Increasing Optimism and Hope

“Hope is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soulAnd sings the tune without wordsAnd never stops−at all

Emily DickinsonNo. 254 (c. 1861)

REBT

• ALBERT ELLIS• Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) • Our beliefs not the events upset us

"Men are disturbed not by events, but by the views which they take of them."

Epictetus

REBT

• Our reaction to having our goals blocked is determined by our beliefs…

• A. Something happens. (ADVERSITY)B. You have a belief about the situation. (BELIEFS)C. You have an emotional reaction to the belief. (EMOTIONAL CONSEQUENCES)

ABC Model

• A does not cause C• B causes C

• Seligman Extends the ABC Model to include the remediation of D (Disputation) and E (the resulting Energization)

• Hence the ABCDE Model

Increasing Optimism and Hope

• Optimism And Pessimism Are Hereditary

• Intervention that you can learn and practice to overcome pessimistic explanatory style

• The key is to first recognize them and then to treat them as if they were uttered by an external person

Increasing Optimism and Hope

• Use the ABCDE Model – A stands for adversity– B for the beliefs – C for the usual consequences of the belief B– D for your disputation of your routine belief– E for the Energization that occurs when you

dispute it successfully.

Increasing Optimism and Hope

• YOUR BELIEFS ARE JUST THAT – BELIEFS. – They may or may not be facts.– Our reflexive explanations are usually distortions.

• Step 1. Your beliefs warrant dispute• Step 2. Putting disputation into practice

Learning to Argue with Yourself

• Evidence• Alternatives• Implications– Decatastrophizing, how likely is the worst case?

• Usefulness– Destructive?– Changeable? How?

Flexible Optimism

• Times when we should not be optimistic : • When your goal is to plan for a risky or

uncertain future• If your goal is to counsel others whose future

is dim, do not use optimism initially• If you want to appear sympathetic to the

troubles of others, do not begin with optimism

Flexible Optimism

• What is the cost of failure?

• If high, optimism is the wrong strategy…

• If low, try to be more optimistic…

Thinking, Fast and SlowDaniel Kahneman

• Pervasive Optimistic Bias

“People do things they have no business doing because they believe they’ll be successful.”

• Optimistic biases can both be a blessing and a risk– Be both happy and wary

Kahneman on Optimists:

• Normally cheerful and happy– therefore popular

• Resilient in adapting to failures and hardships• Chances of clinical depression are reduced• Immune system is stronger• Take better care of their health• Feel healthier than others and are in fact likely

to live longer

Kahneman on Optimists:

• The Blessings Of Optimism – Individuals who are only mildly biased – Able to “accentuate the positive” – Without losing track of reality

Kahneman on Optimists:

• Optimistic individuals play a disproportionate role in shaping our lives…– Inventors– Entrepreneurs– Political and Military Leaders

• Optimistic and overconfident• Take more risks than they realize

Kahneman on Optimists:

• The chances that a small business will survive for five years in the U.S.

….are about 35%

• Survey of American entrepreneurs– Business like theirs ….60%– Their own …>70% (81% believed)– Their own chance of failing was 0 (33%)

Seligman and Kahneman

• One great benefit of Optimism: ….it encourages persistence in the face of obstacles

Rumination Theory

• Rumination: When misfortune strikes, brooding and reliving the events over and over…

Susan Nolen-Hoeksema

• Women thought and analyzed their mood• Men distracted themselves

Rumination Theory

• Offered a choice of two tasks when they were sad– A task focusing on their depression– Adistracting task

• 70% of women chose the emotion-focused task

• 70% of men chose the distracting task• If you tend to ruminate, you can use the

disputation exercise to counteract this practice

Army Strong

• Global Assessment Tool (GAT)

• Signature Strengths

Army Strong

• Emotional Fitness – Negative emotions warn us of threats• Fear preceded by thoughts of danger• Sadness preceded by a thought of loss• Anger preceded by a thought of trespass

– This awareness enables us to modulate our emotional reaction in proportion

– Having more positive emotions will build a better Losada ratio

Army Strong

• Family Fitness– Gratitude– Active and Constructive Responding

Army StrongSocial Fitness

• Either…• A tribe including many members who, from

possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to aid one another, and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes; and this would be natural selection.

- Charles Darwin

Army StrongSocial Fitness

• Or… The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins theory that it is solitary, superior individuals that win out over the less capable

• Seligman prefers Darwin’s group selection theory – because of Altruism…

Army StrongSocial Fitness

• Social Resilience emphasizes empathy.• Contagion of emotion• Optimism improves resilience

Army Strong

• Spiritual Fitness– Advantages of a higher level of spirituality– Answering to a higher moral order increases

ethical behavior– Human spirituality is living by a code rooted in

belonging to something we believe is larger than ourselves.