Chapter Three

Optimism and Hope

A story about optimists and pessimists

People can be differentiated to the extent that they have different
expectancies about the achievement of their goals, and other future
events. Optimists have a generalized sense of confidence about the future,
characterized by their broad expectancy that outcomes are likely to be
positive. Pessimists, on the other hand, have a generalized sense of doubt
and hesitancy, characterized by their anticipation of negative outcomes.
So is it better to be an optimist or a pessimist?

Why it is good to be an optimist

Positive psychology research has found many advantages of adopting an
optimistic viewpoint. Here are some of them:

• Optimists experience less distress than pessimists when dealing

with difficulties in their lives. For example, they suffer much less
anxiety and depression.
• Optimists adapt better to negative events (including coronary
artery bypass surgery, breast cancer, abortion, bone marrow trans-
plantation and AIDS).
• Optimism protects new mothers against developing depression
following the birth of their baby.
• Optimism is conducive to problem-focused coping, humour,
making plans, positive reframing (putting the situation in the best
19

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 20 Positive Psychology in a Nutshell

possible light) and, when the situation is uncontrollable, accepting

the reality of the situation. Optimists are capable of learning
lessons from negative situations. Thus optimists have a coping
advantage over pessimists.
• Perhaps surprisingly, optimists don’t tend to use denial, whereas
pessimists often attempt to distance themselves from the problem.
Optimists are not simply people who stick their heads in the sand
and ignore threats to their well-being. For example, they attend to
health warnings and usually discover potentially serious problems
earlier rather than later.
• Optimists exert more continuous effort and tend not to give up,
possibly assuming that the situation can be handled successfully in
one way or another. Pessimists, on the other hand, are far more
likely to anticipate disaster – and, as a result, are more likely to
give up.
• Optimists report more health-promoting behaviours (like eating
a healthy diet or having regular medical check-ups) and enjoy
better physical health than pessimists.
• Optimists seem to be more productive in the workplace (Robbins
et al., 1991; Carver & Scheier, 2002).

Furthermore, over the past century, 85 per cent of US presidential

elections were won by the more optimistic candidate (Zullow
et al., 1988) – which, however, does not necessarily mean the best
candidate! The conclusions of one insurance sales study contain
a warning for pessimistic salespersons. Apparently, when the salespeople
scoring in the top 10 per cent in an optimism questionnaire were
compared with those scoring in the bottom 10 percent, it transpired
that the former sold 88 per cent more insurance (Seligman &
Schulman, 1986).

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Can optimism be learnt?

Quite simply – yes. Although there may well be a genetically inherited
component to optimism, and early childhood experiences certainly
shape our optimistic–pessimistic viewpoint, we can use several strategies
to counter pessimism.
The first of these is a disputing strategy, introduced by Martin Seligman
(1991) in his bestseller Learned Optimism. We usually employ the skill
of internal disputing when we are falsely accused of something by
another person. We think to ourselves, for example: ‘That’s not right.
It’s him who is not listening, it’s not me. I always listen before reaching
a conclusion.’ However, when we falsely accuse ourselves of something
(e.g. not being capable of dealing with a difficult situation), we don’t
tend to dispute it. The key to success is careful monitoring and recogni-
tion of our thoughts. Once a negative thought is detected, we can
consciously dispute that thought and try to look at possible alternative
outcomes.
Changing and monitoring your explanatory style is another useful
strategy. Explanatory style refers to the way in which we explain the
causes and influences of previous positive and negative events.
A pessimistic explanatory style means we use internal, stable and
global explanations for bad events, and external, unstable and specific
explanations for good ones. People who use this style tend to appraise
bad events in terms of personal failure.
An optimistic explanatory style, on the other hand, is characterized
by external (leaving one’s self-esteem intact), unstable and specific
(depending on circumstances) explanations for bad events, and by
the opposite pattern for good ones. Table 3.1 gives some examples of
optimistic and pessimistic explanatory styles.
Needless to say, Seligman recommends monitoring your automatic
thoughts and attitudes and disputing pessimistic explanations.

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 22 Positive Psychology in a Nutshell

TABLE 3.1 OPTIMISTIC AND PESSIMISTIC EXPLANATORY

STYLES
EVENT OPTIMIST WOULD PESSIMIST WOULD
SAY: SAY:
Good event Internal: I’ve done a External: Don’t know
(e.g. passing an great job. how this happened. It
exam) Stable: I am talented. must’ve been luck.
Global: This was a good Unstable: Every dog
start to the exam has its day.
season. The other ones Specific: So what?
should be easy too. I can still fail the
next one.
Bad event (e.g. External: The exam Internal: It’s all my fault,
failing an exam) questions were simply I haven’t prepared well.
terrible. Stable: I am never
Unstable: No problem, I’ll going to pass this exam.
pass it next time round. Global: This is the end
Specific: Yesterday was to my dreams; I’ll never
my birthday after all. become who I want
to be.

