A few years ago the APA considered adding Self Defeating Personality Disorder to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)
New research suggests that may not have been the best decision.
From Science Daily:
Dr. Jason Plaks, a social psychologist at the University of Toronto and Kristin Stecher, a research scientist at the University of Washington, found that those who thought of their capabilities as fixed were more likely to become anxious and disoriented when faced with dramatic success, causing their subsequent performance to plummet, compared to those who thought of their abilities as changeable.
“People are driven to feel that they can predict and control their outcomes. So when their performance turns out to violate their predictions, this can be unnerving — even if the outcome is, objectively speaking, good news,” says Plaks. He points out that the notion that people often sacrifice their success in the name of greater certainty has some intuitive appeal but it has never been put to a rigorous test.
Some people may in fact self destruct when faced with unexpected success. I’m reminded of a Dilbert cartoon where Dogbert proclaims the secret to success is “low expectations and your own bag of chips”.
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We are what we think we are, seem to me to be gaining prominence,relevance and importance with every passing minute.
The perception and belief we hold about ourselves, subject perhaps to our expectation determine the direction.
Being comfortable with the self psyche in either success or failure hinges on the capacity to adjust.The ability to then evaluate,regroup and get going again is paramount.
For some it is that simple, for others almost impossible.I am convinced the reason for this, notwithstanding peripherals, will in time be found to be genetical inherant?