Families Health
What is… Learned Optimism? BUMPS AND BABIES
Learned optimism has a history that is worth understanding. In the 1970’s, Martin Seligman developed a theory of learned helplessness. This is a state where humans learn through repeated negative experiences that there is nothing they can do to help a situation.
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or example, when a child constantly does badly in spelling they begin to believe that nothing they do will help. That is, they begin to feel helpless. Learned helplessness has been shown to relate to psychological problems such as depression, anxiety, lower self-esteem and lower motivation.
pervasive/limited aspects. For example, when good events happen, an optimist will explain a positive event as permanent (it always happens like this) and pervasive (affects everything that I do). However, when faced with a setback, the optimist sees the cause of the event as temporary (this is not usual) and limited (just a blip on the radar).
However, Seligman and his colleagues noticed that not all people who have these experiences, like the child with the spelling issue above, become helpless. Eventually, he demonstrated that something also goes on with a person’s thoughts. When people are in situations that affect them positively or negatively, they try to explain the cause of the situation to themselves. According to Seligman, we can explain these causes in an optimistic (positive) or pessimistic (negative) way. If we continually explain the cause of events in a positive way we learn to be optimistic.
¢Some examples of children explaining events
Now stay with me as it is a little tricky to fully understand learned optimism. There are two very important aspects to the process. Our explanation for events have permanent/temporary and
“…when a child constantly does badly in spelling they begin to believe that nothing they do will help.” 26
Your Local Families Magazine – Brisbane Issue 3 - April/May 2014
Positive event: A child gets a perfect score on a spelling test at school.
Optimistic explanations:
“I am always a good speller” (permanent)
“I do well at all school tests” (pervasive)