OPTIMISM/POSITIVE THINKING

Optimism/Positive Thinking

Optimism/Positive Thinking

What does optimism mean? It could depend on who you are. Some optimists believe optimism is trying to make the best out of every situation. A pessimist might say that optimism is wishful thinking. Both views have some truth to it. What about pessimism? What does that mean? An optimist may say that it's trying to make the worst out of every situation, and a pessimist would say they are being realistic. Now that I've defined optimism and pessimism from everyone's point of view, now I can get down to what it really means. Optimism is looking at only the good things of something and pessimism is looking at only the bad things.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines optimism as having "hopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favourable or hopeful view." The word is originally derived from the Latin optimum, meaning "best." Being optimistic, in the typical sense of the world, ultimately means one expects the best possible outcome from any given situation. This is usually referred to in psychology as dispositional optimism. Researchers sometimes operationalize the term differently depending on their research, however. For example, Martin Seligman and his fellow researchers define it in terms of explanatory style, which is based on the way one explains life events. As for any trait characteristic, there are several ways to evaluate optimism, such as various forms of the Life Orientation Test, for the original definition of optimism, or the Attributional Style Questionnaire designed to test optimism in terms of explanatory style. While the heritability of optimism is largely debatable, most researchers agree that it seems to be a biological trait to some small degree, but it is also thought that optimism has more to do with environmental factors, making it a largely learned trait. It has also been suggested that optimism could appear to be a hereditary trait because it is actually a manifestation of combined traits that are mostly heritable, like intelligence and temperament. Optimism may also be linked to health (Peterson, 1982, 287).

I do not consider myself an optimist or a pessimist. I believe that one should look at things as they really are. If you look at only the good things or the bad things of something, you may not understand some things fully. I prefer to try not to be too wishful in my thinking and at the same time be realistic. However, sometimes when I think of something, my first reaction is overly optimistic or pessimistic. For instance, at one point when I was writing this speech I said to myself that I'd never finish. Of course that's not true because I'm giving the speech now.

I also do now know many people that tend to think very optimistically or very pessimistically ALL the time. I find that many people use the same approach as I do when it comes to things, looking at all sides of whatever situation one is ...