Optimists do not see their own efforts as being futile or meaningless. They understand that they do have the power to make things happen and take steps to make their dreams a reality. In contrast, pessimists have a difficult time believing that what they do will make any difference and find it difficult to make any changes or take any actions towards a goal.
They find excuses why something that has worked for others will not work for them and believe that anything that they do is doomed to fail. Learning how to Respect each other,. Endless possibilities that are fuelled by growing things, music, listening well and every other unbounded moment of creativity. Sarah Burrows, Director at Red 8 Produce. Lauren Grey Flanagan. When we lift others above ourselves, our internal light shines brighter. We are brighter together.
I believe there is always a solution, and so I am 'solutions' focussed. Having a positive disposition and a 'can do' attitude ensures that a solution can be found for every challenge, barrier or problem. I enjoy and appreciate every new day of good health and happiness, every day is exciting, there is always something new to learn and good positive people to interact with.
Dr Prarthana Chate. It is a future built on enlightened optimism. Other Optimists' Resources. No matter your political views, you must be optimistic about humans because they must implement whatever ideology you believe in. I think it might just work! I'm an optimist becuz when it comes to improving human affairs there is still plenty of low-hanging fruit!!
People simply want a better life for themselves and their children, and that's a cause for optimism pic. Optimistic people not only create good things in messy situations, they tend to be kinder to people around them. They remain calm and deal with people with patience. Pessimism loves company.
But optimism makes companies. Repeat after me: I'm an optimist and I'm proud. I'm not naive, I'm hopeful. I'm not blind, I see more than you. Spread Optimism by sharing this page on social media - click on one of these buttons.
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Coping with coronavirus disappointments: Five lessons from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The case for optimism: USA and Coronavirus. Day 3. Despite the challenges, American optimism will see us through this. Tulsa Mayor G. Bynum: Bad part of pandemic is yet to come, but there are three reasons for optimis.
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Senior Survival Optimism is essential, negativity is a non-starter. Coronavirus vaccine: reasons to be optimistic. Optimistic Persistence. Complying with lockdown does become harder over time — here's why. Coronavirus reminds you of death — and amplifies your core values, both bad and good. Happiness and Covid There is no easy path out of coronavirus for live classical music. Facing the coronavirus crisis together could lead to positive psychological growth. Brookings Reports on American Differences in resilience across minorities and whites in Respect of W.
How pandemics past and present fuel the rise of large companies. Alix Bradfield on Optimism. Five ways to support new parents returning to work during the pandemic. Coronavirus: how the pharma industry is changing to produce a vaccine on time. Rough sleeping fell during the pandemic — but can this success be sustained? The Science on How to stay socially connected during Lockdown. A new study suggests coronavirus antibodies fade over time — but how concerned should we be?
Coronavirus vaccine results are pouring in, and it's good news for older people. Helen Keller's Optimism. Entrepreneurship and Optimism. Positively Speaking: Will you choose to be a victor or victim in ?
Interesting Optimists on their Optimism. Flexible goal adjustment especially seems to buffer the negative consequences of stressful circumstances Schmitz et al. Since optimism has specifically been related to well-being despite adversity, flexible goal adjustment might be of particular importance with respect to explaining the relationship between optimism and well-being.
This study investigates the role of motivational coping in the association between dispositional optimism and well-being.
We examine and compare the direct and indirect effects of optimism on four indices of well-being: general well-being, depression, anxiety and physical complaints, through two motivational coping strategies in a parallel multiple mediator model. We hypothesize that motivational coping flexible goal adjustment and tenacious goal pursuit mediates the effect of dispositional optimism on well-being.
Furthermore, we hypothesize that the indirect effect of optimism on well-being is larger through flexible goal adjustment than through tenacious goal pursuit. Footnote 1 The recruitment strategy included flyers at Maastricht University and advertisements in regional newspapers. Fluency in the Dutch language and an age between 18 and 65 were necessary conditions to participate.
Inclusion criteria were checked via email prior to participation. Participation was voluntarily, with a chance of winning an iPod or gift coupons by lottery as an incentive. In this sample, the reported levels of education were junior Four filler items are added to conceal the aim of the assessment.
Footnote 2. Both scales consist of 15 items measuring assimilative and accommodative tendencies at a dispositional level. Higher scores reflect greater tenacious goal pursuit and more flexible goal adjustment. The Dutch version of the W-BQ12 is shown to be a valid and reliable measure of well-being in people with diabetes Pouwer et al. Although originally designed to be suitable for use by people with chronic diseases avoiding somatic items , it can nevertheless be used as a generic measure for general well-being Pouwer et al.