Tips & Tools

When disputing pessimistic explanations . . .
ask yourself what evidence you have for your beliefs. See if you can find
an alternative explanation for failure. Even if an optimistic explanation is
not applicable, what are the implications of this adversity? Is it really
that catastrophic? If you cannot decide which explanation is more valid,
think which one is more useful for your mood (Carr, 2004).

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 Optimism and Hope 23

During lectures on this subject, at the point when I have nearly sold
optimism as well as the positive attribution style to my listeners, I am
usually met with a variation on the following question: ‘Surely you are
not saying that blaming anyone else but yourself when things go wrong
is a good idea?’ This is a very good question. The research that I know of
does not seem to tackle the impact of an optimistic explanatory style on
those close to the optimists, nor does it report on whether optimism is
associated with qualities such as self-centredness.

Why it is good to be a pessimist

There are occasions when pessimism can do more to ensure the safety of
your life. Optimistic thinking is associated with an underestimation of
risks (Peterson & Park, 2003), so optimists are more likely to take part
in high-risk activities such as unprotected sex or reckless driving.
Optimism is also hardly desirable if, for example, a pilot is deciding
whether a plane should take off during an ice-storm.
In the case of serious traumatic events (e.g. death, fire, flood or violent
rape), optimists may not be well prepared and their beautiful, rosy world
may be shattered into pieces (although optimists might be better
equipped to rebuild it than pessimists).
Furthermore, research has found that there is a type of pessimist who
hardly ever benefits from learning how to be optimistic and adopting a
positive mood. This characteristic is called ‘defensive pessimism’. It is a
cognitive strategy to set low expectations for upcoming performance,
despite having performed well previously in similar circumstances.
Defensive pessimists use the expectation that things will turn out badly
as a coping mechanism: they perform better when they’re allowed to
imagine what could go wrong and keep hold of their low expectations.
Defensive pessimism helps anxious people manage their anxiety and,
contrary to what you might think, trying to be optimistic actually makes
their performance worse! Over time, defensive pessimists start feeling

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 24 Positive Psychology in a Nutshell

better about themselves, become happier, perform better academically

and make more progress on their personal goals than equally anxious
people who do not use defensive pessimism (Norem & Chang, 2002).

What about realism?

This is another difficult question to answer, simply because realism does
not seem to be in fashion at the moment. Having carefully analysed the
indexes of five major volumes on positive psychology, I found only one
reference to this term.
If a principal motivation of a realist is to understand themselves and
the world as it is and to maintain a consistent and accurate self-image, it
would be common sense to assume that such a disposition could benefit
from the strengths of both optimism and pessimism, while avoiding the
pitfalls associated with both.
Ed Diener (2003), one of the greatest researchers on happiness,
writes: ‘it might not be desirable for an individual to be too optimistic;
perhaps people are better off if they are a mix of optimism and pessimism’
(p. 117). Barbara Ehrenreich (2010), probably the most prominent critic
of the positive psychology movement, goes much further to suggest that
it is the positive or optimistic thinking that may actually be responsible
for the banking crisis, for making some chronic illnesses worse, and for
the enormous amounts of money spent on ‘improving’ ourselves when
the real impediments to happiness lie far beyond our control.
Perhaps our Western societies need some realists: people who follow
current affairs, feel for the suffering around the world and assume some
responsibility for the causes and implications of this adversity. People who
choose to do something about it, despite their limited chances of success.
But then again, at least some optimism seems necessary to motivate us
to take the very next step forward. Sandra Schneider writes at length
about realistic vs. unrealistic optimism, stressing the difference between
‘fuzzy’ knowledge and ‘fuzzy’ meaning, and the importance of reality

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 Optimism and Hope 25

checks. Fuzzy knowledge is about not knowing the facts, while fuzzy
meaning is about having some latitude in interpretations. Optimism is not
a good way to deal with fuzzy knowledge. If you don’t know your level of
cholesterol, it doesn’t make sense to just assume you are safe from cardiac
disease. However, many situations in life are, in fact, open to interpreta-
tion – and this is where optimism can be useful (Schneider, 2001). In fact,
both Schneider’s and Seligman’s approaches advocate the same principle
– that of flexibility of thinking when it comes to interpreting the meaning
of events. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that many resilience programmes
(see Chapter 14) are based on the theories of optimism, teaching students
to question their habitual explanations for misfortunes.

