DEFINITION:
The term “optimism” refers to a personality trait consisting of the tendency to interpret the vicissitudes of life in a favorable manner.
“Optimism” is the existential confidence that one is capable of overcoming whatever obstacles one may encounter.
In a phrase, “optimism” is the proclivity to “see the glass as half-full.”
ETYMOLOGY:
The term “optimism” was introduced into the literature of personality psychology by Martin E.P. Seligman (b. 1942) in a series of papers beginning in the 1960s, notably, “Failure to escape traumatic shock,” with Steven F. Maier (Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74: 1–9), published in 1967.
Seligman, who is known as the “Father of Positive Psychology,” popularized his ideas about “learned optimism” years later in his book Learned Optimism (1991) and, much later still, in his memoir The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist’s Journey from Helplessness to Optimism (2018).
The English noun “optimism” is attested from the eighteenth century. It derives, via the French word optimisme, from the Classical Latin substantive optimum. Optimum, in turn, is the neuter form of the adjective optimus, meaning “the best,” which is the superlative form of bonus, “good.”
The French word optimisme was coined by the philosopher and man of letters, Voltaire(1695–1778 ), in his novel Candide, ou l’Optimisme [Candide, or Optimism], published in 1759.
The novel Candide satirizes the idea that “this is the best of all possible worlds,” articulated by the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) in his French-language book Théodicée [Theodicy], published in 1710. In this work, Leibniz introduced the Latin word optimum, upon which Voltaire based the word optimisme.
DISCUSSION:
Seligman says that optimism should be viewed as a matter of how individuals explain to themselves the reasons for the things that happen to them.
Another way of looking at “optimism” is as the habit of focusing on the positive things that happen to one, while downplaying the negative ones.
Thus, “optimists” face the future in the faith that they have the talents and skills required to meet whatever problems may arise.