Martin Seligman, in his book _Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life_, defines learned optimism as reacting to events, particularly unfavorable events, from a position of personal power. In particular, says Seligman, the difference between optimism and pessimism is clearest when we look at explanatory style. Seligman defines optimism in terms of three explanatory factors associated with failure: 1. Duration: An optimist treats failure as a temporary phenomenon (it didn't work out _this time_, not _yet_, _next time_ will be different.) 2. Generalization: An optimist treats failure as specific to the situation. (not at _this particular task_.) 3. Causation or Responsibility: An optimist refuses to blame himself/herself personally for failure (I _can and will_ learn to do it, and to do it right.) Pessimism, according to Seligman, represents beliefs about the duration, generalization, and causation associated with failure opposite to what I presented above (such as "I _never_ can do it"; "I'm no good at _anything_"; "It's _my fault_ that failure occurred.") Most important of all, Seligman argues that the key to changing from optimism to pessimism is _learning_ how to change your explanatory style. Now, Seligman presents this in much more detail than is suitable for Answerbag. With that in mind, I advise you to look for a copy of _Learned Optimism_ and read it for yourself. www.shearonforschools.com/learned_optimism.htm