Everyone has times in their lives when they either feel optimistic or pessimistic. This is in part due to our own biology. We experience a daily cycle of being optimistic and then being pessimistic in part due to our circadian rhythms. Some of us are most positive at times during the day, for instance in the late morning, with our energy and morale waning in the afternoon, while others are the opposite, being more upbeat in outlook some time during the night and feeling rather low during the early morning.
Most of people’s explanatory strategies and, therefore, the slant of their disposition towards either optimism or pessimism are developed in childhood. Several studies seem to indicate that a child whose parents (especially the mother) are pessimistic is more predisposed to be so as he or she grows older.
But what does being optimistic mean to us in practical terms? What factors in life can change for optimists and pessimists alike?
Pessimistic thinking is characterized as “looking at a glass as half-full.” If there is a crisis, then the pessimist tends to assume that things will turn out for the worst, no matter what they do. Given such a mindset, they find little to motivate them to do their best in such a situation. They often feel overwhelmed when trouble occurs and rationalize their helplessness with over-exaggeration (”I never get anything right”) and over-personalization (”This is all my fault”). Pessimistic thinking can, like optimistic thinking, be either an overall explanatory and coping strategy or a person’s response to a specific situation.
Downfalls of Pessimism
When it comes to things that require coping strategies, such as social relations and job performance and even health, several studies have shown that pessimists tend to do worse than optimists. In job performance, for example, Dr. Martin Seligman’s study of 15,000 applicants for life insurance sales - a stressful job - showed that not only did the optimistic people outsell the more pessimistic ones, but their positive outlook also enabled them to deal better with rejection and other setbacks. More of those applicants who were generally optimistic also stayed with the job rather than dropping out. This information could prove useful to personnel managers come recruitment time for they would surely be more willing to hire a tyro with a can-do attitude than one who would perform poorly. Several studies have also linked dispositional pessimism to such health concerns as depressed immune system response and more severe instances of disease.
Why Optimists can Succeed?
Optimists can succeed where pessimists fail because their outlook enables them to persist in whatever activity that concerns them. They are more likely to be risk-takers, a quality desirable in many fields of endeavor, and because they believe that they can influence the outcome of events, they give their job, relationships, etc., significant effort. By acting on their crises instead of being overwhelmed by them, they are also less affected by the stresses imposed by life.
Really interesting analysis, definitely one to think about! Thanks for sharing :)
Thank you for kind words)