Optimism

[Introduction to, 9 Keys to Optimism: Positive Psychology, ?2023]

Optimism is a belief in a benign world. It can be difficult to maintain in these times, however.

So what is it, exactly, and how do we get more of it – or at least keep what we’ve got?

Is it hope? Avoidance of reality? Simple choice? Is it even obtainable, or is it a trait that we’re born with – or not?

Yes, and.

Optimism is first of all an outgrowth of our core trust in a benign universe. If we were fortunate to be in a healthy environment at our earliest stage of life, we developed a fundamental trust that when we had a need or concern, it would be soothed. As infants, we cried when uncomfortable, hungry, lonely, or afraid – and someone came to our aid. Our sense of trust that unpleasant situations will eventually right themselves begins to develop from the moment we’re born.

And so, optimism is this basic unconscious belief, that while there may be times of difficulty and even disaster, eventually things will be okay again.

Surely, catastrophes can come along that shatter this sense – natural disaster, violence, sudden death of a loved one, a disfiguring or disabling accident, the thing we unconsciously believed would never happen to us. Or perhaps we were not so fortunate in our infancy, and that basic trust was never developed in the first place. Can we develop or recover our trust in a benign world, and our optimism?

In a word: yes. We’ll circle back to that.

Hope is often equated to optimism, though while they share a close relationship, they’re not the same thing. We’re going to explore hope in detail, as our first key to optimism. For now: optimism is a general approach to life, while hope is a wish for the future. If optimistic, I assume that the future will generally be okay; if hopeful, I’m wishing that it will be, while entertaining the possibility that it won’t. A fine distinction at times, perhaps.

What optimism is not, is an avoidance of reality. Surely even optimism can be excessive, tipping over into a state in which we refuse to acknowledge that anything’s wrong. (Perhaps we’ve done this for far too many years when it comes to issues of climate change.) In its true form, however, it’s absolutely realistic, in seeing the whole picture and choosing to focus more – though not solely – on the positive aspects, a directing of attention.

This is a neurobiological function. When we’re optimistic, our brains are creating some magic by which cognitive processes of expectancy and attention interact with and mutually reinforce one another. Our attention is drawn to signs that fit our expectancy, and vice versa. This doesn’t mean that we don’t see what doesn’t fit our belief, but it’s not where we place our focus. If we’re generally optimistic, our optimism guides our attention more often to positive information; we’re aware of the negative, but we don’t live there. This also means, then, that we can train our attention in order to increase our optimism, as this relationship is bidirectional (Kress and Aue, 2019).

And the reason we’d do well to pay attention to optimism, and to further develop our own?

Optimism has been shown to decrease pain, both acute and chronic (Basten-Günther et al., 2019) and is a clear predictor of positive health outcomes -- while the presence of pessimism is an even stronger predictor of negative outcomes (Scheier et al., 2021). It’s been closely correlated with mental health in young adults (Chen et al., 2019) and in adolescents (Rincón-Uribe et al., 2022). It’s also a matter of survival, as it’s been directly linked to longevity beyond 85 years of age (Jacobs et al., 2021). And it’s been shown to increase a subjective sense of wellbeing, with self-esteem as the mediator; that is, one’s positive feelings about oneself act as a bridge between one’s optimism and one’s wellbeing (Duy and Y?ld?z, 2019).

Optimism continues to develop throughout the adult lifespan, affected by our positive as well as negative experiences (Schwaba et al., 2019). In a study of adults in an age range of 51-93, males were found to be more optimistic than females, as were those who were physically active, and those in a relationship (Martínez-Moreno et al., 2020). Sabouripour et al. (2021) demonstrated that optimism was linked to resilience, the ability to recover from or thrive in the presence of hardship, without the mediation of self-efficacy – that is, one’s belief in a positive outcome was separate from the belief in one’s own capability.

