Is There Evidence for the View that We Have an Unrealistically Optimistic View of Ourselves? And To What Extent Does Such a Positive Self-View Makes for a Better Life? “The optimism bias stands guard. It’s in charge of keeping our minds at ease and our bodies healthy. It moves us forward, rather than to the nearest high-rise rooftop.”– Sharot. In this quotation, Sharot shares her belief that we have a tendency to overestimate positive events that will happen in our life, this is the optimism bias; and this tendency keeps us living. It is also a long-term effect and not a short term one. Researchers have long discussed the question of why we still have an unrealistic optimism even though reality throws events at us that could change our view and believes. They have found that indeed, people tend to be optimistic about themselves, they also accept an information that has positive implication for them more easily that one that has negative implication for them. But do we have evidence that people have an unrealistically optimistic view of themselves; in other words, do they never predict that something negative will …show more content…
Firstly, people who show an optimism bias feel more happy and satisfied with their life. These people are also more in control of and engaged in their life’s goal, they will not just think about happy thoughts and wait for life to pass, instead they will be engaged in a meaningful life and do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals. They are also less likely to give up on a difficult situation and will cope with it. These are people who will not wait for the rain to pass but who learn to dance in the rain in order to fulfil their life’s goal. Unrealistic optimism shows an increased well-being and happiness. With this increased well-being, unrealistically optimistic people are also more able to pick themselves up after a major life
Optimism is a necessary quality for the average person. It allows one to strive for the best and persevere. But, can there be such thing as too much optimism? Can it blind individuals from the harsh truths of the world? The answer to both of these questions is yes; as is exemplified by the novel Don Quixote as well as numerous instances in history, Optimism overshadows the more realistic negative consequences of achieving a dream. Protagonist Alonso Quesada, self-dubbed knight-errant Don Quixote, embarks on a rather ill conceived journey in search of a quest. Upon seeing the windmills as giants, Quixote opportunistically takes advantage of the situation and attacks the harmless contraptions resulting in his inevitable defeat. However, the moment that shows the reader the optimistic
Ever hear one say, “Sometimes I’m busy making others happy, that I forget to make sure I’m okay.”? After reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided I have learned that balancing both positive and negative thinking is the single most important life lesson shown throughout the book. Ehrenreich tells readers that the power of positive thinking Is undermining America and how being too positive and too optimistic, can lead to trouble. One that knows how to balance the amount of positivity and negativity will create a proper outcome for their future.
In the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest optimism can be found in the quote “my head is bloody, But unbowed” (2). This show how no matter what negative thing happens in your life, no matter how bad it is you can always make something positive out of it. Optimism can also be seen in the quote “my unconquerable soul” (1). This shows how confident and positive he is about and is showing he puts the negative emotions to ret and just the positive rise and defeats the negative emotions. He only lets the positive in and lets the negative stay outside so nothing can conquer his soul. He thanking the Gods for his "unconquerable soul...
...too optimistic can result in sadness and despair. Optimism also has the power to blind us from seeing the harsh and cruel realities in life. Optimists focus exclusively on the bright side of life and tend to avoid all the cruel realities. However, when the time comes to face a harsh reality, optimists are unprepared and fail. Wiesel makes this argument to show us the negative effects of optimism. For example, the belief that drinking and driving or speeding is not going to end fatally. Optimists have the mindset of “death is something that happens to others.” Drinking and driving and speeding blind the driver from realizing there is a possibility of death. These optimistic people are the most likely to die due to the fact that they are not aware of this possibilities. Wiesel would agree that optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.
The importance dispositional optimism as a facilitator of well-being, positive health, flourishing, and quality of life has been documented in the positive psychology literature. Dispositional optimism evaluated by the LOT-R is a positive personality trait characterized by favorable personal future expectation (Scheier et al., 1994). It has been emphasized that optimism is a malleable personality trait and that pessimists can become optimists by utilizing techniques such as positive psychology interventions (Carver et al., 2009; Seligman, 2011). In contrast to traditional psychological interventions, positive psychology interventions have a strong focus on cultivating positive personality traits including dispositional optimism.
