But in the long term, they became progressively less engaged with their academic context, had decreasing self-esteem, and experienced lower levels of wellbeing. In the short term, students who had illusory beliefs about their academic ability experienced higher levels of wellbeing than students without self-enhancing beliefs (Robins and Beer 2001). Let me turn now to an example of optimistic beliefs that are not conducive to success, where success is measured by academic performance and engagement. Adjustment was measured by structured interviews and ratings by family and friends where the person’s mental health and quality of social interactions were also taken into account. People were found to adapt better to the loss of a spouse when they had unrealistically self-enhancing beliefs, that is, excessively positive beliefs about themselves, their skills, and their talents (Yan and Bonanno 2015). Let me start with an example of optimistic beliefs linked to success where success is cashed out in terms of overall social adjustment. Although the link between optimism and success is widely endorsed in popular culture, it is controversial in the empirical literature, where we find both examples of optimistic beliefs leading to success (e.g., Fox 2013) and examples of optimistic beliefs leading to failure (e.g., Lavallo and Kahneman 2003 Lewine and Sommers 2016). For instance, I tend to believe that I am more productive than the average academic and that I will not get cancer. Based on the literature about positive illusions in the perception of romantic partners and in the assessment of future health prospects, I suggest that optimistic beliefs lead to goal attainment when they support agency by contributing to the sense that we are competent and efficacious agents and that our goals are both desirable and attainable. According to the traditional view, optimistic beliefs lead to success when they do not involve any distortion of reality, and according to the trade-off view, they lead to success when they involve a distortion of reality, but a small one. Thus, it is controversial whether optimistic beliefs are conducive to success, intended as the fulfilment of our goals in a given domain. Sceptics, instead, claim that when we are optimistic we fail to react constructively to negative feedback, and put ourselves at risk because we underestimate threats. Learned Optimism blends hard-edged science with practical advice to give us an understanding of how we hold ourselves back and how we can change for the better.Does optimism lead to success? Friends of optimism argue that positive beliefs about ourselves and our future contribute to our fitness and mental health, and are correlated with good functioning, productivity, resilience, and pro-social behaviour. * Avoid feelings of helplessness and depression Seligman's principles of reasoned, flexible optimism will help you: More powerful and pragmatic than a simple program of positive thinking, Dr. Martin Seligman, a pioneer in cognitive psychology and motivational research, tells you how to identify your own self-defeating thought patterns - and how to harness the powers of your conscious mind to break those patterns.īased on years of rigorous research, Learned Optimism examines the importance of "explanatory style" - the way in which we explain our problems and setbacks to ourselves - and offers a series of exercises that will help you target unhealthy habits of pessimistic thinking and bring them under your control. Without knowing it, most of us impose limits on our achievement and our happiness by approaching life's problems and challenges with unnecessary pessimism.
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