Learned Optimism: Can You Teach Yourself To Be An Optimistic Person?

“Learned optimism” refers to the intentional development of a life view that assumes positive outcomes are more likely to occur than negative outcomes. This is the opposite of “ is considered to be the opposite of learned helplessness.” 

The American Psychological Association defines learned helplessness as the belief that a person lacks control over their environment, particularly any environmental stressors. Holding this belief can prevent a person to not putting in any effort to make into changing changes to their situation, even if they are unhappy. 

Learned helplessness is associated with mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.

On the contrary, learned optimism is associated with an enhanced ability to make decisions and participate in purposeful behavior that positively impacts one’s life.  Moving away and divorcing from a mindset based on learned helplessness and toward one of learned optimism can be physically and mentally beneficial. Learned optimism is associated with an enhanced ability to make decisions and participate in purposeful behavior that positively impacts one’s life. 

Martin Seligman, positive psychology, and learned optimism

The phrase “learned optimism” was coined by psychologist and past president of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Martin Seligman, a psychologist who is a past president of the American Psychological Association and considered the pioneer of the modern positive psychology movement. 

Positive psychology argues that, for most of the field’s history, psychological research has focused on alleviating negative thoughts and symptoms associated with mental health conditions, traumatic life experiences, and other forms of psychological pain, but psychology should also concentrate also need to pay attention to the science of happiness and optimism. 

Positive psychology posits that psychological care must be about reinforcing the “good/desirable” and not just eliminating the “bad/undesirable.” By better understanding how to find purpose and joy and live a meaningful life, psychologists can potentially provide more effective help to their patients in a potentially more effective way. Positive psychology posits that psychological care must be about reinforcing the “good/desirable” and not just eliminating the “bad/undesirable.”

Explanatory styles

Before coining developing learned optimism, Dr. Seligman’s work focused on learned helplessness (which led to his advocacy prioritizing optimism in psychological research). He determined that a critical component of learned helplessness — – and, later, learned optimism –— was how people explained to themselves and others how events in their lives had occurred. He referred to these methods as “explanatory styles” and distinguished among two types: pessimistic and optimistic.

A person with a pessimistic explanatory style tends to view unfavorable events as caused by some innate, unchangeable personality trait within themselves. They also usually believe that unpleasant circumstances will continue indefinitely and occur in many different areas of their life.  

If a person has an optimistic explanatory style, they tend to view undesirable events in their life as caused by external forces (typically the situation itself or other people involved). They typically and to believe that the cause of the negative event is specific only to that event and will not necessarily extend to other parts of their life.

A person with a pessimistic explanatory style tends to view unfavorable events as caused by some innate, unchangeable personality trait within themselves. They also usually believe that unpleasant circumstances will continue indefinitely and occur in many different areas of their life. 

Let’s break down the differences between these two styles with a real-life example. Let’s say you a person were a few minutes late to work one day because you didn’t sleep well the night before and got a slower start to your morning than usual. 

Using an optimistic explanatory style, you may explain and think through your situation in the following way: “I was late to work, which I’m not proud of. It was probably because I didn’t sleep super well last night. I think there may have been too many blankets on the bed, and I got so hot that it disturbed my sleep was disturbed. I’ll take some blankets off the bed tonight —, that way, and I’ll probably sleep better and have no problem getting up when my alarm goes off tomorrow in the morning.”

The above explanation indicates that the event was caused by external forces (this person’s lack of sleep, which impacted your punctuality);, the cause of the event was specific to that event (the blankets overheated them and degraded made you too hot to sleep well);, and the cause of the event was finite and fixable (you’ll they’ll remove the blankets from the bed, to improve their and you’ll sleep better and get up on time).

In contrast, a pessimistic explanatory style may understand the situation differently: “I was late to work, and I’m so ashamed. I had trouble waking up because I was so lazy. Now I will probably never get that promotion I’ve been after. And you know what? I’m so lazy that I  doubt I’ll ever finish that home project I’ve been working on, and I’ll never meet a partner who loves me because I’m fundamentally lazy and flawed. I bet I won’t arrive at work on time tomorrow, either.”

The pessimistic explanatory style assumes that the event is caused by an innate personal quality (you this person is lazy);, the cause of the event will impact other life areas (they’ll fail to complete their home improvement project or find a loving partner and dating),; and the cause of the event is not finite or fixable and, as a consequence, will continue (you they will be late tomorrow, too).

If you are curious about your default explanatory style, Dr. Seligman’s book “Learned Optimism” features a learned optimism test chapter that can answer 48 questions to assess your chief explanatory styles. 

Benefits of optimism and a positive perspective

Clearly, learning to view the world through a lens of learned optimism can lead to a greater feeling of self-control and agency within your life and a decreased inclination towards negative self-talk. A positive outlook, higher levels of optimism levels, and optimistic behavior may also lead to more immediately tangible beneficial impacts on your life, though, including: 

• Higher levels of self-esteem and self-respect.
• Enhanced emotional regulation.
• Better physical health (i.e., immune and cardiovascular functioning, and recovery prognosis).
• Increased likelihood of persevering toward goals and milestones.
• A greater sense of resilience.
• Reduced risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety.
• Quicker and smoother adaptation to life changes.
• A stronger sense of happiness.

Finding support for developing an optimistic mindset

Evidence from a 2009 study suggests that optimism may have genetic and environmental influences, meaning that optimistic parents are more likely to raise an optimistic child. However, even if your parents did not raise you with a particularly positive worldview, or your scores on Seligman’s learned optimism test are more aligned with a pessimistic explanatory style on Seligman’s learned optimism test, that does not mean you are destined to live with learned helplessness. 

Teach yourself to be an optimistic person through therapy

A licensed therapist can help you practice learned optimism and gradually shift how you understand and interpret the world around you. If you have been defaulting to a state of learned helplessness for a while, you may have a negative outlook on the effectiveness of therapy, which can make finding a therapist difficult. Online therapy options may be an opportunity for more accessible therapy options in this situation. 

Using an online therapy platform like BetterHelp, you can browse therapist directories and attend sessions all from the comfort of your own home. Schedule appointments at times that work for your schedule, and choose the communication format that feels is most comfortable to you, be it: video chats, phone calls, or in-app messaging text messages.

Scientific research indicates that there may not be a significant difference in outcomes from attending therapy online versus traditional in-person treatment. One study found that online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a form of therapy closely associated with making meaningful shifts in a person’s worldview, was found to have comparable outcomes to in-person CBT treatment. Online therapy could be helpful if you are hoping to move away from a learned helplessness mentality toward one of learned optimism.