Probably to both psychologists and the layman, optimism has all along been viewed as dispositional. Nevertheless, in the 1990s, Dr M Seligman, a renowned psychologist, proposed that optimism could be learned.

Learned optimism, according to Dr Seligman, referred to the ways people adopt to explain events in their lives. In determining optimism, there are three dimensions in one's explanatory style, which are permanence, pervasiveness and personalisation. Optimists and pessimists differ in these three dimensions in explaining good and bad events that happen to them.

The table below shows how these three dimensions are used to define optimism and pessimism.

		OPTIMISM	PESSIMISM
Permanence	Good events	Permanent causes e.g. "We can always find solutions."	Temporary causes e.g. "It's my only lucky day."
	Bad events	Temporary causes e.g. "The senior is in a bad mood."	Permanent causes e.g. "The senior is a bastard."
Pervasiveness	Good events	Universal explanations e.g. "I'm a competent officer with good shooting skills."	Specific explanations e.g. "I can do nothing but shooting"
	Bad events	Specific explanations e.g. "I'm not good at statement-taking."	Universal explanations e.g. "I'm an incapable officer."
Personalisation	Good events	Internal attribution e.g. "I can take advantage of opportunities."	External attribution e.g. "A stroke of luck..."
	Bad events	External attribution e.g. "The timing is not right"	Internal attribution e.g. "I'm stupid."

In short, learned optimism is a style of thinking that good events are caused by permanent, universal and internal factors whereas bad events are caused by temporary, specific and external factors.

Numerous researches suggest that optimism improves both our physical and psychological health. For instance, optimism may strengthen our immune defences and optimists are more likely to take action to prevent or treat illness.

Psychologically, optimists have more flexible and adaptive cognitive strategies. Interestingly, they tend to pay more attention to negative information. This is because, with their positive expectation of the future, they believe that they have adequate coping resources to confront negative information.

The negative information thus helps them obtain feedback and evaluate their progress. Even if they fail to cope with a problem effectively, they can still learn from the process. Apart from these, compared with pessimists, optimists are less prone to depression because they have higher self-esteem and are less likely to feel helpless.

In the next issue, we will give you some practical advice on learning optimism.

You can refer to the book "Learned Optimism" by Martin E. P. Seligman for more details.

Stress management workshops

The PSG will organise a series of stress management workshops to be conducted in Chinese.

* Date (choose one):

(1) May 11

(2) July 6

(3) September 14

* Time: 8.45 am - 12.30 pm (Participants are requested to arrive 15 minutes early)

* Venue: Police Sports and Recreation Club Sportsman Bar

* Reservation: PSG (2866-6207)

Thirty places for each session will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Seek advice and help from the Psychological Services Group:

PHQ, Hong Kong Island and Marine: 2866-6206 (5/F, 111 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay); Kowloon and the New Territories: 2735-3739 (22/F, Ocean Building, 80 Shanghai Street, Kowloon).

PEN: psg@police.gov.hk