Optimism vs Pessimism

My second biochemistry midterm of the summer is coming and I've been finding many ways to procrastinate studying ... ;-)

In the midst of all that procrastination, I was wondering why is it that I am not able to enjoy my biochemistry classes as much as I wish I did. I rationalized that it's because I do not see the purpose of that class since I am not planning on using that knowledge at all in the future. I thought to myself, "when I was younger I didn't care whether something was useful or not. If I was told to do it, I just did it. But I've grown to be less and less patient with doing things that I find to be 'useless' regarding my future." So basically I was thinking that as I grew up I've trimmed out the uselessness away from my life; whereas, when I was young I just did things because I liked them or found an interest in them.

But then, somehow, it hit me that my "rationality" might just be the voice of my pessimism.

Indeed I realized that an optimistic person might have "rationalized" the same situation very differently. Had I been more optimistic, I might have rationalized my taking biochemistry as a way to understand more about the wonders of the body so that, even though I might not use it in my work, I might be able to use my knowledge to explain things to my (future) kids. I know for sure that being able to answer all my kids questions about the human body will please me greatly!

Why am I talking about Optimism vs. Pessimism? Because recently I've been reading a book by the 'father' of modern theory on "learned helplessness" and "optimism", Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin E.P. Seligman.

I was reading this book out of personal interest since we studied some of his theories in class. Anyway, I always thought that I was a fairly optimistic person. I knew I was far from being the most optimistic person, but nevertheless a pretty optimistic one. You can imagine how profoundly surprised I was when after doing the psychological test he describes (these test are widely accepted in the psychology community, and regularly used as evaluation tools by clinical psychologists) I found out that I was in the Severly Pessimistic category! I couldn't believe the results of the tests! I still think that I am not that much of a pessimistic person, and the discrepancy with what I feel and the results might be due to different cultural values. However, instead of going into obvious denial I decided that I might have something to learn, and to gain, from adopting new, more optimistic habits.

If optimism (or it's contrary learned-helplessness and depression) are topics that interest you, I recommend you read this book. It is very interesting and written by someone that has had considerable influence in this field of psychological research.

Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin E.P. Seligman