As I stated in "The Most Important Misunderstanding" post, there is no way that self affirmation is ALL you need to succeed.
However, we can see the original myth being portrayed as Self Affirmation being so entirely helpful! As I showed through the various posts on this blog, it does not help as much as it is emphasized to. "The Little Engine That Could" was one of the things that misled people into emphasizing so much onto a phrase that had no truth to it.
Upon a reflection on the TV shows such as the Rugrats, the direct TV episode that applies to my blog is an episode of Hey Arnold! How many of you remember that show? Well, if you don't, there was an episode where Arnold joins the basketball team and meets a great player on the team who, to be honest, is the only the coach wants the ball given to. This great basketball player has one flaw though. He can't shoot free throws. Arnold, being a great free throw shooter, stays after practice one day to practice his free throw shooting. As this great basketball player watches Arnold, and sees the ball swishing through the net, he asks Arnold to tutor him in shooting free throws.
Arnold takes him to a basketball court, and first goes through a series of exercises that help him first feel confident in himself. This is where the myth bears a kernel of truth. Self affirmation was encouraged here from the very start of the activity that he was doing. This great basketball player who learning to shoot free throws had to learn to believe in himself, and as long as he believed he could, his body followed through with what he was focused to do.
I'm not saying that self affirmation is completely necessary to function, but for important things you should believe in yourself. I didn't mean for this to be a "Debbie Downer" blog, but I thought I could take a myth that I knew that was false and somehow apply to everything else that we found ourselves facing in life. Believing in yourself is important, and you should definitely prepare for what you are doing. Self affirmation is not ALL you need and nor does it give you a ridiculously crazy boost on performance skill. It does help you if you believe in yourself though, and if you have no belief in yourself... Well, you should start. Imagine someone with literally no confidence or self positivity at all. That person is probably not you.
All the websites out there that encourage a positive mindset are not harming anybody, but we can all take into account that having a positive mindset isn't the only thing that we need. This is the thing that is most often misunderstood in the perpetuation of the myth. The myth itself encourages self affirmation as the ONLY thing that you need, but fails to take into the context of various different situations. While we can not conjure a phrase that captures the essence of every situation we can still recognize a better way to say it.
I stated earlier that a better way to say it would be to say that, “A positive self affirming attitude draws more self encouragement and improve the way that you look at the situation.”
The misunderstanding that is portrayed in the “Little Engine That Could” is that it is not a realistic situation that pertains to our everyday lives. Since then we have only have only taken the phrase “I Think I Can” to mean anything. The phrase in itself can be very misleading because it does place any emphasis on the action that is necessary for you to take in order to accomplish the goal at hand.
Who's really driving the perpetuation of this myth? I say the media is where we see primary examples.
One obvious answer of WHO IS perpetuating the myth is the children's stories like "The Little Train That Could." However, lately I think that children's shows have been doing better about portraying the myth. We can all probably list a TV show that depicts this situation to be commonly occurring. TV shows like The Rugrats.. etc.. HOWEVER! The difference in these shows is we can see a kernel of truth lying behind these myths.
In the Rugrats we can see an example of correct self affirmation in the heart of the character that we all know and love. Chuckie Finster. Chuckie's the person in the show who is labeled the scaredy cat, but pulls through in some situations because he believes that he can. Such bravery in the heart of babies. In the TV show, we see an important distinction in the context of the myth. The myth can apply to both realistic, and unrealistic situations. Every situation that the Rugrats find themselves in is completely realistic.
Although the media is a primary driver for perpetuating the myth, it seems to be portraying it in a way that is less intense than the "Little Engine That Could." Rather nowadays, there are more situations that we find ourselves in and still do emphasize preparation as necessary. Hey Arnold shows an episode where a player on Arnold's team is having a tough time with free shots, and Arnold trains him to believe in himself rather than relying strictly on skill itself. In Hey Arnold, training in self affirmation was emphasized all along, but paired with physical training as well.
Another situation in which we see the kernel portrayed in the right way is in nearly EVERY KARATE/FIGHT/KUNG FU/ JUJITSU/ HIIYAAHH movie you've ever seen in your entire lifetime. There is a point where the main character of the movie is paired against someone who is ridiculously good, and the ridiculously good person just crushes the main character. Let's take for example.. The Karate Kid. Daniel san finds himself paired against an opponent who makes him feel like he'll lose. Then we see the power of self affirmation, paired with physical skill. This should be a vivid example of how self affirmation should be encouraged, but not emphasized as the only thing that you need.
I know it seedms like I'm doing a lot for something that you may not think I'm passionate about. That's where I say HA! I am passionate about this, and I feel like this self affirmation myth applied a lot to my childhood. This is personal information that I'm about to give out..