I have noticed that my own illusion has kept me more optimistic towards bad situations. Therefore, if I believe I am in control of a certain situation, and it plays out how I want, it is a large boost in confidence. However, if the event does not play out in my favor I am still not extremely upset with the results. This is confirmed by Thomas Langen suggesting, “A study done by psychologists Alloy and Clements revealed that individuals with a high illusion of control have a sort of buffer against the emotional consequences of failed experiences. The participants worked on a series of block design problems that were unsolvable. The participants with high illusion of control had lower negative moods compared to those with low illusion of control. The study also found that these same findings could be applied to life. Individuals with high illusion of control were less discouraged and more motivated despite negative life events, even difficult long-term events were more likely to be pursued. Contrary, participants with low illusory distortions were likely to have more negative moods, and outlook on life
It has become widely accepted that optimism serves as a predictor of positive health outcomes (Rasmussen, H., Scheier, M., & Greenhouse, J., 2009). One particular study assessed the role of optimism and pessimism in children and adolescents. This study revealed the importance of developing optimism in children as it serves as a protective factor, not just in daily life hassles, but in medical complications as well. Furthermore, having an optimistic outlook on the future serves as a predictor of better medication and medical treatment adherence in children and adolescence with chronic illnesses. The development of an optimistic mindset development in childhood is particularly important in that it also serves to promote adult well-being (Ey et al., 2004). An additional study assessed the roles of optimism and pessimism on mental health and physical health. The findings from this study emphasize the importance of optimism on mental and physical well-being, which is particularly important for understanding the role of optimism in chronic illnesses, such as HIV
People are biases about every aspect of their life. From religion, to the people they date, to the type of toothpaste they use, people already have a preset judgement about things because of experiences in their past. In the book Stumbling on Happiness, author Daniel Gilbert says the ability to think about our future is what separates humans from other animals. Gilbert suggests that our brains fall victim to a wide range of biases that cause our predictions of the future to be inaccurate. Due to these mental errors it is remarkably difficult to predict what will actually happen and what will make us happy.
Whether we are naturally an optimist or more of a pessimist, it’s impossible to know what the future holds. So perhaps the best of both worlds is to be a realistic optimist - someone who tends to maintain a positive outlook, but within the constraints of what they know about the world (actionforhappiness.org).
Optimistic. Confident about the future. Many people may designate this term to describe me. On the outside, I try to appear this way; whereas on the inside, I am the exact opposite. My “optimism” is something I display to make others content, so they expect an ideal outcome. We live in a sinister world, so I conceal my pessimism and attempt to bring some positivity into it with my deceiving optimism. In my opinion, it is better to foresee failure, than to expect success and be disappointed. School is a place where my pessimism doubtlessly shines.
Haidt discusses how a large majority of Americans and Europeans, when asked to rate themselves on desirable virtues like intelligence, driving ability, sexual skills, and ethics, say that they are above average. Of course, it is logically impossible for a majority of people to be above average, but this just demonstrates the concept of the rose-colored mirror. People will quickly accept that others may have been faulty in their judgments, but when told that many people have inflated views of themselves, they mutter, “Well, other people may be biased, but I really am above average.” However, Haidt goes on to say that people that hold pervasive positive illusions about themselves, their abilities, and their future prospects are mentally healthier, happier, and better liked than people who lack such illusions. Additionally, positive illusions can help stave off discomfort and maintain healthy levels of self-esteem, at least in the short term. Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown’s Social Psychological Model of mental heal...
Optimism bias is defined as the belief that the future will be better than the present and past; the individual is optimistic about the future. The individual also overestimates the chances that good things will happen in the future and underestimates the chances of something bad to happen. The optimism bias can have a positive effect as it keeps the individual from falling into depression. Being realistic is often difficult because in reality we are going to have many bad things happen to us but we don’t want to admit this as it is a depression matter. An individual is going to lose their job, lose someone they love, get into a car accident, or make a terrible mistake but thinking about these things isn’t particularly healthy for the mind.
Optimistic attitude is a great way to feel better, even during bad times. The interesting question is, whether it can help the optimistic person to live the happy time longer, than his / her pessimistic colleague. The scientists (Maruta, Colligan, Malinchoc, and Offord (2000)) studied this question. They made an experiment: using the data gathered in the mid-1960, they divided the patients in three main groups. The first group was the optimistic, second – mixed, and the last pessimistic. The results were quite unambiguous: for every ten points increase in person’s score on their optimism scale, the risk of early death decreased by nineteen percents. It is a very good result, because, as we can see, the level of optimism is making the life of the peop...
Mental attitude refers to the complex mental state of a person which includes beliefs, emotions, values, and attitudes on which one’s acts certainly. Even before until now, self-help books and popular beliefs have already speculated the power of positive mental attitude in the lives of a person. Similarly, a number of theories on positive psychology may support this claim. On the basis of Seligman’s (1998) theory, pessimists tend to explain bad events that happened in their life as internal, stable, and global throughout their lives. Such people tend to develop learned helplessness and are prone to depression. Personal outlook in life, therefore, affects students’ performance. In school, study shows that pessimistic student performs less than their level of “talent” whereas optimistic student performs high (Seligman,
Being optimistic is a skill that does not come in one day; one needs to work on it to obtain it. One can always start with coping skills. At least that is what I did. Later on, I started to encourage myself to