Positive Psychology – Chapter 5 PDF

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1 Positive Psychology – Chapter 5: Optimism, Explanatory Style and Hope

Positive Psychology – Chapter 5: Optimism, Explanatory Style and Hope History of Optimism: pg 95  Described as a “Velcro construct” as it has many correlates including happiness, health, & achievement  Early days: thought as a superficial denial of suffering  2 mains schools of thought around optimism: Dispositional Optimism & explanatory style Dispositional Optimism: personality trait relating to generalized outcome expectancies  Optimists characterized by their broad expectancy that outcomes are likely to be positive  Pessimists characterized by future anticipation of negative outcomes  When experience hardships, P’s will likely give up while O’s will push through  2 main elements: o Expectancy: most crucial element, has direct link w/desire to obtain a person’s values or goals  In order to achieve goal, must have value/motivation to continue o Confidence: highly influential, if confidence in achieving the goal is high, ind. more likely to act  Measured by LOT-R focussing on differentiating optimists from pessimists Attrition (Explanatory) Style: way in which one explains causes & influences of previous positive & negative events to create expectancies of future  Research shown attributions for negative events more imp. than positive events  Pessimist explain - event by inferring internal (myself), stable (chronic) or global (affect another event) causes  Optimists explain – event by infeering external (not me), unstable (not persist) local (only affect this event) o Adopt unstable, external, & specific explanations for bad events o Internal/external not as important as global/local & unstable/stable  Measured via Attribution Style Questionnaire Difference Between Two Schools of Thought:  Attribution style recognizes optimism as a learned skill, NOT a stable personality trait o Ind. argue if this style is really optimism  Attribution style concerned w/ question of WHY good & bad events happened o Dispositional optimism focusses on what will probs happen in the future  Measuring tools for both schools of thought are similar  Key to learned optimism is reframing Pollyanna Principle: subconscious human brain is wired to have a positivity bias towards situations & other ind.  More persuasive than we think  Ie) overestimate interaction w/positive more than they do w/negative stimuli Benefits of Optimism:

2 Positive Psychology – Chapter 5: Optimism, Explanatory Style and Hope

Depression & Stress:  O’s tend to experience less distress during adversity than P’s  O’s have active coping w/stress (planning/social support)P’s have avoidant coping (distraction/denial)  Optimism prospectively predicts psychological & physical wellbeing among college students o As well as incidents and levels of postpartum depression, & protect mothers against PPD Optimism & Health: higher levels of optimism during Breast cancer, have higher levels of wellbeing  Optimism associated w/living longer: unrealistic optimism more effective than realistic acceptance Optimism as Positive Illusions: + illusions predicated on belief that most ind bias to seeing self in optimistic way  Self-deceptive strategies used to manage negative info Optimism & Locus of Control:  perceived control of ind assessment of ability to exert control (humans’ overestimate)  Thompson proposed 3 main strategies of maintain control 1. Changing to goals that are reachable in current situation 2. Creating new avenues of control 3. Accepting current circumstances  Plant examples: pg 101  Locus of Control: concept developed by Rotter o Ind w/strong LOC believe responsibility for whether they succeed lies w/in themselves o Not fixated personality trait & can vary according to situation o Internal LOC related to higher academic achievement Defensive Pessimism: ability to think of and plan for worst case scenario of a situation  Cognitive strategy to set low expectations for upcoming event, despite performing well in similar events o Cushion potential blow of failure o Motivate reflection and rehearsal & harness anxiety for motivation  Some evidence suggests optimism can be detrimental in some circumstances o If try to change, not a good thing as already have increased levels of self-esteem & satisfaction Unrealistic Optimism: can have negative consequences on ind. &tend to perceive risk as lower than average  Tends to be optimistic bias in risk perception (ie. cancer, heart disease) o May not be well prepared for serious events  Blind optimism may be unhealthy for long-term physical & psychological wellbeing

3 Positive Psychology – Chapter 5: Optimism, Explanatory Style and Hope

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Flexible optimism/positive realism will allow you to avoid wishful thinking while still assessing situation

Three “Selves” in Optimism: Self Confidence: confidence in self & situation important for perseverance towards goals  Often vilified as a bad thing Self-Esteem: disposition to experience self as competent to cope w/basic challenges of life/as worthy of happiness  Several types of self-esteem: global & specific, trait & state, Contingent & true, Explicit & implicit  High levels of it report high perseverance  Low levels linked to depression, body dissatisfaction  Sociometer model of Self Esteem:  Terror Management Model: SE function to shelter ind. from deeply rooted anxiety inherent in human condition  Is a product rather than cause of good performance & can be illusionary Self-Efficacy: belief a person about his/her chances of successfully accomplishing a specific task  Self-reflection incorporated in it  Provides foundation for human motivation, wellbeing, & personal accomplishment  Not a perceived skill: it is what ind. believe they can do w/their skills under certain conditions o Self-efficacy beliefs not predictions, attribution, personality trait, outcome, or motive/drive  Develop it by Imaginal experiences: imagining self/others behaving effectively in hypothetical situations  Social Cognitive theory (bandura pg 105): consists of personal factors of cognition, affect, & bio events o Differs from bio &behaviourists as vies ind. as self-organizing proactive, selfreflecting  Ind agent proactively engaged in own development o Observational Learning: Bobo dolls studying on viewing aggression  Implications of it: ind w/high levels show high quality of functioning, resilience to adversity, reduced vulnerability to depression & anxiety o critical to adoption & success of healthy behaviour changes for exercise, diet, safe sex, etc o Collective Efficacy: group’s shared belief in its conjoint capabilities to organize & execute course of action required to produce given levels of attainment Hope: determination to achieve goals & belief that many pathways can be generated  Agency: belief one can begin & sustain movement along envisioned pathway towards a given goal  Pathways: thinking reflects ind. perceived ability to formulate plausible goal routes  High levels of it, set more difficult goals & tend to achieve them Summary:

4 Positive Psychology – Chapter 5: Optimism, Explanatory Style and Hope

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Until last few decades, optimism was seen as deficit rather than good thing Main two differences between concepts of optimism involves argument between trait vs learned ability Many health benefits from engaging in optimistic thinking & positive illusions Pessimism isn’t always a bad thing Hope theory posits that people need agency & pathways to experience hope...