Optimism versus pessimism is discussed. Research shows optimism is correlated with increased life expectancy, health, success and better coping. Optimism can be learned through cognitive restructuring by challenging negative thoughts and focusing on facts. While optimism has benefits, too much can lead to unrealistic optimism and poor risk assessment. Maintaining optimism involves disputing pessimistic thoughts, being present, practicing gratitude, and caring for one's health.

1. Optimism VS
Pessimism
Dr. Russell Rodrigo

2. Optimism VS Pessimism
kahoot.it

3. Optimism Versus Pessimism
A pessimist sees the difficulty
in every opportunity; an
optimist sees the opportunity
in every difficulty

4. Optimism
• Tendency to look on the more favorable side
of events or conditions
• Tendency to expect the most favorable
outcome
• Belief that good will prevail
• Positive thinking

5. Are you an
Optimist?
• Optimism is not…
• Reckless
• Fantasy-based
• Unrealistic
• Limited to certain
people

6. Why Optimism?
Research has shown that optimism is
correlated with many positive life outcomes
including increased life expectancy, general
health, better mental health, increased
success in sports and work, greater recovery
rates from heart operations and better
coping strategies when faced with adversity.
Optimism had historically had a view of being
associated with simplistic and unrealistic people,
perpetuated more in literature (i.e. Voltaire
1700s, Porter’s Pollyanna), and in Freud’s
psychoanalytical theorising (optimism was
illusory denial) than in psychological fact.

7. Why
Optimism?
• Inoculates against depression
• Improves overall health
• Improves recovery from illness
• Combines with talent and desire to
enable achievement
• It influences people to like you
• It generates positive energy, causing
good things to happen
• It beats pessimism

8. Why not
Pessimism?
• More illness
• Lowers immune function
• “Straight line to
depression”
• Lowers resilience
• Lowers success
• Almost no advantages

9. Carver and
Scheier -
Dispositional
Optimism
• Charles Carver and Michael Scheier coined
the term ‘dispositional optimism’ to
describe their approach – the global
expectation that good things will be
plentiful in the future and bad things
scarce.
• They argued that optimism is associated
with, and leads to, securing positive
outcomes whereas pessimism is associated
with greater negative outcomes (Scheier and
Carver 1992, Scheier, Carver and Bridges
2001).
• For example, in studies of young adults,
optimism has been found to be associated
with greater life satisfaction (Chang,
Maydeu-Olivares & D’Zurilla, 1997) whereas
pessimism has been found to be associated
with greater depressive symptoms (Chang et
al 1997).

10. Carver and
Scheier see
optimism as
dispositional.
• They have found that optimists
report fewer physical symptoms,
better health habits and better
coping strategies.
• Even among a group who had
experienced the bad outcome of
being diagnosed with breast cancer
(Carver et al 1997) found that
optimistic personality types
experienced less distress, engaged in
more active coping and were less
likely to engage in avoidance or
denial strategies.

11. Take the test
• https://www.seemypersonality.
com/Optimism-Test#q1

12. Explanatory
Styles
Explanatory style or attributional
style refers to how people explain
the events of their lives. There are
various facets of how people can
explain a situation. This can
influence whether they lean
toward being optimists or
pessimists.

13. Explanatory
Styles
Arising from Seligman’s famous “learned
helplessness” research in the 70s and 80s, i.e.
the reaction of giving up when faced with the
belief that whatever you do does not matter,
was the related concept of “explanatory
style”. This was developed from the analysis
and patterns of how people explained events
that happened to them.
“An optimistic explanatory style stops
helplessness, whereas pessimistic
explanatory style spreads helplessness” (p.
15).

