The researchers have found that encouraging conversations may have the opposite effect as they produce a negative influence on the emotional state of a person and his/her self-esteem.
The researchers conducted four experiments: they were interested to know when exactly a person feels he or she deserves being praised. 4000 students and pupils from the USA and Hong Kong were offered to take a test and then compare their work with the results of their classmates. After the results of the test had been announced, the volunteers passed one more test aimed at showing their depressive traits.
Then the experiment was repeated, but the announced results differed from the real ones. The students, who had had good results, learned that they had coped worst. The same was with those who had failed. As a result, the volunteers, whose results were strongly exaggerated or minimized, displayed more symptoms of depression.
As a result, the psychologists advise to assess the situation more realistically, to avoid psychological traumas.
Source of the image: Photl.
