Optimism is a key ingredient that helps improve quality of life. Human life is governed not only
by the life-altering decisions but also by the daily choices an individual makes and an optimistic
approach plays a major role in lifes fulfilment. As a student in my mid-20s entering into the
corporate world, I strongly feel that an optimistic outlook towards lifes ups and downs will help
achieve happiness and a good balance between work and life over the years.
Recently,
considerable research has been carried out to examine the development of optimism across the
lifespan. One of the studies analyses over 1000 Mexican-origin couples between the ages 26-71
across 7 years by conducting a Life Orientation Test to measure optimism (Schwaba et al.,
2019), while another study analysed little less than 10000 Americans between the ages 51 to 97
across 4 years (Chopik et al., 2015) and another analysed a sample of over 20000 British and
German citizens on household and socio-economic levels respectively (Baird et al.
, 2010).
Studies have also been carried out to measure attributes like life satisfaction and self-esteem that
greatly influence optimism (Orth & Robins, 2014). With the help of the research, the paper
explores how optimism which is lowest in the 20s steadily increases in peoples 30s and 40s and
is at its peak between the ages 50 and 60 and then steadily drops afterwards, thus following an
inverted U shape on the optimism-lifespan graph. Yet, these results do not consider culture,
socio-economic background, societal influence which greatly affect an individuals optimism.
Further research can help to improve a sense of optimism among youngsters itself, thus
improving future study results.
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Introduction Positive psychology, a newly recognized domain of psychology, studies the meaning,
purpose and enhancement of life. Since the inception of psychology as a research subject, it has
focussed on finding everything that is wrong with the mental health of the body. Researchers
have categorized particular states of the human mind on the basis of their deviation from the so
called normal state of function. Their focus of research has always been on understanding
various illnesses or abnormalities associated with the physical and emotional functioning of the
brain and the different techniques of treatment or medications through which these dysfunctions
can be cured. With the advent of this new field of positive psychology, researchers have turned
their focus to study how life could be made worth living.
The study of positive psychology does not completely eliminate the consideration of
abnormal psychology but actually works in parallel with it. It analyses the genuineness of
positive attributes like optimism and hope concerning the abnormalities and investigates the
source and development of these positive emotions. It also examines positive human feelings like
happiness, satisfaction, well-being, positive thoughts according to age, gender, region, genetics
and background. The pursuit of all these human virtues leads to achieving content in life.
Optimism is one such characteristic that helps human beings interpret the best out of any crucial
circumstances, thus reducing stress and increasing longevity.
Today, we live in a world of ever-growing competition, some people compete to grow
while others compete to survive. Amidst all this competition, we tend to forget the fact that the
reason the whole competition started was so that we could achieve eventual happiness and
satisfaction. But as human beings grow more intelligent and adaptive than before, the pace of
growth begins to accelerate and the competition never ends. This gave birth to the concept of
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micro-happiness, where people feel happy and satisfied with the small, everyday moments and
occurrences that bring about positive change in their lives, which is strongly driven by optimism.
As a millennial studying in this competitive atmosphere, enjoying the little moments of
happiness at every successful step towards achieving my goals will ensure the well-being of
myself as well as the people associated with me. As my journey transitions into the professional
corporate world and as responsibilities grow, having a positive outlook towards different
situations and circumstances in life will ensure in achieving a more fulfilled life. While facing
lifes most critical turning points, optimism and faith in my work and efforts have helped me
reach where I am today. Hence I strongly believe that learning more about the different
subdomains of positive psychology like optimism, happiness, character strengths and virtues,
hope, etc. will help me lead my life with satisfaction. Experimental Studies Optimism, like any other human trait, varies according to age. This has been critically
inspected through extensive research. One of the studies evaluated a sample of 1169 Mexican
American couples between the ages 26-71, 4 times across 7 years with the help of a Life
Orientation Test to assess the age-graded development trajectory of optimism across adulthood
based on questions related to positive and negative life events (Schwaba et al., 2019). In order to
assess the mean-value path of optimism, a series of quadratic cohort-sequential latent growth
curve models were estimated so as to aggregate the data and measure it across the age group
factor only and create a best-fitting model after comparing it to three different categories
(Schwaba et al., 2019). It was observed that optimism increases from the age 26 and is at its peak
at the age of 55 and then plateaus at that age thus asserting that dispositional optimism is a
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dynamic personality trait that increases with age depending on the experience of positive or
negative life events.
A similar study considered a sample of 9790 American respondents between the ages 51
and 97 with majority having good college education and health conditions for a period of 4 years
using the Life Orientation TestRevised by asking a series of questions and expecting their
answers based on an agreement to disagree level scale (Chopik et al., 2015). After segregating
the participants into two waves based on health, the responses were measured across three effects
namely, linear, quadratic and cubic using regression models (Chopik et al., 2015). The findings
revealed that optimism progressively increased in adults from age 50 to 70 and then decreased
after the age of 70, showing a peak value at the age of 68 thus raising the question whether it is
the age or the changes in health due to ageing, the main cause of variations in optimism.
