Optimism

How can positive emotions protect us against stress? Consider this scenario: John is laid off his job. He becomes depressed and despondent, and spends day after day watching television on his couch.

Now, Trent is also laid off his job. He decides to use the time to find a job he likes even better. He works with a career counselor, updates his resume and actively seeks new positions. Trent feels much better during his layoff than John does during his, and he finds new employment.

Trent also approached his situation more positively. In this segment, we'll note three concepts associated with positive emotions. They are optimism, self-efficacy and happiness.

Optimism: Hopefulness about successful future outcomes. Its opposite is pessimism. Optimists and pessimists differ in how they deal with adversity and with people. Optimists tend to be confident they can solve problems, even when facing great adversity, whereas pessimists tend to doubt. And, so, optimists tend to experience less distress than pessimists, which leaves them better able to cope.

There is some evidence that the extent to which we are optimistic is genetic. But other psychologists, notably Martin Seligman, focus on optimism as a learned skill. For example, Seligman believes that we can learn to change our self-talk, or the unvocalized thoughts that run in our heads. Pessimists tend to have negative self-talk, but these thoughts can be challenged.

Self-Efficacy

Optimists also tend to have greater self-efficacy, which is the belief in their own competence to produce desired outcomes. People with higher self-efficacy are more likely to take on new challenges. People with lower self-efficacy, by contrast, are more likely to avoid new challenges, and they are more likely to believe existing problems are more difficult than they actually are.