Are you an Optimist or a Pessimist?
Would you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist? Perhaps you’re somewhere in between. In this blog post, we discuss what influences our general outlook on life, and whether this outlook can be altered.
Optimist
A person who tends to be hopeful and confident about the future or the success of something.
Pessimist
A person who tends to see the worst aspect of things or believes that the worst will happen.
Realist
A person who accepts a situation as it is and is prepared to deal with it accordingly.
We will all identify as one of the above, most of the time. But what is it that influences whether we are generally more pessimistic or optimistic?
Early Childhood Experiences
Psychologist Erik Erikson proposed a personality theory that people who had a stable, predictable childhood usually developed a basic level of trust, and therefore, have a more positive outlook on life. In comparison, people who had an unstable and therefore, unpredictable childhood, are less inclined to trust people and their circumstances, and as a result, are more likely to have more pessimistic views as an adult.
Attention and Information Processing
A psychologist called David Hecht suggested that whether you’re optimistic or pessimistic depends on where your focus lies. To explain this, let’s use the famous; ‘is your glass half full or half empty?’ question.
Assuming you’re thirsty, the presence of water in the glass is a positive environmental cue – paying more attention to its presence than its absence is optimistic. You disregard the fact that half the glass is not filled, filtering out the cues that don’t correspond with your positive outlook. The results of further studies support Hecht’s findings and suggest that pessimists do the opposite. They spend more time looking at unpleasant cues than optimistic people, focusing on the empty half the glass.
Locus of Control
Research has shown that our locus of control effects whether we are generally more optimistic or pessimistic. Locus of control is an individuals belief system with regards to the causes of their experiences and the factors to which that person attributes success or failure. A person can have an internal locus of control, where they attribute their success or failures to their own efforts and abilities; or an external locus of control, where they attribute their success or failures, to external factors, or things outside of their control. Studies have found that those with an internal locus of control, tend to be more optimistic; whereas those with an external locus of control, tend to be more pessimistic.
“Optimists experience less distress than pessimists when dealing with difficulties in their lives. ”
There are many reasons that support the statement above. One of these reasons is something that psychologists call Cognitive Distortions…
Cognitive Distortions
First proposed by psychologist Aaron Beck in the 1970’s, Cognitive Distortions are inaccurate thoughts which our mind convinces us are true. Many types of cognitive distortions have been identified, however, we are going to concentrate on the 3 that have been associated with optimism and pessimism: personalisation, pervasiveness and permanence.
Personalisation
The personalisation distortion refers to the way in which we attribute the outcome of an event and links closely with our locus of control. So for example, if something bad happens, a person who is generally pessimistic, will attribute it internally, they’ll blame the negative outcome on themselves. An optimist however, will attribute it externally, putting the negative outcome down to luck or fate, and not blaming themselves for it.
Pervasiveness
Pervasiveness is closely related to catastrophising. It occurs when a person ‘globalises’ the outcome of one event to other aspects of their lives. For example, say someone applies for a job and doesn’t get selected for an interview, a pessimistic individual would then assume that they are also bad at something else: “I didn’t get selected for that job interview, my qualifications aren’t good enough, and I mustn’t be a very likeable person”. An optimistic individual on the other hand, see’s positive events as pervasive, and so globalises a positive outcome to other aspects of their life.
Permanence
Permanence is a cognitive distortion that pessimists hold where they view a negative situation as lasting and unchangeable. For example, a pessimist may say, “I’m rubbish at maths, I just don’t understand it, I don’t think that’s ever going to change”. Whereas, if an optimistic person was in the same situation, they may say something like, “I didn’t understand that maths equation, but I’ll look up how to work it out and hopefully I’ll understand it then”. When it comes to permanence, pessimists have a very closed mindset; something didn’t go the way they wanted so there’s no point in trying again or attempting to improve themselves.
Optimism or Pessimism?
It is the general consensus that it’s better to be an optimist rather than a pessimist. After all, studies have shown that optimism is linked to improved health, motivation, performance and career success; whereas pessimists tend to be more likely to suffer from depression, and generally harbour more doubts than optimistic individuals.
“Life inflicts the same setbacks and tragedies on the optimist as on the pessimist, but the optimist weathers them better.”
However, being pessimistic isn’t all bad; in fact, it has been found that pessimism may play an important role in overcoming psychological obstacles and achieving personal goals. ‘Defensive pessimism’ is a psychological stance that involves accepting the fact that things can go wrong, and therefore preparing you for any kind of eventually.
Can optimism be taught?
Although pessimism can be a good thing from time to time, having a general optimistic outlook on life is better than always adopting the ‘glass half empty’ view point. Your position on the pessimistic/optimistic scale isn’t static, and therefore, if you’re someone who has a more pessimistic interpretation of the world, you are able to cultivate a more positive perspective.
Learned Optimism is a concept first proposed by psychologist Martin Seligman, which says that we can change our attitudes and behaviours by recognising and challenging our negative perspectives. The opposite of learned helplessness, where individuals believe they are incapable of changing their circumstances; learned optimism is about altering our thought processes from solely focusing on the negatives in life, to also acknowledging the positives.
In Summary: how optimistic or pessimistic we are can have a massive impact on our lives. Although some of the things that can influence whether we are one or the other are out of our control, being more conscious of the way we view things and altering our thought processes can help us to cultivate a more positive perspective.