Flexible Optimism

A correspondent was intrigued by my statement that Martin Seligman's research suggests that the self-esteem movement is one of the root causes of the drop in the age of onset of depression in industrialized nations that we see today. So I thought I'd expand on this a bit. Seligman attributes the drop to three causes:

1. We worship individualism today, but our grandparents were connected to community, extended families, God. He comments, "Our children have threadbare spiritual furniture to sit on." I believe this leaves younger people with little reserve to rely on when life deals them (as it always will) a major loss or setback.

2. When I was a child, one of my favorite books was "The Little Engine Who Could." Today, teachers and books tell children they should feel good about themselves no matter what. In Authentic Happiness, he comments that children need to fail, to feel sad, anxious and angry: when we build up their self esteem to lessen the blow of their failures, we hinder their ability to develop mastery; and without mastery, they will fail to develop real self esteem which is grounded in a realistic view of their own abilities and limitations.

3. Everyone blames others or society or "fate" for their situations. We are breeding a nation of victims. The negative side of this is a failure to take responsibility for one's own choices and for determining our own outcomes.

Seligman suggests that the pessimist tends to see setbacks as permanent, pervasive, and due to external circumstances rather than one's own choices. The optimist, on the other hand, tends to see setbacks as temporary, localized, and due to their own choices. Pessimists are twice as likely to become depressed, and are more likely to have health and relationship problems. Seligman suggests using the pessimistic viewpoint only when the cost of failure is high, and using the optimistic viewpoint when the cost of failure is low (he calls this Flexible Optimism). That is, whether we avoid connecting with something larger than ourselves, view our abilities and limitations realistically, and take responsibility for our own choices (and hence our own success or failure), is up to us.

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? If you'd like to explore your own optimism, you can take an assessment at Martin Seligman's web site (look for "Optimism Test" in the list of questionnaires).