14. Explanatory
Styles
Way we explain events, good
or bad
1. Permanence
2. Pervasiveness
3. Personalisation
4. Defining events

15. Explanatory
Styles—
Permanence
Extent to which causes of events are
permanent:
DHigh bad permanence = causes of bad events are
permanent
– Contributes to lengthy feelings of
helplessness, or excessive helplessness from
small setbacks
<Low bad permanence = causes of bad events are
temporary
– Helps a person bounce back
<High good permanence = good events have
permanent causes
– People try harder after they succeed
DLow good permanence = good events have
temporary causes
– People give up even when they succeed, see
success as a fluke

16. Explanatory
Styles—
Pervasiveness
Refers to the causes of good/ bad events,
universal vs. specific
• High bad pervasiveness = bad events have
universal causes
• Low bad pervasiveness = bad events have specific
causes
• High good pervasiveness = good events have
universal causes
• Low good pervasiveness = good events have
specific causes
Exercise: Choose the statement that best
describes you.
1.When one area of your life suffers, you can
store it away and attend to other important
areas of your life
2.When one thread of your life snaps, the
whole fabric unravels

17. Explanatory Styles—The Stuff of
Hope
Finding permanent and universal causes for misfortune, and temporary/
specific causes for positive events, decreases hope
Finding temporary and specific causes for misfortune, and permanent/
universal causes for positive events, leads to greater hopefulness
SOH = permanence (time) + pervasiveness (cause)

18. Explanatory Styles—
Personalisation
The perceived locus of responsibility, internal vs.
external
When bad things happen, we can blame ourselves
(internalize) or we can blame others or
circumstances (externalize)
• Internalization
– Of bad events (blaming ourselves) à lower
self-esteem
– Of good events (crediting ourselves) à higher
self-esteem
• Externalization
– Of bad events (blaming circumstances)
preserves self-esteem
– Of good events (crediting others) lowers self-
esteem

19. Explanatory Styles—
Redefining, Changing
Perspectives
• Maybe a bad event is actually
good?
ØFailure leads to greater resolve
ØLoss breeds opportunity
ØOnly time will tell if this
event is good or bad
• Law of averages
ØI’m due for a break
• Pay attention only to what’s
right with a situation

20. Optimist
Explanatory
Style
Optimists explain positive events as having
happened because of their own actions or
characteristics (internal). They also see them
as evidence that more positive things will
happen in the future (stable) and in other
areas of their lives (global).
Conversely, they see negative events as not
being their fault (external). They also see
them as being flukes (isolated) that have
nothing to do with other areas of their lives
or future events (local).
For example, if an optimist gets a promotion,
they will likely believe it’s because they are
good at their job and will receive more
benefits and promotions in the future. If they
are passed over for the promotion, it’s likely
because they were having an bad month
because of extenuating circumstances, but
will do better in the future.

21. Pessimist
Explanatory
Style
Pessimists think in the opposite way. They
believe that negative events are caused by their
own mistakes or traits (internal). They believe
that one mistake means more will come
(stable), and mistakes in other areas of life are
inevitable (global) because they are the cause.
They see positive events as flukes (local) that
are caused by things outside their control
(external) and probably won’t happen again
(unstable).
A pessimist would see a promotion as a lucky
event that probably won’t happen again, and
may even worry that they’ll now be under more
scrutiny. Being passed over for a promotion
would probably be explained as not being
skilled enough. They would, therefore, expect
to be passed over again.

22. Action in the Present
• What am I doing right now?
• Focus exclusively on actions, not their outcomes
ØNumber of steps
ØTime invested
ØOverall effort
ØStrategies
ØConnections
à Creates the basis for realistic optimism

23. The
Pendulum
Swings the
Other Way
The main areas of challenge and
qualification were as follows:
1. Questioning the “demonisation”
of pessimism
2. Challenging the notion rising
from explanatory style that
optimism can’t be learned
3. Highlighting the underbelly or
dark side of optimism.

24. The “Demonisation”
of Pessimism
“Pessimism is an entrenched
habit of mind that has
sweeping and disastrous
consequences: depressed
mood, resignation,
underachievement and even
unexpectedly poor physical
health.”
- Seligman states in his
1995 book The Optimistic
Child.

25. A tranche of
studies sought to
highlight the fact
that pessimism
had been
somewhat
demonised as the
opposite end of
optimism. These
fall mainly into 3
camps;
a) Showing that pessimism is not uni-dimensional
with optimism but a separate construct, and as such
does not always have the negative outcomes that
juxtapose it with optimism’s positive results.
b) Some research highlighted that pessimism was
actually more of a predictor for certain outcomes than
optimism. Peterson and Chang raise the point that
upon closer look at many studies the more exact
conclusion is that pessimism is associated with
undesirable characteristics, not that optimism is
associated with positive ones.
c) Some studies have even proven that indeed there
are times when pessimism paid off. Norem and Cantor
(1989) highlight defensive pessimism as a coping style,
which focuses around a specific context. They looked
at academic performance. The defensive pessimist in
this context is one who anticipates and worries about a
poor result despite a prior good track record.

