An Exploration of Defensive Pessimism, Hope and Subjective Wellbeing

Abstract

Defensive pessimism is a cognitive strategy in which an individual in wake of a situation that demands performance sets low expectations for the outcomes despite a history of good performance. He anticipates all possible potential problems, strategizes and invest efforts and hard work. This strategizing helps him to harness his anxiety as motivation that finally leads to successful performance. It is usually contrasted with strategic optimism. The present study explores whether adopting such a style by anxious individuals would lead to positive, upward functioning of the person by relating defensive pessimism with hope and subjective well- being. Pearson's product moment correlation and regression analysis have been executed. The statistical analysis revealed that defensive pessimism scores could predict hope while a correlation analysis showed a non significant relation between defensive pessimism and subjective well-being. Further, the implications of the research have been discussed.