Just as optimism varies with age, its outcome like life satisfaction also alters with age.
One of the cross-sectional and longitudinal studies assesses life satisfaction with age using three
perspectives, classical, essentialist and socio-emotional on two different categories, a German
Socio-economic Panel and a British Household Panel with over 20000 participants from each
panel study (Baird et al., 2010). Both categories show little to no decline in life satisfaction from
adulthood through middle-age until the mid 70s and then decline steadily after due to increasing
health problems and loss of social support, but reflect different graphs, one with a steadily
increasing at first and then dropping while the other remaining constant throughout the middle
age and then dropping (Baird et al., 2010). Although the study assures a decline in life
satisfaction towards the end of life, it still has ambiguities regarding the changes from adulthood
to middle-age, thus giving more scope to asses parameters influencing age like background,
personality and experiences.
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Another prime outcome of optimism is self-esteem which tends to change with increasing
age. Several longitudinal studies have been carried out, based on large and representative
samples from 1800 to 7000 participants, long study periods ranging from 12 to 29 years, multiple
waves of data and sophisticated modelling techniques like latent-trait state model (Orth &
Robins, 2014). Again the main observation was how self-esteem increased from adolescence to
middle adulthood, peaked between 50 and 60 years and then acceleratingly decreased, primarily
because of socio-economic factors, health and experiences (Orth & Robins, 2014). Most
importantly, the findings assert that higher self-esteem enables individuals better health,
relationship, work opportunities thus improving quality of life.
All kinds of studies reflect one key finding, a common trajectory. The typical review of
the positive personality quirks of optimism, life satisfaction and self-esteem increasing from
youth through adulthood, peaking at middle age and then declining towards the end shows an
inverted U-shape trajectory (Schwaba et al., 2019). The peak values have been fluctuating
between the ages of 55 and 70 (Schwaba et al., 2019). The main reasons for this gradual
inclination of positive values among the youth is the enthusiasm, courage to take up
responsibilities and the constant exposure to new experiences, which chiefly come from growing
age. Younger people look forward to encountering numerous life-changing experiences and
make efforts towards their possibility. Despite facing failures or negative experiences, the
enthusiasm arising from the youth, help them stay positive and push their limits. That is why the
studies that included negative experiences in the survey do not face issues of lower optimism
scales due to the participants feeling dejected after encountering negative emotions. Studies
reviewing the youth facing aftermaths of the global economic crises have showed positive results
owing to their faith in neo-liberalism and hard-work (Franceschelli & Keating, 2018). The young
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generation has shown an optimistic attitude towards their future in spite of facing serious
difficulties and struggles with their belief to overcome obstacles by working diligently
(Franceschelli & Keating, 2018).
Despite achieving common ground, there are still discussions over what actually inflicts
optimism, whether it is age, health, personality or motivation through experience. Where most of
the findings reveal a drop in optimism after middle age, strong reasoning would be the
deteriorating health and motivation at old age. Findings have also confidently stated that,
although positive life events encourage optimism, negative life events show similar traits due to
the strong belief and motivation to change the negative circumstances into positive. Though
another important parameter to be considered is the categorization of experiences into an
additional event of neutral condition, where a participant could asses a neutral experience and
avoid inflation of either result. Also, although a large sample space helps in reducing the effect
of the personality criterion, much research needs to be carried out to eliminate the personality
criterion from the statistical models to achieve more accurate results to evaluate the effect of age.
Factors such as socio-economic background, societal pressure and region have also shown major
effects on the results. Further research can help to improve an understanding of optimism, thus
opening new avenues and improving future study results. Conclusion It can be effectively evaluated from the various studies and the findings that the
development in age plays a key role in varying the optimism of individuals. Current research
shows an inverted U shape trajectory on the optimism-lifespan graph, increasing from an
individuals 20s, peaking between 50 and 60 and then rapidly declining after 70s. Along with
optimism, studies also analyse the outcomes of optimism like life satisfaction and self-esteem,
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which also show similar trajectories. It must be noted that, although some studies followed the
U-shape trajectory, many others showed a different observation, initially declining and then
shooting upwards (U-shape), while some results showed high optimism among youngsters. I
strongly feel that culture, socio-economic background, societal influence will greatly affect an
individuals attitude towards life and hence his beliefs and future prospects. The entire paper has
evaluated different studies with the age group of 20 and above. I believe that extensive research
must be carried out on children and teenagers to assess their take on optimism. If positive
attributes like optimism, self-esteem, hope and satisfaction are analysed among children and
teenagers and with efforts could be imbibed at a very young age, the current condition of lower
optimism levels in growing adults would increase significantly.