When I was in the third grade I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, and was put on a variety of medications, the first one being Ritalin. I had a psychiatrist that I saw at the time who asked me if I was distracted easily on the medication, or what I thought about me being on the medication. Ritalin not only made it harder for me to do well in school, but it made me suicidal. When I asked my mother about this, she said, "I didn't really like putting you on the medication, but it was for school, and I didn't know any better. The psychiatrist started telling me things that would make you better, but I didn't know what better meant. You were such a drone on that medicine, and when you would start to come off you would start mumbling really negative things about yourself. I would hear you say, 'I hate myself, I hate myself, I don't even know why I'm alive,' and it broke my heart. I really didn't know what to do, but they kept giving us different medications and I didn't know what would be better or not."
From this point on the psychiatrist told me that as long as I told myself positive things you would get better. Well.. fill in the blank, my condition did not get better, and I barely passed through almost every one of my grades. I had flash cards that would have encouraging phrases on them, and every night before going to sleep I was forced to say, "I am a good person, I am a good person," or phrases that encouraged my mindset. These phrases came to no avail, because I still felt depressed all the time.
Before entering O'Dea High School located in Seattle, WA, my mother gave me a choice. She told me I was old enough to decide for myself whether I wanted to be on medication or not. I told her I didn't want to be on the medication anymore. Second quarter of Freshmen year of high school I received my first honors certificate, a GPA of 3.5 or above. From there on I received honors for nearly every quarter.
So the moral of my story is, that self affirmation is not the only thing that you need to help yourself. Take it from me.
It's a really awesome video, and if you read the book as a child I doubt you'll have to watch the whole video to get a message. It is an awesome example of popular culture though because this is been perpetuated in society for a long time, most of us can actually probably recall this video or book at one point in our life. However in the video, we can obviously see that the engine of the "train that could" had broken down, which probably implies some mechanical and technical errors. Merely thinking you can, probably won't fix a train with just positive feedback. Not to mention that because of the steam shutting off, there is probably an engine problem in and of itself. To further disprove this, a small train probably does not have the strength a train PLUS its load of various things.
Now, not only is this very funny, but it is a perfect example of how a positive attitude does not always get you a victory. And it's family APPROPRIATE!
2 old men:
Hey...hey leroy...leroy
Yeah
Did you hear about that boy mike tyson?
Mike...mike tyson he's the boy That played football from montreal ain't he?
No no you old coop, he a...he a boxer man
Yeah
Let me tell ya I went to his fight a couple months ago. I seen him hit this boy, and he hit the boy so hard His head flew off into the eigtheenth row
(laughing)
They had to get his head out of the eighteenth row
[prince & jeff] I was in jeff's crib one night about eight And we were watchin'a couple of mike tyson fight tapes Jeff was like...
Man, you see how hard mike's punchin'?
Come on jeff the other guy was just lungin' Left, right, left, right, another k.o. If that was me I'd a been ok though The very next day I gave russell a ring With j.l. and omar we all called don king I said 'yeah, don I got a problem
Tell 'em prince
'yeah what's up? what you sayin? you tryin' to solve 'em? ' 'forget the small talk let's get to the nitty gritty' 'me and mike, two months, trump, atlantic city'
Yo, you got this you gonna bust dude up
Yeah, you can be my trainer
Word up?
I'm rough like a freight train smooth like ice And yo jeff, straight up, I think I can mike tyson
Man, you can beat him, you can beat him
Yo man, word up Yo I put on a couple of pounds man we can do this
You can do it
Newspaper boy, old men:
Extra, extra read all about it Fresh prince challenges iron mike tyson to a fight (laughing) Ah he's crazy
Ain't that the boy who knocked the guy's head in the fifthteen row?
Hey leroy, you read the paper? That boy done lost his man
[prince, barber] There was press conference to see what training I was doing Before then I had never heard reporters booing Cameras flashing I was in the middle I didn't wanna look dumb so I exagerrated a little I said uh I been training 2o hours a day Lifting big old cars and big bails of hay (that's what he's doin') And I run 10,000 miles every morning Thinkin' about mike and my moment of glory (tell 'em more) I drink water 20 gallons a pop And I can throw a volkswagon a whole half block (he can do it too) And 4 million sit ups...in a minute.... ..i ain't lying I did it (he done it) The general public thought I was a fool I was gettin' dissed but I guess that was cool Well gettin' dissed is never good But I was even gettin' dissed in my old nieghborhood I was at the corner at the top of my block There was a couple of people standing outside of the barber shop It was larwence, my barber, and franny He yelled out
Hey, prince, you can win!
I said 'really? ' and I stopped to chat
You could beat him man, if you hit him wit a bat Ha ha...you gon' get whipped But can I have your shoes when he break your neck?
