to point out that modern life places excessive demands on the individual. The busyness of the workplace, the necessity or unavoidability of job changes and the accompanying relocation, the ephemerality of friendships, and the expendability of even family relationships contribute to increased nuance and higher plasticity in the interplay between the individual and the social world. The ebb and flow of these demands is bound to exert its toll on a person's emotional fabric, coping resources, and self-concept.How does the individual manage? How can one maintain the clarity and structural integrity of the self-system in an ocean of social change? How does one summon the motivation to set goals and carry them out? We argue Preparation of this chapter was supported by British Academy Grant *LRG-37249 to Constantine Sedikides.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On when self-enhancement and self-criticism function adaptively and maladaptively.

Sedikides¹,

Luke²

2008

Self-Criticism and Self-Enhancement: Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications.

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“…However, the second account assumes that Retrospective Discomfort 7 the anticipation of an impending aversive experience influences memory through a separate, independent effect, rather than through the undoing of another mechanism. In addition to the strategic optimism we described earlier, people also often exhibit defensive pessimism (Norem & Cantor, 1986a). Specifically, when faced with an upcoming aversive experience, some people choose to expect the worst in hopes of creating a less extreme contrast between their expectations and reality (Norem & Cantor, 1986b).…”

Section: Bracingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pain was greater if it will happen again: The effect of anticipated continuation on retrospective discomfort.

Galak¹,

Meyvis²

2011

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Across 7 laboratory studies and 1 field study, we demonstrated that people remembered an unpleasant experience as more aversive when they expected this experience to return than when they had no such expectation. Our results indicate that this effect results from people's tendency to brace for unpleasant experiences. Specifically, when faced with the anticipated return of the experience, people prepare for the worst, leading them to remember the initial experience as more aversive. This bracing can be reduced either by limiting people's self-regulatory resources or by denying them the time to brace. These results indicate that people's tendency to remember aversive experiences as less unpleasant than they actually were (as demonstrated in prior research) does not necessarily imply that people are willing to re-engage in these experiences—because the anticipation of repeating the experience may counteract the initial memory bias.

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“…Measures of personality (neuroticism) and prior academic performance (grade point For those interested in work on personality and examination outcomes that views personality from a goal-oriented, strategic perspective rather than from an interactional state-trait perspective (the approach taken here), see the excellent work of Cantor, Norem, and their associates (Cantor, Norem, Niedenthal, Langston, & Brower, 1987;Norem & Cantor, 1986a. took less than 2 min.…”

Section: Design and Samplementioning

confidence: 99%

Coping as a personality process: A prospective study.

Bolger¹

1990

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

538

384

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The study tested the proposition that coping is personality in action under stress. Using a stressful medical school entrance examination, the study examined (a) whether neurotieism emerged in coping patterns over time and (b) whether the influence of neurotieism on coping accounted for changes in anxiety and examination performance. Fifty premedical students reported their coping efforts at 35 days before, 10 days before, and 17 days after the examination. They provided daily reports of anxiety for 35 days surrounding the examination. Neuroticism influenced coping efforts and increases in daily anxiety under stress. Two types of coping, wishful thinking and self-blame, explained over half the relationship between neuroticism and increases in preexamination anxiety. Consistent with previous research, neither neuroticism nor specific coping efforts influenced examination performance. I am grateful to Jane Crawford and Don Cook for access to the sample, to Paula Hanpeter and Stuart Beraha for research assistance, and to

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Anticipatory and post hoc cushioning strategies: Optimism and defensive pessimism in ?risky? situations

Abstract: The concept of cognitive strategies is proposed as a model for the process by which individuals cushion themselves against threats to self-esteem in

Cited by 330 publications

References 17 publications

On when self-enhancement and self-criticism function adaptively and maladaptively.

On when self-enhancement and self-criticism function adaptively and maladaptively.

The pain was greater if it will happen again: The effect of anticipated continuation on retrospective discomfort.

Coping as a personality process: A prospective study.

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