1. Increasing Optimism and Hope
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without words
And never stops−at all
Emily Dickinson
No. 254 (c. 1861)

2. REBT ALBERT ELLIS Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
Our beliefs not the events upset us
"Men are disturbed not by events, but by the views which they take of them."
Epictetus

3. REBT
Our reaction to having our goals blocked is determined by our beliefs…
A. Something happens. (ADVERSITY) B. You have a belief about the situation. (BELIEFS) C. You have an emotional reaction to the belief. (EMOTIONAL CONSEQUENCES)

4. ABC Model A does not cause C B causes C
Seligman Extends the ABC Model to include the remediation of D (Disputation) and E (the resulting Energization)
Hence the ABCDE Model

5. Increasing Optimism and Hope
Optimism And Pessimism Are Hereditary
Intervention that you can learn and practice to overcome pessimistic explanatory style
The key is to first recognize them and then to treat them as if they were uttered by an external person

6. Increasing Optimism and Hope
Use the ABCDE Model
A stands for adversity
B for the beliefs
C for the usual consequences of the belief B
D for your disputation of your routine belief
E for the Energization that occurs when you dispute it successfully.

7. Increasing Optimism and Hope
YOUR BELIEFS ARE JUST THAT – BELIEFS.
They may or may not be facts.
Our reflexive explanations are usually distortions.
Step 1. Your beliefs warrant dispute
Step 2. Putting disputation into practice

8. Learning to Argue with Yourself
Evidence
Alternatives
Implications
Decatastrophizing, how likely is the worst case?
Usefulness
Destructive?
Changeable? How?

9. Flexible Optimism Times when we should not be optimistic :
When your goal is to plan for a risky or uncertain future
If your goal is to counsel others whose future is dim, do not use optimism initially
If you want to appear sympathetic to the troubles of others, do not begin with optimism

10. Flexible Optimism What is the cost of failure?
If high, optimism is the wrong strategy…
If low, try to be more optimistic…

11. Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman
Pervasive Optimistic Bias
“People do things they have no business doing because they believe they’ll be successful.”
Optimistic biases can both be a blessing and a risk
Be both happy and wary

12. Kahneman on Optimists:
Normally cheerful and happy
therefore popular
Resilient in adapting to failures and hardships
Chances of clinical depression are reduced
Immune system is stronger
Take better care of their health
Feel healthier than others and are in fact likely to live longer

13. Kahneman on Optimists:
The Blessings Of Optimism
Individuals who are only mildly biased
Able to “accentuate the positive”
Without losing track of reality

14. Kahneman on Optimists:
Optimistic individuals play a disproportionate role in shaping our lives…
Inventors
Entrepreneurs
Political and Military Leaders
Optimistic and overconfident
Take more risks than they realize

15. Kahneman on Optimists:
The chances that a small business will survive for five years in the U.S.
….are about 35%
Survey of American entrepreneurs
Business like theirs ….60%
Their own …>70% (81% believed)
Their own chance of failing was 0 (33%)

16. Seligman and Kahneman One great benefit of Optimism:
….it encourages persistence in the face of obstacles

17. Rumination Theory
Rumination: When misfortune strikes, brooding and reliving the events over and over…
Susan Nolen-Hoeksema
Women thought and analyzed their mood
Men distracted themselves

18. Rumination Theory Offered a choice of two tasks when they were sad
A task focusing on their depression
Adistracting task
70% of women chose the emotion-focused task
70% of men chose the distracting task
If you tend to ruminate, you can use the disputation exercise to counteract this practice

19. Army Strong
Global Assessment Tool (GAT)
Signature Strengths

20. Army Strong Emotional Fitness Negative emotions warn us of threats
Fear preceded by thoughts of danger
Sadness preceded by a thought of loss
Anger preceded by a thought of trespass
This awareness enables us to modulate our emotional reaction in proportion
Having more positive emotions will build a better Losada ratio

21. Army Strong Family Fitness Gratitude
Active and Constructive Responding

22. Army Strong Social Fitness
Either…
A tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to aid one another, and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes; and this would be natural selection.
- Charles Darwin

23. Army Strong Social Fitness
Or… The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins theory that it is solitary, superior individuals that win out over the less capable
Seligman prefers Darwin’s group selection theory – because of Altruism…

24. Army Strong Social Fitness
Social Resilience emphasizes empathy.
Contagion of emotion
Optimism improves resilience

25. Army Strong Spiritual Fitness
Advantages of a higher level of spirituality
Answering to a higher moral order increases ethical behavior
Human spirituality is living by a code rooted in belonging to something we believe is larger than ourselves.