DEVELOPING OPTIMISTIC THINKING

Central to developing optimistic thinking is a skill that all individuals possess, but usually use in the wrong place.  The skill is called “disputing” and its use is at the heart of learned optimism. If an external person, who was a rival for your job, accused you falsely of failing at your job and not deserving your position, you would dispute him.  You would marshal all the evidence that you do your job very well You would grind the accusation into dust. But if you accuse yourself falsely of not deserving your job- which just happens to be the type of automatic thoughts that pessimists have, you will not dispute it. If it comes from inside us, if it is part of our unconscious programming, we tend not to dispute it. In “learned optimism” training programs developed by Beck and Seligman, children and adults are thought to recognise their own “catastrophic “ thinking and to become skilled disputers. The training works ie it has been shown to halve the incidence of depression and anxiety over the next two years, and it is self-reinforcing.

OPTIMISTIC AND PESSIMISTIC THINKING STYLE

Permanent vs Temporary

Pessimists believe bad events are more likely to be permanent. If they fail at something, they are inclined to feel it will always be the same and never change.

Optimists  think in terms of  sometimes and lately and blame bad events on temporary things e.g. “ I was exhausted”.

Optimists view good events as permanent eg I always land on my feet while pessimists see them as temporary “my lucky day”.

Optimistic people explain good events to themselves in terms of permanent causes such as their own qualities and abilities.  Pessimists name temporary causes such as their mood and effort.

Specific vs universal

Pessimists have more universal explanations for negative events e.g. I’m useless whereas optimists have more specific explanations e.g  I'm useless at maths.

And of course, the situation is reversed with positive events: optimists have more universal explanations for good events. “I’m smart” rather than I’m smart at maths.