pessimistic explanatory style

(noun)

A worldview in which people generally blame themselves for negative events, believe that such events will continue indefinitely, and let such events affect many aspects of their lives.

Related Terms

Examples of pessimistic explanatory style in the following topics:

  • Attitude and Health

    • Related to this, research has shown that people with a pessimistic explanatory style are more likely to suffer from depression and stress, have weakened immune systems, be more vulnerable to minor ailments (like a cold or fever) and major illnesses (such as heart attacks or cancer), and have a less effective recovery from health problems.
    • Examine the impacts of different attitudes and explanatory styles on health

  • Attribution

    • To do this, we make either explanatory or interpersonal attributions.
    • An explanatory attribution is an attempt to understand the world and seek reasons for a particular event.
    • People with an optimistic explanatory style attribute positive events to global, stable, internal causes and negative events to specific, unstable, external causes.
    • The inverse is true for those with a pessimistic explanatory style: they attribute negative events to global, stable, internal causes and positive events to specific, unstable, external causes.

  • Personality Characteristics Beneficial to Change

    • Researchers and scientists agree that optimism is highly correlated with psychological well-being, successful coping styles, and constructive problem-solving skills.
    • A classic optimist paradigm states that an optimist will view a glass of water to be half full while a pessimist will view the same glass to be half empty.