Everybody was laughin' out loud I thought at least my own grandma would be proud I went to her house and snuck in to surpise her I heard her on the phone (a thousand bucks on tyson)
[prince, ring announcer] It's fight day and man am I hyped Woah I can't wait to see mike Boy I'm hyped ready to be my thing Trump castle casino
In this corner...weighing in At a mere 165 pounds, the lighting rodent, The fresh prince! (booing)
And in this corner... The heavyweight champion of the world... Iron mike tyson (cheering)
I came out hustling sliding and grabbing Slippin' and dippin' hustlin' and jabbin' For a second I looked good out there But then mike brought to reality my worst nightmare One punch, that's all it took (oooh) He hit me in my ribs and my insides shook Now how can I say this and be a little discreet Let's just say that my bowels released I called timeout and went back to my corner Said to my coach 'ain't no way I'm goin' The hell back out there, man you can't forget it' My body's like a punchin' bag and mike is gonna (hit it) They tried to make me go meet my doom But I sucker punched my coach and hauled to my dressing room The next day the headline in the town 'fresh prince breaks camp, tyson wins first round' Some fool asked why I ran away I said 'a good run is better than a bad stand anyday' My career is over as far as fightin' But I don't know what made me think I can beat mike tyson
2 old men:
Hey leroy!
Yeah
Did you see the fight? did you see the fight?
The..the..the football player?
No the boxer, come on man I was at the fight last night I paid four hundred and seventy fo' thousand dollars For my ticket right...
Ah, you weren't at no fight I seen you around here last night
..and the boy..the boy ran out the ring
You always lying
I ain't lying...
You lie to your grandkids..
..i seen it...
...you been lying ever since you was a little kid
...mike tyson punched the boy in his ribs, and his leg fell off His leg fell off and it fell over...
...you always lying
...and it knocked the hbo camerman's camera fell out his hand I said, God damn, I couldn't beleive it leroy You shoulda been there...you definetly shoulda been there
Here are some mind traps and human reasoning errors that may contribute to an improper skew of the myth at hand throughout society:
POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC: Translated to English from Latin this translates to “After this, therefore because of this.” This is a primary fallacy that traps people into believing in this myth because it so strongly relates to it. So let’s break this one down. Say an event, A happens, and because of A, B happens. How about we fill in the blanks? Say, someone has been really depressed for a long time, and then they watch a video on YouTube about self affirmation and they feel a transformation in the way that they live their life.. you can probably fill in the rest. So there HAS to be a relationship between A and B right? This implies that A CAUSED B. The example cited in Lilienfield is that most serial killers eat cereal as a child (14). Of course, we can not assume that EVERY child that eats cereal is going to be a serial killer. So the reason that I cited that example to disprove this myth is because having a positive attitude is one aspect of being able to improve your quality of life. A positive attitude can give you a mental boost, but it is not the only thing necessary, because only thinking a positive thought does not get anything done.
CONFIRMATION BIAS: This reasoning error states that you only look for evidence that proves your statement, in this case only proves the self affirming myth. This is also a primary reason that people fall victim to the self affirming myth because it is similar to the myth that “positive attitude cures cancer.” My psychology class disproved this myth earlier on the quarter by stating that the reason that it is a myth is because we only look at people who say that they have been cured by their own positive attitude and use them as examples. The self affirming myth reiterates itself here by appealing to the sentimental side of us. In order for us to be logical we have to look at the bigger frame of the myth though. We can look at many different cases of one achieving success, but at some point we have to ask what really caused it? Was it really only the individual’s positive attitude? We can not look at success as the direct, and only, result of positive attitude and self affirmation.
--SEEING WHAT WE WANT TO SEE: We each look at life our own unique and awesome way. With every way different, each of us has opinions on how things work. This means that due to our personal opinions we may lean one way on an issue and another way on a different issue. Some of those issues we may be biased on. For some of those issues we may research it and only take information that we can use to prove our side of an issue. For this myth, we may see only what we want to see because we only want to prove our point and this can lead to a heavy distortion of the myth itself.
CAUSATION vs. CORRELATION: This may seem very similar to Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc, but it is different in the sense that it casually implies a relationship between A and B. This implies that the relationship between A and B is either that: A caused B, B caused A, or there is a third variable C. Many people jump to the conclusion that A causes B, but where is C in this equation? Is it plausible to say that A directly caused B? The answer is no, because we do not know all of the factors that can be taken into account to get to the final result of B.
Self Esteem/Affirmation: Does it really help THAT much?
People tell you all the time, "Hey, just tell yourself you can do it and you'll be able to!" Does this really help you get everything done? Is this statement of self encouragement the thing that really helps us? Or is it a psychological myth?
