December 2010
Optimism
Optimism as having “hopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favo(u)rable or hopeful view.” The word is originally derived from the Latin optimum, meaning “best.”
Unlike optimal thinking which is realistic in nature, being optimistic, in the typical sense of the word, ultimately means one expects the best possible outcome from...
Explanatory Style
This broader concept is based on the theory that optimism and pessimism are drawn from the particular way people explain events. There are three dimensions within typical explanations, which include internal versus external, stable versus unstable, and global versus specific.