Optimistic Explanatory Style - Positive Psychology & Storytelling - Module 4
Optimism - Optimistic Explanatory Style
Video : https://youtu.be/FgDw9ogqHAE (Links to an external site.)
Story 4– Snail and the Rose Bush - by Hans Christian Anderson
Story Based Reflection : In your journal for your reflection:
- Reflect on a time you viewed the world like the Snail ?When was this? Which stage in your life was this?
- Reflect on a time you have viewed the world like a Rosebush? When was this ? Which stage in your life was this?
- How does their world view differ?
Knowing Optimism: Optimistic Explanatory Style :
Read this page :
Optimism is defined by the dictionary as hopefulness and confidence about the future or the success of something.
While both Hope and Optimism are oriented to the future, Hope is a feeling and specific to an event, while Optimism is an expectation of the future and an outlook for life.
Seligman (2006) argues that we can learn Optimism and uplift our well being. Learned Optimism involves consciously challenging negative self-talk and actively thinking and feeling positive emotions. Negative events and feelings are inevitable part of our lives, how we cope with these events makes a difference between feeling dissatisfied or satisfied in life.
Social Psychologists emphasis heavily on the Attribution style of an individual, which is the manner in which one explains the cause of the event. (Read about Attribution style by clicking on this page and scrolling down to view Attribution Styles and Mental health)
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Explanatory Style is the term used by Seligman et al (that relates with Attribution style) and is the
"manner in which we explain adverse events that happen to us" (Peterson &Seligman 1987).
A very important factor for life is the explanatory style we use to explain things to ourselves. There are two kind of explanatory styles; Optimistic and Pessimistic explanatory Style. A person with optimistic explanatory style is more motivated to find solutions, while those with pessimistic explanatory style may turn to unhealthy ways of coping like addiction. (Hamvai & Pico 2011).
In 1995, Martin Seligman published the book The Optimistic Child, where he points out that instead of having some ineffective ways to raise the self esteem of children, it is important to teach them skills to develop realistic optimism by using Optimistic Explanatory styles.
Optimism and Pessimism has a genetic component and is seen to be an inherited trait . It is also connected to parental mental health, type of role modelling and the way in which optimism is rewarded and encouraged in the family.
Yet Seligman ( 2006) in his book Learned Optimism gives us ways in which we can retrain ourselves to lead more optimistic lives. The first construct we need to understand is:
3 states of Optimistic Explanatory Styles:
Studies shows there are 3 states that define Optimistic explanatory style: Success is seen as: global, stable and internal and Failure as local, unstable and external. Here anything bad or unpleasant is seen as temporary and unstable. (This will pass and it is not an unsolvable calamity- so good shall prevail!)
Local/ Global refers to whether we attribute the cause to a specific event/ situation or generalise to all domains of our life
Stable/ Unstable refers to how long the event or situation will last. If the cause of the event is of short duration then it is unstable.
Internal/ External is whether we attribute control over the event to ourselves or to outside factors/ people.
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Optimistic Explanatory Style : Those with this kind of Explanatory Style will describe
Success as global, stable, internal
Failure as local, unstable, external
Pessimistic Explanatory Style – Those with this kind of Explanatory style will describe
Success as local, unstable, external
Failure as global, stable, internal
Eg: When we do less than expected in an exam ( failure)- an optimistic explanation is to say “The paper we were set was tough. I will do better in the next” while the pessimistic explanation would be to say “ I have never been good at this subject”!
Eg: When we get the job we applied for (success) – an Optimistic explanatory style would say “I worked hard for this and the Interview panel was fair”
The pessimistic explanatory style would say – “I probably settled for less salary” (Internal)
That means an optimist will see the Cause of the events in a realistic manner and be able to take ownership for their thoughts and actions. This implies that optimistic explanatory style asks us to focus on the reasons behind an event and explain it in ways that help us to be future oriented. Research has shown that Optimistic explanatory style is linked to greater well being, positive mood, perseverance, effective problem solving, achievement and success and even freedom from trauma (Peterson &Tracy Steen 2019)
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Pictorial representation of Failure in both explanatory styles:
(This construct is also explained as 3 P ‘s of Resilience (Personal, Permanent, Pervasive) which we will see later)
Further reading:
The book Learned Optimism - How to change your mind and life by Dr.M .Seligman is available as a free resource on Internet Archive.
https://archive.org/details/learned-optimism-how-to-change-your-mind-and-your-life/page/81/mode/2up~
How to Handle Pessimistic Beliefs and Thoughts :
Learning to view and explain events in an Optimistic manner and "believing the causes of bad events is temporary helps us to resist helplessness" ( Seligman 2006). Having said that Seligman (2006) also provides us with ways in which to handle pessimistic thoughts, through the ABC model, developed from the cognitive model of Beck ( 1976) and Ellis ( 1975). It helped train participants to identify their pessimistic thoughts and retrain to change their explanatory style to be more optimistic.
