Are You an Optimist or a Pessimist?

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*trots on over to join Sophist in her little Autistic world *

I'm a pessimist but only slightly. I find it easier not to get too excited about things happening until they actually do because otherwise it is too easy to get disappointed.

However, I do have a certain degree of hope and faith so am not a complete pessimist by any means.

Ah, the more the merrier!

PS- Love your avatar

Thankyers! *grins*

*grins back*

I am both a Optimist & Pessimist.

I'm usually an optimist but I have to be because I'm prone to feeling depressed. Sometimes the negativity gets on top of me, like it has done for the past couple of weeks. Trouble is there's little motivation to get myself back to being happy because down here it's a comfort zone and it feels like home ... yeah, I'll shut up So I suppose a pessimist at heart but an optimist apart from that core of pessimism.

I'm one of the most hardcore pessimists you can ever find. I hardly ever trust anything. There's this Russian proverb: "Trust, but verify" (in Russian, it rhymes). I can't possibly agree with it more.

I am a little bit of both but I am more optimist.

-SpaceCase

Optimist. I think people are generally good. That doesn't mean bad things can't happen or that bad people don't exist. They can, and they do, respectively. Mostly though in my experience I've found people to be good.

pesi-optimist

Realist. I don't think in terms of good or bad, just that they are what they are. (besides what is good besides a perspective?)

Things I learned about Optimism and pessimism in "Authentic Happiness" (a book I am reading under mild protest for my positive psychology class- I am also taking the class itself under mild protest and scheduling issues- oh hell, it's fun) (also: not quoted verbatim):

Pessimists/depressed people are more accurate in remembering both good and bad events than happy people. Depressed people are more accurate in judging whether or not they are in control of something. A negative mood enables one to identify problems and therefore eliminate them. If you are depressed, it is a good time to take a test, do your income tax, and even pick where to go to college.

However, optimism has its place in thinking. If you need to be creative or generous, you should be in a good mood for that task. If you want to pick a new career, do creative writing, or think about a relationship, do it in a good mood.

Women who geniunely smiled in their high school yearbook picture (as opposed to a fake smile) were more likely later in life to be happy in their marriage and life in general. Attractiveness WAS controlled for. Smiling was the only variable.

Optimists live longer, too. In a group of nuns (all of whom lived the exact same way/ate the exact same things/etc. etc.) the nuns were assessed for positive emotion. 90 percent of the most cheerful quarter was alive at age 85 vs only 34 percent of the least cheerful quarter. 54 percent of the most cheerful quarter was alive at age 94 as opposed to 11 percent of the least cheerful quarter.

My conclusions:

Life sucks, so I'll be glad to die sooner.

((Sorry, I had to mitigate that somehow, I'm still a pessimist))

Am I an optimist? Boy, I hope so!!



Seriously, I call myself a realist, like many others do. But I also think there are positives to negative moments in your life. A family member you love may die, but that helps you to appreciate the ones you have left (I learnt this when one of my grandmothers died after 6 months of cancer and I never went to see her... when another grandmother - I actually had 3 - was hospitalised with Emphysema (sp?) I went to the hospital straight away to see her).

On a lighter note, with each of my failed relationships with girls, I've learnt something new about girls, about relationships and social life in general. Still not enough to match NTs, but I'm learning.

So, I'm an optimistic realist...

i'm a hardcore optimist. it can be kinda scary haha

I'm more of a depressive realist; I think that might be what keeps me going in my life, pushing hard, etc. etc.

Well that and caffeine.

((Both of those sentences were intended to be humorous but true; I don't know if anyone will get the first one though))