Confronting Pessimism: A Personality Psychology Perspective

Abstract

Instructor’s Name Introduction The concept of personality is a topic of interest in psychology. according to (Gavino et al., 2019), "Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristics behavior and thought.” There are four major personality perspectives which include traits, humanistic, social cognitive, and psychoanalytic perspectives. Personality is a combination of emotions, motivation, feelings, patterns of thinking, and behavior, defining an individual. These attributes differ from one person to another, shaping their personalities. Several factors influence personality development and they include societal values, parenting, genetics, and the environment. A person's personality influences expectations, values, attitudes, and behavior. There are various influences of personality, and various psychologists try to use theories to explain the occurrence of the different types of behavior. Personality shows the uniqueness of an individual. There are various types of behaviors that an individual portrays, making the concept of personality a broad issue. Personality psychology aims to explain how an individual’s unique traits and characteristics develop. Personality development helps individuals develop a positive attitude toward life if the correct phases are followed. This paper will discuss pessimistic behavior using the psychoanalytic and humanistic approaches in psychology. Pessimism Pessimists are deeply embedded in society today, and we can easily recognize them. According to the American Psychological Association(APA), pessimism is an attitude that things will go wrong and people's wishes are unlikely to be fulfilled. Pessimists are worried when things seem to be going well. They discourage and put you down when you try to exploit or achieve an objective. According to (Lebowitz, 2014), pessimism can affect an individual’s health, yielding depression, mood and personality disorders, and a difficult attitude. Pessimists engage in negative self-talk and are surprised when things are going well. They are afraid to try out new things since they are afraid that they will fail—pessimism results in an imposter syndrome. Individuals start undermining their abilities and taking concern on weaknesses rather than strengths. In society, people do not like staying around pessimism since this behavior is confronting and derailing. Pessimists drag society behind and do not see anything good in an individual. They push development and success away. Pessimists are destiny killers and thrive in backwardness and uncertainty. They feel overwhelmed by success and delight in failure. Pessimism is a killer disease, and psychologists have explained this personality disorder using various approaches to ascertain the subject matter and its root cause. Personality Theories The four approaches (psychoanalytic, humanistic, social cognitive, and traits) describe various personalities. When describing pessimistic behavior, the ideal theories are psychoanalytic and humanistic approaches contrary to traits and social-cognitive approaches. The traits approach identifies, describes, measures, analyzes, and compares the compositions that make up human personality. It is used to single out the differences that exist within an individual. Traits are consistent in an individual and are attributed to an individual's genetic make. It also assumes that behavior is determined by stable traits that fundamentally build an individual. This disputes it from explaining pessimism since pessimism is not genetically absorbed in an individual. A child is not born a pessimist. There must be some triggers in life that contribute to pessimistic behavior. The social-cognitive approach entails observational learning, self-efficacy, and situational influences of personality. Pessimism has a root cause, yet a pessimist does not believe in their abilities which is contrary to the theory. From an observational perspective, a pessimist does not learn through other people's experiences or society. This individual is negated to satisfy an intuition that wishes for failure. Pessimism is embodied in occurrences; therefore, social cognitive theory cannot explain this phenomenon. Pessimism may result from childhood experiences such as trauma, neglect, abandonment, and trigger of the unconscious mind (Howe, 2005) The psychoanalytic approach is ideal in describing this behavior. The psychoanalytic approach uses childhood experiences and the concept of the unconscious mind to describe the emanating of a behavior. Each individual can achieve their potential depending on their free will on how they perceive life. A pessimist chooses to be in a negating situation that compromises their self-identity. The humanistic approach is ideal in addressing such a scenario. This approach alludes that individuals' awareness, free will, and psychological awareness shape their personalities. According to (), the humanistic approach is described as the third force in psychology that results from the reaction of pessimistic determinism, psychological disturbance, and the environment. Explaining Pessimism using the Humanistic Approach...