When we have reoccurring pessimistic thoughts or have a pessimistic beliefs we need to first become aware of the
A - Adversity - the incident or triggering thought
B - Belief - the belief behind the thought
C - Consequent Mood - the mood change that has occurred because of the thought and belief.
Once this is done this model asks us to either
distance ourselves form the belief, by telling ourselves we do not have all the facts and cannot form a belief without evidence,
or to distract ourselves - like saying STOP mentally or even having a stop sign written within our vision,
or to dispute the belief, by presenting alternative explanations ( more optimistic) that can help us to change what we feel about the thought and belief.
Thus this model is also called the ABCDE model of Learned Optimism ( Seligman 2006), where D stands for Disputation and E for Energization which occurs when we are able to successfully dispute our pessimistic beliefs and then energize ourselves to a more optimistic outlook.
Eg:
Adversity : I am struggling to write an article
Belief : I am not capable, I never have anything interesting to say.
Consequent mood : Sadness and helplessness
In order to dispute this belief we can ask 4 questions:
1) What is the evidence for this belief?
2) Can this adversity be attributed to external, specific and transient factors, can I have alternative optimistic explanations?
3) What is the long term implications of this adversity - will it have long term negative consequence or is it a temporary nuisance?
4) If I am not able to decide on the pessimistic or optimistic explanation - which explanation or belief will be useful for me achieve a positive mood and achieve my goals?
For the above example my disputation can look like this :
Disputation :
I have written articles before that have been well liked and interesting.
My belief is coming from a school teacher who yelled at me for submitting a lousy English essay when I was in middle school.
I may be comparing myself with another author/ writer - can I be honest with myself over here?
I must go back and read some of my earlier articles to be inspired.
This appears to be a temporary nuisance.
Even if this article does not turn out well, I can write another one, perhaps a different topic is what I need to choose.
It is more useful to think this is a temporary feeling, and not a permanent inability of mine.
I must keep trying and finish the article till I feel satisfied. Take a break and come back to write.....
Energisation: I feel calmer and less helpless now.
Though it may be known and practised by many, this can prove life changing for many of us if we practice it diligently. Knowing the theoretical path and steps gives greater credibility and paves way for another tool in our kit box to lead a flourishing life!
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Ways to increase Optimistic Explanatory Style:
- When negative situations occur, brainstorm different causes and reasons why this may have happened. Look at all the reasons that cannot be attributed to you and are beyond your control.
- When facing negative outcomes, identify aspects in your life that are still stable and unchanged, in spite of the negative outcome. This is to understand that negative outcomes are Unstable and will soon pass.
- Think about your Best Possible self – Imagine you are living your best life in the future.
- Wake up every morning and think of 3 things you look forward to doing that day
- Think back about the positive emotions you have experienced – through people you have met, places you have gone, or situations you have been in.
Optimistic Explanatory Style as a cartoon Pic!
Highlights of this Module:
- Learned Optimism is challenging negative self talk and actively thinking and feeling positive emotions (Seligman 2006)
- Explanatory Style is the way in which we explain things to ourselves
- 2 types of Explanatory Styles - Pessimistic Explanatory Style and Optimistic Explanatory Style
- 3 states that we use to explain events - local / global; internal / external; stable/ unstable
- Optimistic people explain negative events as Local, External and Unstable -( this too shall pass )
- Handle Pessimistic thoughts using ABCDE model of Learned Optimism ( Seligman 2006) - Adversity, Belief, Consequent mood -- Disputation and Energisation
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First Attempt In Learning:
Dr.APJ Kalam said that FAIL means First attempt in Learning, END stands for Effort never dies and
if you get a NO means Next opportunity.
Inspired by this let us take time to record an incident from our lives
that we can now explain newly within the lens of Optimistic Explanatory
style:
Tell us about your efforts to learn something new.
How did you Fail? How old were you? How did it go?
Give us a belief that was formed because of this failure and the consequent mood it created in you.
Now record how you can explain the event in a more Optimistic Explanatory style.
Was the pessimistic belief of any use?
You can record how this pessimistic belief changed when you look at it through an optimistic lens.Research :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explanatory_style
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism
https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Motivation_and_emotion/Book/2011/Learned_optimism
Free PDF of Pos Psych Workbook to Download.pdf
(Links to an external site.)Image Attribution:
By Roald2 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16477386
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