The questionnaire consists of 12 items, which comprise three subscales of 4 items each. In this study only the total score was used as an indication of self-reported general well-being. Higher scores on the scale reflect greater general well-being. Psychometric properties of both the English and Dutch version have been found to be satisfactory Spinhoven et al. Both the depression and anxiety subscale consist of 7 items that are scored on a 4-point Likert scale.
Participants were asked to indicate to what extent they experience a series of physical complaints. Items consisted of the following physical complaints: nausea, headache, back pain, fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, stomach-ache and dizziness. Participants who expressed interest in response to our recruitment efforts received additional information about the study by e-mail. They were informed that the study was being conducted in order to evaluate the quality of certain questionnaires.
Detailed instructions about the online procedure were provided and qualifications for inclusion in the study were checked via email. Participants were then directed to our assessment page, located in a secure online environment. Following the provision of informed consent, demographic variables were measured. Participants then completed several questionnaires in which each item was presented separately on screen. The procedure did not allow items to be skipped.
Other questionnaires that are not part of the scope of this article were also included in this assessment battery. Total assessment time was 45—60 min.
Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients between dispositional optimism, motivational coping strategies flexible goal adjustment; tenacious goal pursuit and indices of well-being general well-being; depression; anxiety; physical complaints were calculated.
In order to test whether the relationship between dispositional optimism and well-being is mediated by motivational coping hypothesis 1 , an observed variable path analysis corresponding to Fig.
This model includes all possible direct and indirect effects of optimism on general well-being, anxiety, depression and physical complaints, with the indirect effects operating through the two motivational coping strategies.
A model with multiple mediators such as this contains two specific indirect effects of optimism on each outcome, one through each motivational coping strategy, as well as a total indirect effect defined as the sum of the two specific indirect effects. As is widely-recommended e. Mediation is established if the confidence interval for an indirect effect does not straddle zero. The theoretical and estimated model depicting direct and indirect effects of dispositional optimism on well-being through motivational coping strategies.
To examine whether the indirect effect of optimism is significantly larger through flexible goal adjustment than through tenacious goal pursuit hypothesis 2 , these specific indirect effects were formally compared, for each outcome, also using a bootstrap confidence interval for the difference between indirect effects see Hayes , pp. Descriptive statistics as well as correlation coefficients between dispositional optimism, motivational coping and indices of well-being are presented in Table 1. The correlations between dispositional optimism, motivational coping strategies flexible goal adjustment and tenacious goal pursuit and well-being general well-being, depression, anxiety, and physical complaints were all statistically significant.
As expected, the relatively more optimistic participants scored higher in both tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment. Furthermore, participants relatively higher in these motivational coping strategies reported greater general well-being, lower depression and anxiety, and fewer physical complaints.
We hypothesized that dispositional optimism is related to indices of well-being and that these relationships are mediated by flexible goal adjustment and tenacious goal pursuit. The correlations between optimism and the four well-being measures in Table 1 substantiate that optimists tend to experience more well-being than those who are less optimistic. The path analysis corresponding to Fig. In accordance with the recommendation of Preacher and Hayes , the covariances between the errors in estimation of the mediators were freely estimated.
We also freely estimated the covariances between the errors in estimation of each outcome. Footnote 3 Not depicted in Fig. Footnote 4 The resulting model is saturated, meaning as many parameters are estimated as degrees of freedom available. Therefore, fit is necessarily perfect. The model coefficients can be found in Tab. The total indirect effect offers information about motivational coping i. Specific indirect effects of flexible goal adjustment and tenacious goal pursuit describe mediation by the individual motivational coping tendencies.
The direct effects in the first row of Table 2 estimate the relationship between optimism and the well-being outcomes through mechanisms or processes e.
Based on the coefficients in Table 2 and the bootstrap confidence intervals for the total indirect effects, more optimistic participants tend to pursue goals more tenaciously, and are more inclined to adjust their goals based on the demands of the situation as compared to low optimistic participants.
These strategies in turn are associated with increased general well-being and reduced anxiety and depression. The total indirect effects aggregate across the specific indirect pathways of influence, and as discussed in Hayes , they can mask or otherwise obscure the effects operating at the level of the specific mediators depending on the size and sign of those specific indirect effects.
