Comments on: The Three Bears http://pos-psych.com/news/dave-shearon/20070617299 Positive Psychology News Daily - Daily boost of research-based happiness. Authored by University of Pennsylvania graduates of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program (MAPP). Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:05:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Angus http://pos-psych.com/news/dave-shearon/20070617299#comment-4352 Angus Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:40:40 +0000 http://pos-psych.com/news/dave-shearon/20070617299#comment-4352 Love the three bears story Dave - very real. good luck to your son and best wishes to you Angus Love the three bears story Dave - very real.

good luck to your son

and best wishes to you
Angus

]]> By: Dave Shearon http://pos-psych.com/news/dave-shearon/20070617299#comment-4309 Dave Shearon Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:09:56 +0000 http://pos-psych.com/news/dave-shearon/20070617299#comment-4309 Thanks, Jeff. What suggests to you that pessimists rise to positions of rank and influence in society. On balance, the data seems to suggest that those with a positive explanatory style succeed more regularly at most professions and occupations, live longer, are less likely to divorce, are healthier, etc. -- all of which suggest greater success in our society. Of course, the ability to think flexibly and accurately regardless of style is best, but a tendency toward a positive explanatory style in ambiguous situations (ain't they all?) seems to work best. As for identical twins, the heritable component of explanatory style should be identical also. Thus, unless raised in families with different explanatory styles (especially the mother's) or they experienced significantly different major life experiences, they would tend to have similar explanatory styles. Thanks, Jeff. What suggests to you that pessimists rise to positions of rank and influence in society. On balance, the data seems to suggest that those with a positive explanatory style succeed more regularly at most professions and occupations, live longer, are less likely to divorce, are healthier, etc. — all of which suggest greater success in our society. Of course, the ability to think flexibly and accurately regardless of style is best, but a tendency toward a positive explanatory style in ambiguous situations (ain’t they all?) seems to work best.

As for identical twins, the heritable component of explanatory style should be identical also. Thus, unless raised in families with different explanatory styles (especially the mother’s) or they experienced significantly different major life experiences, they would tend to have similar explanatory styles.

]]> By: Jeff Dustin http://pos-psych.com/news/dave-shearon/20070617299#comment-4278 Jeff Dustin Mon, 18 Jun 2007 06:13:13 +0000 http://pos-psych.com/news/dave-shearon/20070617299#comment-4278 Hi Dave, I agree with your Three Bears post. The question that the whole optimism-pessimism continuum raises first to me is this: How do pessimists rise to rank and influence in society when optimism is a superior strategy? Just how closely does optimism predict beneficial outcomes? Let's say you take two people, identical twins and one is a pessimist and the other an optimist and you track them over the years, who will have better QOL on the CASIO? That'd be a neat little study. Hi Dave,

I agree with your Three Bears post.

The question that the whole optimism-pessimism continuum raises first to me is this:

How do pessimists rise to rank and influence in society when optimism is a superior strategy? Just how closely does optimism predict beneficial outcomes? Let’s say you take two people, identical twins and one is a pessimist and the other an optimist and you track them over the years, who will have better QOL on the CASIO? That’d be a neat little study.

]]>