![]() When students feel they have no control over their lives or their happiness and feel they are incapable of performing tasks, it can lead to low self-esteem and depression and severely diminish their motivation and desire to achieve. The opposite of learned optimism is learned helplessness, a theory that suggests that the feeling of helplessness can become a learned trait, and once a person has accepted their helpless state, they can remain trapped by the negative attributions they keep using to explain why things are happening to them. They lack confidence in themselves and will avoid trying to achieve at higher levels simply because they do not believe they can. Pessimists do not think very highly of their ability to succeed at specific tasks, let alone achieve their life’s goals. ![]() Self-confidence leads to decisive decision-making and persistence in working to successfully complete tasks. The success they experience in completing these goals builds their confidence and self-concept and increases their motivation to achieve at higher levels. They believe in their ability to set goals and achieve specific tasks. Optimists have a strong sense of self-efficacy. ![]() This is also crucial in students’ ability to envision, prepare for and realize their future selves. Pessimists, based on past experiences of failure, or lack of success in controlling situations, view the future as merely a continuation of past performance, thereby diminishing any sense of hope that outcomes will change because of their efforts. Since optimist feel a sense of control, the decisions they make and actions they take can be controlled by them to maximize their potential for achieving future goals. Optimists are more successful at becoming self-directed learners because their thinking is future-oriented based on past experiences of success. Pessimists feel less in control or feel like they have no control at all over the outcomes, hence they question why they should even try. They are more highly motivated to achieve because they have the opportunity to influence the results. ![]() Optimists have a stronger belief that they are in control of, or have some control in, situations and that their actions can influence the outcomes. One of the key things to remember about our tendencies to be optimistic or pessimistic is that we can, through critical self-reflection, challenge our attributions and replace negative thinking patterns with positive ones. The following definition of learned optimism was retrieved from. These tendencies toward negative or positive perceptions are generally referred to as optimism and pessimism. ![]()
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