Tips & Tools

Positive realism or realistic optimism?
Blind optimism may result in carelessness and unrealistic expectations,
which is unproductive in the long run. This can be avoided if you don’t
allow wishful thinking to influence your judgements. Being positive is
compatible with being realistic. It does not mean expecting only
positive outcomes, but having confidence that even if things don’t go
your way, you will be able to deal with the situation (or even somehow
benefit from it) (Popovic, 2005).

Goals Scale
Completing this questionnaire may tell you something about your-
self. It is explained more fully after the box, but if you decide to fill it
in, don’t look until you have actually done so.

Directions: Read each question carefully. Using the scale shown

below, please select the number that best describes YOU and put
this number in the blank provided.

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 26 Positive Psychology in a Nutshell

1 = Definitely False
2 = Mostly False
3 = Mostly True
4 = Definitely True

___ 1. I can think of many ways to get out of a jam.

___ 2. I energetically pursue my goals.
___ 3. I feel tired most of the time.
___ 4. There are lots of ways around my problem.
___ 5. I am easily downed in an argument.
___ 6. I can think of many ways to get things in life that are most
important to me.
___ 7. I worry about my health.
___ 8. Even when others get discouraged, I know I can find a way
to solve the problem.
___ 9. My past experiences have prepared me well for my
future.
___ 10. I’ve been pretty successful in life.
___ 11. I usually find myself worrying about something.
___ 12. I meet the goals that I set for myself.

Now add together your scores for Questions 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 and

12, and read on.

You have just filled in the questionnaire on hope (Lopez et al., 2004).
Your score, which will range from 8 to 32, should show how hopeful you
are. Don’t worry about Questions 3, 5, 7 and 11 – they are simply
distracters and should not be counted towards the final result. Read on
to find out how positive psychology views hope and what can be done to
increase it.

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Is there any hope?

Hope is a construct that is closely related to optimism, although the
two are not identical. Rick Snyder, one of the leading specialists in
hope, represents it as an ability to conceptualize goals, find pathways to
these goals despite obstacles and have the motivation to use those path-
ways (Lopez et al., 2004). To put it more simply, we feel hopeful if we:
(a) know what we want, (b) can think of a range of ways to get there and
(c) start and keep on going.
Pathway thinking, or generating several workable routes to the goal,
is very important because a particular route may not always be the best.
Even if the main route is blocked, a hopeful person will find other options
open to him or her. Questions 1, 4, 6 and 8 of the Goals Scale measured
your pathways score. However, knowing how to go about something is
not enough, you need to get moving! This is where agency thoughts
(such as ‘I can do this’, ‘I won’t be stopped’) come into play. Motivation
is not only about starting, it’s also about staying energized and ‘on task’.
Questions 2, 9, 10 and 12 measured your motivation or agency.
It’s not hard to see that being hopeful brings about many benefits. For
example, we know that hope buffers against interfering, self-deprecatory
thoughts and negative emotions, and is critical for psychological health.
In the domain of physical health, we know that people who are hopeful
focus more on the prevention of diseases (e.g. through exercising).
Athletes with higher levels of hope are more successful in their perform-
ance. Furthermore, based on research with college students, it appears
that hope bears a substantial relationship to academic achievement
(Snyder et al., 2002).
Snyder and his colleagues (2002) emphasize a cognitive rather than an
emotional approach to hope, claiming that positive emotions are the
result of concluding that we are pursuing goals successfully. This means
that they see hope as a goal-pursuit thinking that causes emotions. As often
happens in psychology, many other researchers would not subscribe to this
view, conceptualizing hope as an emotion in itself (Farina et al., 1995).

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Tips & Tools

Let’s hope
To generate hope, first formulate your goals, think of several ways of
how these can be achieved and select the best one, break your goals
into smaller sub-goals, motivate yourself to pursue your goals and
reframe any obstacles you meet as challenges to be overcome (Carr,
2004).

On 7 July 2005, I was in Central London, stopping frequently to catch the

latest news about the four explosions in the city and responding to multiple
phone calls from family and friends, checking to see if I was okay. In the
midst of this nightmare, with images of buses without their tops and
reports of people still stuck in the Underground, I am not optimistic about
the future. Having learnt from the post-September 11 trajectory, I can see
the rise in the psychology of fear on English soil, anti-terrorist measures
dominating the media, and the celebrated multiculturalism of London
descending into hatred and suspicion towards the Muslim population. Yet
I am hopeful. Hopeful that everything will be alright in the end, despite
the fact that I do not know what this ‘alright’ may look like, how we can
get there and whether I personally can do anything about it. As far as I can
see, my experience of the present moment is stripped of both being able to
envisage the pathways and of feeling that my personal agency can have
much effect on the final and very unclear outcome. In spite of that, I still
feel the emotion of hope, which remains even in contradiction to the
theory I have just described above.

Further reading
Seligman, M.E.P. (1991). Learned optimism. New York: Knopf.

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