Positive Psychology: Optimism, Hope, Wisdom, and Courage

Optimism

• ^^One’s expectancy that good things rather than bad will happen^^

• When a goals is of sufficient value, the individual would produce an expectancy about attaining that goal

• Stable trait independent form self-efficacy

• Attribution: the process by which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events

  

• The optimist uses adaptive causal attributions to explain negative experiences/events

• Makes ^^external, variable, and specific attributions^^ for failure-like events rather than internal, stable, and global attributes

Childhood Antecedents of Optimism

• There is a ^^genetic basis^^ of optimism
• Optimism can stem from ^^childhood experiences^^ that foster trust and secure attachments to parental figures

Measures of Optimism

• Life Optimism Test (LOT)
• Index of Optimism
  • self-mastery, self-esteem
  • can predict outcomes related to coping and adjustment

What can Optimism Predict?

• staring college
• performing in work situations
• caring for Alzheimer’s patients
• coping with cancer
• coping in general

Hope

• defined as a ^^goal-directed thinking^^ in which the person utilizes pathways of thinking (the capacity to find ways to desired goals) and agency thinking (motivations to use these ways)
• If there’s a will, there’s a way.

Childhood Antecedents of Hope

• Hope has no hereditary contribution but rather a learned cognitive set about ^^goal-directed thinking^^
• inherent part of parenting
• components of hopeful that are in place by the age of 2
• strong attachment to caregivers is crucial for imparting hope

Can Hope be Measured?

• Hope Scale
• Children’s Hope Scale
• State Hope Scale

Hope can predict…

• academics, sports, physical health, adjustment, psychotherapy

Collective Hope

• level of goal-directed thinking of a large group of people
• it is operative when several people join together to tackle a goal that would be impossible for any one person

Wisdom and Courage: 2 Universal Virtues

Wisdom

• involves an integration of k^^nowledge, experience, and deep understanding^^ that incorporates tolerance for the uncertainties of life as well as its ups and downs

Baltes Model of Wisdom

• Wisdom as Expert Knowledge
  • ^^factual knowledge^^ in fundamental pragmatics of life
  • knowledge in ^^contexts^^ of life and societal change
  • knowledge which considers ^^uncertainties^^ of life
  • ^^procedural knowledge^^ in fundamental pragmatics of life
  • knowledge which considers ^^relativism^^ values and goals
• Definition of Wisdom: good judgment and advice in important but uncertain areas of life

Wisdom

• found in persons seeking contemplative life (Sophia)
• practical nature (Phronesis)
• scientific understanding (Episteme)
• process used to ^^balance personal interests^^ with ^^environmental context^^ to achieve a common good
• this involves using ^^tacit knowledge and personal values^^ to form a judgment of or resolution for competing interests

Developing Wisdom

• resolving conflicts leads to enhanced discernment and judgment
• wisdom builds on knowledge, cognitive skill and personality characteristics
• exposure to wise role-models
• fluid intelligence, creativity, openness to experience, psychological mindedness, and general life-experiences orchestrate to produce wisdom

Characteristics of Wise People

• Sage: the carrier of wisdom
• Age: timeless and universal knowledge of wisdom
• includes the understanding of affect in problem-solving
• professional specialization does play a role in the manifestation of wisdom

Measurement of Wisdom

• Values in Action Classification of Strengths
• Wisdom Development Scale
  • self-knowledge
  • altruism
  • judgment
  • life knowledge/ life skills
  • emotional management

Courage

• defined as ^^behavioral approach despite the experience of fear^^, in an effort to better understand its relationship with anxiety, fear, and behavior
• the planning and execution of great and expansive projects by putting forth ample and splendid effort of the mind
• Confidence, with these projects, the mind self-confidently collects itself with sure hope
• Patience, the voluntary and lengthy insurance of arduous and difficult things, which are honorable and useful
• Perseverance, ongoing persistence in a well-considered plan

Types of Courage

• Moral Courage: behavioral expression of authenticity in the face of discomfort, disapproval or rejection
• Physical Courage: maintenance of societal good by expression of physical behavior
• Vital Courage: perseverance through a disease or disability even when outcome is ambiguous
• Physiological Courage: strength in facing destructive habits
• Civil Courage: brave behaviors accompanied by anger and indignation that intends to reinforce societal and ethical norms without considering own social cost

Measures of Courage

• Woodard-Pury Courage Scale
  • one’s job or self-interest
  • one’s beliefs
  • individual social and/or moral situations
  • situations relevant to family
• Values in Action Inventory of Strengths

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