Learning Statistics Can be Frustrating:Failure, Frustration, and Keeping an Open Mindto new statistical studies and results

Instructions: Read bothPart A and Part B and then respond to all of the questions posed.

Part A: It is important to experience failure and frustration.

An important study on failure was conducted by a University of California psychology professor named Salvatore Maddi. When the telephone industry was deregulated, dramatic changes occurred in the lives of executives who worked for the phone industry. Salvatore Maddi's study involved following close to 500 mid-level executives at Illinois Bell as they dealt with the stress of changing job roles. What Maddi discovered was shocking. Close to 2/3 of the executives had a difficult time dealing with the changes that deregulation brought to their lives. What was even more interesting than the struggles that these executives went through, was the response of the remaining executive to the deregulation. They not only adapted well to change, but many actually thrived under the same adverse conditions that caused almost two-thirds of their colleagues to fall apart.

Maddi was intrigued by these different responses to challenge and frustration. When he probed further, he found that those executives who thrived during the stressful times had life experiences that were similar. All experienced challenge and frustration as children due to sickness, constant moving, the death of someone close to them, or other tough conditions. Those executives who didn't fare well typically had childhoods that were fairly stress-free. The challenges and frustrations that deregulation brought to their lives were foreign to them, so they had no built-in coping mechanisms to help them respond in positive ways. Maddi reached the conclusion that when children experience challenge and frustration, the experience helps them develop resiliency. This resiliency enables them to deal with trying experiences as adults.

Part B: It is important to keep an open mind.

Many of the greatest ideas and discoveries of the last 500 years were ridiculed and attacked when they were initially presented. The medical advances that were delayed because of this attitude are tragic examples of the implication of a failure to keep an open mind. Until the early 1980s, doctors thought that ulcers were caused by too much stress, eating too many spicy foods, or drinking acidic beverages. A dramatic shift has occurred in the thinking on what causes ulcers. It all started in 1983 when 2 Australian doctors, Dr. Warren and Dr. Marshall, discovered a certain kind of bacteria (H. pylori) in the stomachs of people with ulcers.This led them to think that ulcers might possibly be caused by bacteria and not stress or excess stomach acid. Dr. Marshall thought that his evidence that bacteria caused ulcers was so convincing that the medical establishment would quickly accept his hypothesis. He was wrong! The medical community thought that the idea that bacteria causes ulcers was preposterous.

Dr. Marshall was young and did not yet have a strong belief system as to what caused ulcers. His mind was open to the possibility that there was another explanation. Many of his fellow doctors, who were experts in the field of gastroenterology, had very entrenched beliefs that left their minds almost completely closed to new ideas. Dr. Marshall was so discouraged by the reception his hypotheses received that he thought that he would have to wait until most of the older doctors retired and fresh open-minded doctors entered the profession before his ideas would get a fair hearing. Dr. Marshall even went so far as to swallow H.pylori bacteria to further prove that the bacteria was what caused ulcers. Sure enough, he developed symptoms of gastritis shortly after swallowing the bacteria. Fortunately for Dr. Marshall, the medical establishment slowly started to accept his theory. After several medical researchers came to the same conclusion as Dr. Marshall, more and more doctors started to change their long established beliefs to align with Dr. Marshall's. Many of the greatest ideas and discoveries of the last 500 years were ridiculed and attacked when they were initially presented. The medical advances that were delayed because of this attitude are tragic examples of the implications of a failure to keep an open mind.

discussion post in which you address the following:

1. What are the methods that you use to tackle struggles and challenges? Support your statements with references.
2. Some children are so accustomed to always getting the right answer that they are afraid to try anything they might possibly get wrong. In other words, they lock themselves inside an intellectual box. Discuss why this might be a limited way of thinking. Support your statements with references.
3. Thinking 5-10 years out, how do you think work and life in general will be different? Support your statements with references.
4. Why is it so hard to try something new, even if it would be beneficial for you? Support your statements with references.
5. Just because something has always been done one way, that doesn't mean it is the right or best way. Have you ever introduced something that was rejected? How did that make you feel? Support your statements with references.