The Power of Negative Thinking: A New Perspective on “Irrational” Cognitions

Recent research and clinical observations suggest that the link between negative thinking and emotional and behavioral maladjustment may not be as simple and straightforward as is commonly assumed. Observations suggest that many clients became pessimistic and worried in advance of and during their performance. These negative thoughts or expectancies, however, often have either no effect or a facilitative effect on actual behavior. Although this observation is inconsistent with cognitive-expectancy models of behavior, the phenomenon is consistent with prediction of egotism and self-handicapping models. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that negative thinking is often used as a strategy for protecting self-esteem and that this strategy often facilitates performance in evaluative situations. High- and low-irrational subjects received either success or failure feedback as they completed a word construction task. As predicted, high-irrational subjects showed increased performance when expectations were negative and decreased performance when expectations were positive. The opposite pattern of results was found for low-irrational subjects. Moreover, the self-esteem of high-irrational subjects was not affected by either success or failure. Results are interpreted as being supportive of an egotism interpretation of negative and irrational thinking. Implications for counseling and psychotherapy are noted.