Explanatory Style
Years of study led Seligman to conclude that we each have a characteristic approach to making sense of our problems, stressors, challenges, or setbacks; How you explain the good and bad things that happen to you. Seligman calls this your explanatory style, and it makes all the difference between an optimist with resiliency in the face of challenges, and a pessimist who crumbles under the pressures of life. In his book, Learned Optimism, Seligman suggests there are three elements to your explanatory style:
1. Permanence is about time. Optimists believe bad events are only temporary. One failure does not mean future failure because there could be reasons why they did poorly once, but it won’t always happen as it did. Pessimists believe bad events will last forever. As a result, they tend to stew in the failure and believe it will always continue because the causes are permanent. Pessimists and optimists tend to use the opposite temporal style for explaining good events. Optimists believe good events have permanent causes, whereas pessimists see temporary reasons for good events.
Bad Events
Optimistic (temporary): Pessimistic (permanent):
“My supervisor is in a bad mood” “My supervisor is a jerk”
Good Events
Optimistic (permanent): Pessimistic (temporary):
“I’m talented” “I tried hard today”
2. Pervasiveness is about space. Optimists can keep their troubles separate from the rest of their lives. They compartmentalize. Pessimists tend to catastrophize. When a bad thing happens in a relationship, for example, it bleeds over into work as well. Conversely, optimists believe good events have universal causes while pessimists think good things happen only in specific cases.
Bad Events
Optimistic (specific): Pessimistic (universal):
“This kid is annoying” “Kids are annoying”
Good Events
Optimistic (universal): Pessimistic (specific):
“I’m smart” “I’m smart in math”
3. Personalization is about who we hold responsible for the causes of events. When bad things happen, optimists tend to blame other people or circumstances (external), while pessimists usually blame themselves (internal). The opposite is true for good events. Optimists believe they cause good things while pessimists give credit to other sources. As a result, optimists tend to like themselves more.
However, Seligman warns that personalization can be taken too far. It’s important to take responsibility for our actions. A person who habitually insists, “It’s not my fault and I am amazing” sounds more like an arrogant nightmare than an optimist. Nevertheless, particularly in cases of depression, some tend to take much more responsibility for bad events than is warranted. Generally, it’s important to understand that both good and bad events have many causes, both internal and external. For example, if your relationship with someone is struggling, it may be because both you (internal) and the other person (external) haven’t put effort into keeping the relationship alive. The clear-eyed can both take responsibility for their failings and recognize that it’s not ALL their fault when things go south.
Bad Events
Optimistic (external): Pessimistic (internal):
“I grew up poor” “I’m insecure”
Good Events
Optimistic (internal): Pessimistic (external):
“My skill...” “My teammates’ skill...”
If you are interested in learning more about your personal explanatory style, go here https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/testcenter to take Seligman’s optimism test.
And here’s a summary of Martin Seligman’s book, Learned Optimism