Optimism
Guest Blog by Ora Prilleltensky
I answered the phone at the sound of the first ring: “Oh, hi, mom. Unfortunately I didn’t win the game. I was playing this guy, rated 2300 and I was leading for most of it – but then I lost on time.” It was our eighteen-year-old son Matan, calling from Philadelphia with an update from the World Chess Tournament. I felt for Matan, as this was the third game in a row that he had lost in the tournament. I was about to say that it’s okay – his opponent was such a strong player, after all, higher rated than Matan whose rating was slightly over 2000 at the time. But I needn’t have bothered. In a typical Matan style, he went on to tell me that although “it sucks” to lose, he has learned so much from these games. No, he was not sorry that he decided to enter the Open section that had all the strongest players from all over the world. This would be good preparation for future games. For the record, Matan lost the first three games of the tournament, and went on to draw one game and win the next five. Despite his slow beginning, he was one of six players to tie for first place in this international chess tournament, returning home with a $750 check.
Motherly boasting aside, this exchange with Matan, which took place some fifteen years ago, speaks volumes about optimism. Matan has been playing chess since he was eight years old and has played in tournaments in Canada, Australia, and the USA. He loves the game, enjoys the hype of tournaments, and is always on the lookout for the next major event. While his talent for chess undoubtedly plays a significant factor in his success, I believe his optimism enables him to continue, despite an initial losing streak. Today Matan is a national master, the director of his own chess academy, www.masterchess.org, and has trained scores of champions.
“Optimists and pessimists differ in several ways that have a big impact on their lives. They differ in how they approach problems and challenges, and they differ in the manner--and the success--with which they cope with adversity,” Carver and Scheier wrote back in 2002. Most importantly, optimists are much more likely than pessimists to be high in subjective well-being. As common wisdom has it, optimists are those who see the glass as half-full, while their pessimistic counterparts see it as half-empty. People’s dispositional optimism as well as their explanatory style account for their level of optimism. Dispositional optimism has to do with one’s general expectation that the future has good things in store and that positive circumstances will outnumber and overshadow negative ones. The general belief that goals will be achieved is linked to desirable outcomes in general and to effective coping skills in particular. The tendency to expect that positive events are more likely than negative ones goes hand in hand with the belief that obstacles can be overcome and adversity can be handled successfully.
Explanatory style is a related but separate construct that contributes to our understanding of optimism. Our explanatory style has to do with how we explain and make sense of the causes or attributions of positive and negative events in our lives. Optimists are those who tend to explain bad events with causes that are external to themselves (My opponent was a higher rated player, or, his lower rating doesn’t really reflect his strength). These same events are described as unstable (I’ll do better next time), and specific (I need to study a certain chess opening that will throw off my opponent). Pessimists, on the other hand, will perceive negative events as internal (I didn’t play well), stable (I’m just not good in chess) and universal (I fail at most things). On the flip side, optimists will explain good events and circumstances as internal (I’ve improved so much), stable (I’ll win more games now), and universal (I guess I’m pretty smart to have advanced so much). You get the picture. As Seligman asserts, “finding permanent and universal causes for good events along with temporary and specific causes for misfortune is the art of hope; finding permanent and universal causes for misfortune and temporary and specific causes for good events is the practice of despair.” The good news is that we can exert some control over our explanatory style and learn to question wrong assumptions.
Level of optimism has wide-ranging implications in varying contexts. Pessimistic students will resort to avoidance coping while optimistic ones will engage in more active coping. Optimists use more problem-centered coping than pessimists, as well as a variety of emotion-focused coping techniques. When faced with difficult situations beyond their control, pessimists tend to respond with avoidance and denial, while optimists work to accept the reality of the situation and perceive it in the best possible light. I’m reminded of a magazine advertisement for a cancer drug that depicts a woman in her thirties with a determined look on her face. The subtitles above her picture say: “I’m ready, ready to fight my cancer, ready to start chemotherapy, ready for a family vacation.” This woman is an optimist.
Dr. Isaac Prilleltensky is an award-winning academic and author. He is also a coach, consultant and a researcher. His latest book, co-authored with his wife, Dr. Ora Prilleltensky, is How People Matter: Why it Affects Health, Happiness, Love, Work, and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Press here to pre-order.