Optimism


Because I am someone who wants to be constantly learning in my life, I have selected a few of the free online classes that are available right now and am trying to see how many I can work through.  The first one that I started at the end of last week is a class from UPenn titled "Positive Psychology: Resilience Skills".

I've just finished up the first week of lectures (it's a 4-week class) and am happily surprised to hear that I already have a natural optimism to me that will help me to stay resilient in many aspects of my life.  If you are interested in seeing where you stand on optimism, you can fill out a questionnaire here.  You will need to create a user name and login to be able to take the questionnaire, but it is FREE!  This site also has other interesting questionnaires that you can take, such as: stress & empathy questionnaire; meaning in life questionnaire; gratitude survey; and an authentic happiness inventory.

Optimism can have many different definitions.  It is the belief in a positive future.  It is the engine of resilience.  It is being able to seperate out the things that you can control from those that you can't.  It is thinking about stressors as challenges instead of threats.  It is all of these things depending on where you are at in your life at this time.  Research has shown that having a high level of optimism has remarkable health benefits.  It can decrease the likelihood of depression and increase survival rates amongst cancer patients.

There are two ways to assess optimism.  The first is The LOT-R (Life Orientation Test Revised).  This tests how much an individual agrees that good things are going to happen, people are generally good and the world is good overall.  An optimist in this test will answer in accordance with their belief that in uncertain times, they expect the best.

The second assessment is called explanatory style theory.  This has three parts in which an individual can lean one of two directions.  The first part is internal vs. external.  Does an individual believe that there are internal causes to bad things that are happening - are they the cause of bad things?  Or, does that individual put the blame on others things outside of themselves.  The second part is stable vs. unstable.  Does an individual focus on things that cannot be changed, or are stable in their lives?  Or do they focus more on things that can be changed?  Things that they might have influence over?  The third and final part is global vs. specific.  Does an individual think that one negative item in life will lead to lots of other problems?  Or do they believe that the negative item is associated with one specific event?  Individuals that are categorized as the most optimistic fall into the categories of external, unstable and specific.  They believe that negative things in life are due to factors outside of themselves and won't necessarily spread to other aspects of their lives.  They focus on what they can change in a situation rather than getting stuck on those things that they can't.  Because of these outlooks, optimistic individuals have increased stress hardiness, greater social support and increased relationship satisfaction.

Here are some behaviors that are typical of optimists:

  • Cognitive - Identify problems; Acknowledge what can't be changed; See problem as challenge instead of threat; Offer solutions based on what can be changed
  • Behavioral - Approach problems head-on to find solutions; More likely to seek out information; More likely to ask for help; More likely to take action
  • Emotion - More positive overall; Use homor to cope  (Can I get a HELL YEAH on this humor to cope one?!?!  This is 100% me.)
  • Proactive - Eat more heathily; Have exercise routine that they stick to

How many of these have you seen in yourself?  Which might you be able to adopt during this time when we have the opportunity to focus on reflection?  We all have room for improvement!

-Vicky










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