In a multiple mediator model, the specific indirect effects quantify the influence of one variable and another through a third while statistically holding constant the other mediators in the model. An examination of the specific indirect effects in Table 3 shows that the mediation of the effect of optimism on well-being operates primarily through flexible goal adjustment, with negative indirect effects on depression and anxiety and a positive indirect effect on general well-being.
The only statistically significant specific indirect effect through tenacious goal pursuit was on general well-being, with optimism associated with more positive general well-being. Finally, as can be seen in Table 2 , the direct effect of optimism on well-being was statistically significant for all outcome variables, meaning that optimism is related to well-being after accounting for the indirect process through motivational coping. That is, holding differences in motivational coping constant, the more optimistic the greater well-being higher general well-being and lower anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms.
The prior analysis reveals evidence of an indirect effect of optimism on several measures of well-being primarily through flexible goal adjustment and not through tenacious goal pursuit. A difference in significance of indirect effects does not imply they are significantly different. As can be seen, for general well-being, anxiety, and depression, the two specific indirect effects were statistically different as the bootstrap confidence interval for the difference does not straddle zero , but they were not different for physical complaints.
These results bolster our claim that of the two coping strategies we examined, flexible goal adjustment is the primary mechanism through which dispositional optimism influences well-being.
The beneficial impact of dispositional optimism on physical and psychological well-being is well documented Carver et al. The relationships between dispositional optimism and general well-being, depression, anxiety and physical complaints adds to the available evidence establishing that optimists experience greater subjective well-being than pessimists.
More importantly, however, this study provides new evidence regarding the mechanism by which this effect may operate. We sought to investigate two motivational coping strategies as the mechanism linking dispositional optimism and several indices of well-being, and found evidence consistent with mediation by motivational coping.
Moreover, it was primarily flexible goal adjustment that seemed to translate into greater well-being. There was no indirect effect of optimism through tenacious goal pursuit except for one measure of well-being, and that indirect effect was smaller than the effect through flexible goal adjustment. These results underscore that motivational coping at least partially explains the relationship between dispositional optimism and certain indices of well-being Carver et al.
These results also confirm our hypothesis that the indirect effect of optimism on well-being would be larger through flexible goal adjustment than through tenacious goal pursuit. These results contribute to the conviction that flexible goal adjustment protects people from negative consequences in stressful circumstances and promotes quality of life Schmitz et al.
In this framework, optimistic expectations by definition lead to well-being through continued goal attainment. Our results invite speculations on the role of flexible goal adjustment in an expectancy-value framework of motivation. First of all, it is interesting that flexible goal adjustment has been described as a strategy to stay engaged instead of turning effort away. Adaptive self-regulation includes not only behavioural but also cognitive responses. Optimistic people are more pleasant to be around than their pessimistic counterparts, and an office full of optimists is a more agreeable place to work than one full of sourpusses.
Yet somehow, pessimists have all the street cred. The office cynics are thought to be more realistic, rational, and strategic.
Optimists may be sweet, but pessimists, though often sour, are deemed shrewd. Optimistic managers may create a sunnier workgroup, but pessimists will prepare it for the worst. Recent research, however, suggests that pessimistic managers may not only plan for the worst, but invite it. Margaret Greenberg and Dana Arakawa, graduates of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program at the University of Pennsylvania, studied the effects of optimistic managers and found that optimists may do a better job of helping employees reach goals and be more productive.
But hope and belief aren't easily quantifiable, and their influence is tough to measure in dollars. To determine the impact of positive practices, including optimism, Greenberg and Arakawa surveyed more than information technology professionals in different individual contributor and managerial roles at The Hanover Insurance Group. Greenberg and Arakawa constructed two electronic surveys -- one for the 86 employees and one for the 17 managers in the study -- and administered them in and To measure optimism, the surveys included the Life Orientation Test Revised LOT-R , a standard item scale designed to assess individual differences in generalized optimism versus pessimism.
To determine what influence optimism has on engagement, the researchers used Gallup's item survey of employee engagement, the Q When Greenberg and Arakawa looked at retrospective performance results from , they found that manager optimism didn't have a direct correlation with employee engagement -- but it did appear to have an indirect relationship to it: Though a manager's optimism didn't directly influence the engagement level of his or her employees, that manager's sense of optimism correlated significantly with his or her own level of engagement.
In other words, the more optimistic the manager, the more engaged he or she is on the job. But does a manager's sense of optimism drive his or her engagement? Greenberg and Arakawa aren't sure.
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