There are two primary concepts of optimism: dispositional (trait) and explanatory (state, or conditional). In the former, optimism is conceived of as essentially a trait that develops early in life, when we’re able to set and achieve goals, or when that which we expect is often enough realized – so, a relatively consistent fulfilment of expectation. Through reinforcement over time, we develop this personality trait. The explanatory model, on the other hand, refers more to how a person explains or interprets his/her/their world – the age-old ‘glass half-full or empty’ description, in which optimism leads us more often to positive interpretations. (Dursun et al., 2021)

This is where Seligman’s theory of ‘learned optimism’ comes in (Seligman, 1991).

Martin Seligman is the leading theorist and one of the founders of the positive psychology field. Before we go on with ‘learned optimism’, let’s take a brief look at positive psychology itself.

The positive psychology field, established in 1998 and based on earlier relevant research, has as its focus the healthy functions of the brain and the ability to accentuate same. It provides a counterbalance to other approaches to psychology, which largely focus on and attempt to address mental illness and developmental concerns. One of this field’s key features is a strengths-based model of 6 virtue categories and 24 character strengths, by which we function and can strive to enhance; the Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) handbook (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) aims to complement traditional psychology’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

A recent study of character strengths by Gander et al. (2022) identified the 3 most important to our wellbeing as zest for life, hope, and humor. In the study, optimism strongly correlated with each of these three, and also with curiosity, gratitude, and love.

Another primary model of the field is best known by its acronym PERMA, inclusive of positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (Seligman, 2011). Within this concept of ‘flourishing’ or developing our mental health potentials, the majority of healthy psychological functions can be viewed (Seligman, 2018).

And so, back to learned optimism. Seligman’s concept of learned optimism stems from his ‘learned helplessness’ research of depression (Seligman, 1974), by which a person eventually loses hope after repeated failure; he posited that if we can ‘learn’ helplessness, we must also be able to learn optimism. In this way he envisioned optimism more as a state or condition than as a personality trait, not fixed but malleable. Two key concepts of this model include the ‘3 Ps’ view of characteristics which distinguish optimism and pessimism, and the ‘ABCDE’ approach to developing the former.

The ABCDE approach is: adversity (negative event or circumstance), belief (our interpretation of same), consequence (our behavior, feeling, reaction to said adversity), disputation (our internal rebuttal of our belief about this adversity), and energization (the result of our refutation, including an increase in positive energy and emotion).

As an example, let’s say that I’ve failed an exam (adversity); on analysis of my internal belief, I find that I believe I’m ‘just no good’ at taking exams, or worse, I believe that I’m stupid, worthless, will never amount to anything. On examination of my reaction, I see that I’ve given up on myself before in this circumstance – and that I also didn’t study sufficiently this time, and that exams make me anxious. I dispute my belief – I am NOT stupid, I don’t always fail, I’m not worthless, reminding myself of those times when I did well on exams or those areas in which I do succeed; and in follow-up, I find myself energized to study harder and retake the exam, more secure in the knowledge that I’m not incapable of passing it.

The 3 Ps are permanence, personalization, and pervasiveness. At a glance, if we’re optimistic we don’t view a given circumstance as permanent, don’t consider negative events as a reflection on our personal character, and don’t see it as all-encompassing but can categorize it into that part of life to which it belongs (e.g., not “I’m stupid” but “I’m not as skilled at mathematics as I am in other areas,” or even, “I didn’t do well on that exam but I know that I do have mathematics skills”). The pessimist, by contrast, takes negative events personally, seeing them as permanent and pervasive.

Can we be optimistic at all times, and should we even attempt to be? According to de Meza and Dawson (2021), both are extremes; they advocate for a realistic perspective that doesn’t always expect the positive or the negative, and doesn’t maximize nor minimize one’s capabilities. I would advocate for a ‘realistic optimism’, however – by which one views oneself and the world in a realistic assessment, while still choosing to focus more often on the positive than on the negative.