26. Can Optimism Be
Learned?
• Segerstrom argues that learning
strategies that create the benefits
associated with optimists are
achievable.
• She cites evidence that shows that
optimistic people pursue their goals
more doggedly, leading them to
build resources through goal pursuit
or effective coping with stress.
• Segerstrom (2006) seems dismissive
of the link between explanatory
style and learning optimism. She
highlighted that there’s a connection
between optimists and their
investment in goal setting and
perseverance in attainment.

27. The Dark
Side of
Optimism
Optimism bias
Poor risk
assessment
Toxic positivity

28. The Dark
Side of
Optimism
Robins and John (1997) have found that optimistic
illusions of performance are more likely to be
associated with narcissism than mental health.
This research challenges the notion that optimism as
a precursor for a happy and successful life is a
given. This area of research shows examples where
optimism has proven to have poor
outcomes. Another angle has been in “quantifying”
optimism, proving the hypothesis that too much of a
supposed good thing can be bad for you.
In his studies of unrealistic optimism, Weinstein
(1989, 1984, Weinstein and Kliein, 1996) has proved
evidence of the harmful effects of optimistic biases
in risk perception related to a host of health
hazards. Those who underestimate the risk, take less
action.
For example, Weinstein, Lyons, Sandman, and Cuite
(1998) found that those who underestimated the risk
of radon in their homes were less likely than others
to engage in risk detection and risk reduction
behaviours.

29. Research is encouraging that, whilst optimism may be
dispositional, it can indeed be learned. It has less inherited
aspects than some of the other dispositional traits and as
such is responsive to interventions.
Segerstrom asserts her thesis in her book Breaking Murphy’s
Law, “The thesis of this book is that optimists are happy and
healthy not because of who they are but because of how they act”
(p.167).
Optimism is more what we do than what we are, and
thereby can be learned. This has exciting implications
for application and interventions.

30. How to Practice
Optimism

31. Cognitive
Restructuring
• Using a practice called cognitive
restructuring, you can help yourself and
others become more optimistic by
consciously challenging negative, self-
limiting thinking and replacing it with
more optimistic thought patterns.

32. The process of cognitive restructuring involves a few different steps:
Identify
• Identify the situations that are triggering negative thoughts or moods.
Assess
• Assess how you are feeling in the moment.
Identify
• Identify the negative thoughts that you are having in response to the
situation.
Look
• Look at the evidence to either support or refute your negative
thoughts.
Focus on
• Focus on the objective facts, and replace automatic negative thoughts
with more positive, realistic ones.

33. ABC’s
• Adversity
• Belief
• Consequence (feeling)
• Dispute
• Energizing

34. Overcoming
Pessimism
• Step 1: Recognise pessimistic
thoughts
• Step 2: Distract or dispute
• Dispute!
• Successfully disputed beliefs are
less likely to recur when the same
situation presents itself again.

35. Disputing
Using perspective
• Is my belief reasonable, or out of proportion?
• Distancing—if someone else judged me as critically
as I am judging myself, would I accept their
conclusion?
Examining evidence
Find alternative explanations
Challenging implications
Discarding beliefs that are not useful or
destructive

36. Being
Present
• More control
• More fulfillment
• Experiential awareness
• More enjoyment of now
• Immersed in living

37. Gratitude
Feel blessed
Be thankful for
small things
Be aware of
everything that
is around you
Learn the art
of ‘seeing’
Take 20
minutes every
day to simply
be

38. Finally!

39. Look After Yourself
HEALTH NUTRITION EXERCISE RELATIONSHIPS

40. Discussion
Questions
1. Are we born to be optimistic, rather than
realistic?
2. How do we stay optimistic in the face of
reality?
3. Can optimism be irrational? If so, in
what sense and under what conditions?
4. What is the relationship between hope
and optimism?
5. Is there such a thing as “false hope”? If
so, how can it be distinguished from “true
hope”?
6. How central are hope and optimism to
human physical, emotional, and mental
health? Can individuals flourish without
them?