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Optimism Exam (Learned optimism (Martin Seligman 1978) (Developed from…
Optimism Exam
Learned optimism (Martin Seligman 1978)
Developed from
Learned Helplessness
model. LH happens when people or animals find themselves in uncontrollable situations; for instance, when a person cannot do anything about what is happening to them. LH develops when a person has learnt to attribute their failures in situations ti
INTERNAL
(to do with the person themselves),
STABLE
(will always be there) and
GLOBAL
(will be there in every aspect of their life and all situations)
STABLE
FACTOR - its allways my fault; ill never be worthy; I've always been a horrible person and it will always be the same
GLOBAL
FACTOR - if I am so terrible everyone should know it; that means that no one must like me; my friends don't like me; no will will ever want any sort of relationship with me.
INTERNAL
FACTOR eg "its all my fault; no one could ever love me; I am terrible; my personality drove them away
EXPLANATORY
style (1991) - the way you choose to explain you problems/setback and choose either a positive or negative way to deal with it.
Learned Helplessness
example - dogs in a
shuttle box
were repeatedly exposed to a tone then a mild electric shock. But instead of thew dog learning to jump out of the box they became passive, and just waited for the shocks to happen. They
learned
to be
helpless
. However a study of puppies discovered that they were not so pessimistic and had learned to avoid the shock, suggesting they were
optimistic
(1988) Seligman discovered that humans also had tendency to escape loud noises. Some became helpless but then some actually tried to avoid it
Personal/impersonal - Internal/external. permanent/impermanent - stable/transient. Pervasive/non pervasive - global/local
ABC format
(1991)
A = adversity
B = belief
key to optimism lies at point B
C = consequence
Distraction
- put adversaries or problems to one side in order to reevaluate a situation
Disputation
- asking yourself "why am I thinking this about the situation?" instead of saying "why is this happening to me?"
Optimism critiques
Gambling? (Gibson 2004)
Not knowing when to quit and not recognising what they cannot accomplish (Scheier and Carver 2003)
Failing to disengage from a task even though it was "impossible" (Aspinwall and Richter 1999)
Is the ABC method to simplistic and is it sufficient enough to enable change in a person ?
How painstaking is it to make a conscious effort each time to learn to be optimistic all the time?
How successful is the transfer of the idea of learned helplessness to Bessom is it is? Do they mean the same thing? Cultural/oppressive issues?
Positives
Maruta (2000) study showed people with a more positve outlook lived on average, 19% longer based a longitudinal study on over 1100 patients over a 30 year period
Improvement of the immune system (Spencer 2003)
Improvement of adaptive coping strategies (Konertz 1998)
Optimism bias (Tali Sharot 2011)
Optimism a self-fulfilling prophecy? German Stallion horse named Hans who was"clever". Used to righ foot to answer maths answers, and his left foot to answer more complcated sums. But it became unstuck once it was determined that the training methods he were put through were the same, and once a new test was conducted he had failed. and dropped to a mere 16%
How optimism rocketed during the GFC
Optimism during the inaguration of Obama
Dispositional optimism
(Carver and Scheier 1981)
Dispositional pessimism
(Carver and Scheier 1981)
Life Orientation Test (LOT) - 4 negative and 4 positive worded items questionnaire
Situational
optimism