And what of pessimism? Is it entirely bad? It turns out, pessimism can be advantageous in certain circumstances – we can visit it, but it’s not a place in which we want to live. Seligman himself (Genecov & Seligman, 2023) has recently outlined a downside of optimism in unrealistic assessment of one’s circumstance or ability, and a vulnerability to disappointment. Further, we can think of a pessimistic view as protective on occasion; if we view our ability as lower than it is, we may be less likely to engage in risky behavior.

The benefits of optimism far outweigh any alternative, however. And so, on we go to our exploration of 9 keys to the enhancement of optimism. We begin with those 6 optimism-associated character strengths as identified by Gander et al. (2022): hope, zest for life, humor, curiosity, gratitude, and love; to this we add 2 more strengths from the positive psychology scheme: appreciation of beauty and excellence, and spirituality or life meaning and purpose. Finally, we look at mindfulness which, in its broad array of applications, has plenty to contribute to the enhancement of optimism.

Let’s go!

9 Keys to Optimism, by Anne Hilty, ?2023

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References:

Basten-Günther J, Peters M, and Lautenbacher?S (2019).?Optimism and the Experience of Pain: A Systematic Review.?Behavioral Medicine?45:4,?323-339. https://doi.org/10.1080/08964289.2018.1517242

Chen Y, Su J, Ren Z, et al. (2019). Optimism and Mental Health of Minority Students: Moderating Effects of Cultural Adaptability.?Frontiers in Psychology?10:2545. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02545

de Meza D and Dawson C (2021). Neither an Optimist Nor a Pessimist Be: Mistaken Expectations Lower Well-Being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 47:4, 540-550. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220934577

Dursun P (2021). Optimism, Hope and Subjective Well-Being: a Literature Overview. ?atalh?yük Uluslararas? Turizm ve Sosyal Ara?t?rmalar Dergisi 6, 61-74. Retrieved from https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/cutsad/issue/63565/946124

Duy B and Y?ld?z MA (2019). The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem in the Relationship Between Optimism and Subjective Well-Being.?Current Psychology?38, 1456-1463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9698-1

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Genecov M and Seligman ME (2023). Optimism and pessimism. In DJA Dozois and KS Dobson (Eds.),?Treatment of psychosocial risk factors in depression?(pp. 253–280). American Psychological Association.?https://doi.org/10.1037/0000332-012

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Martínez-Moreno A, Ibá?ez-Pérez RJ, Cavas-García F, et al. (2020). Older Adults’ Gender, Age and Physical Activity Effects on Anxiety, Optimism, Resilience and Engagement.?International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17:20, 7561. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207561

Peterson C and Seligman ME (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification.?Oxford University Press; American Psychological Association.

Rincón Uribe FA, Neira Espejo CA, and Pedroso JD (2022). The Role of Optimism in Adolescent Mental Health: A Systematic Review.?Journal of Happiness Studies?23, 815–845. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00425-x

Sabouripour F, Roslan S, Ghiami Z, et al. (2021). Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy in the Relationship Between Optimism, Psychological Well-Being, and Resilience Among Iranian Students.?Frontiers in Psychology 12:675645. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.675645

Scheier MF, Swanson JD, Barlow MA, et al. (2021). Optimism versus pessimism as predictors of physical health: A comprehensive reanalysis of dispositional optimism research.?American Psychologist 76:3, 529-548. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000666

Schwaba T, Robins RW, Sanghavi PH, et al. (2019). Optimism Development Across Adulthood and Associations With Positive and Negative Life Events. Social Psychological and Personality Science 10:8, 1092-1101. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619832023

Seligman ME (1972). Learned helplessness. Annual Review of Medicine 23:1, 407-412.

Seligman ME (1991). Learned optimism. New York: Knopf.

Seligman ME (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. Simon and Schuster.

Seligman ME (2018). PERMA and the building blocks of well-being, Journal of Positive Psychology 13:4, 333-335. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2018.1437466

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