Optimism is not the opposite of pessimism

Optimism is not the opposite of pessimism
Optimism is not the opposite of pessimism
Anonim

Optimistic people are he althier, more successful, happier and live longer than their pessimistic counterparts. It is therefore not surprising that psychologists also like to research the roots of the trait. Researchers are mostly concerned with whether optimism and pessimism are two ends of a spectrum or two different characteristics. If the latter is true, then a given person can have a different attitude towards different life situations: sometimes optimistic, other times pessimistic. The answer to this question was sought in behavioral genetics by Timothy Bates, working at the University of Edinburgh, whose study we read about in Research Digest.

Bates involved hundreds of fraternal and fraternal twins, with an average age of 54, in the study and asked them to give their opinions on various statements, such as whether they tend to expect good or bad things to happen in their lives. The participants also completed the Big Five personality test based on the five-factor model of personality.

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Why did you ask for twins? This is because the twin studies reveal how much of a trait is hereditary and how much it is mediated by genes. Identical twins have the same gene stock, while fraternal twins only have half of the same stock - and in light of this, conclusions can easily be drawn from the results: if optimism or pessimism can be inherited, then identical twins must have the same vision for the future.

Bates' research revealed that optimism and pessimism are influenced by both common and different genes, so they should be treated as separate traits, not as two sides of the same coin. "Optimism and pessimism are therefore partially biologically different, so in their case we are talking about two different psychological tendencies," says Bates, who says that this is in line with the results according to which different neural processes lie behind the traits.

The researcher believes that although the basis of optimism and pessimism is genetically determined, a person's early environment, the world in which he grows up, plays a large role in the expression of these characteristics. The intense tendency to pessimism can therefore be softened, just as optimism can be learned.

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