Common or Rare?

In the book, Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment, Martin Seligman describes a critical difference between pessimists and optimists (besides the fact that optimists are much happier).  It involves how these people react to good events versus bad events in their lives.

Of course, optimists and pessimists may disagree on whether the same event is good or bad.  But let's assume they agree.  Something happened to them and it was a definite setback, a loss, a misfortune.  Or something happened and there is no way to spin it except that it was a great thing:  a big raise, a new love, a beautiful day.  How do optimists and pessimists react to good events?  Bad events?

Event                        Optimist                       Pessimist 

Good event                Always happens            Rare

                                Reminds me of . . .       Unique situation

Bad event                  Rare                             Always happens

                                Unique situation             Reminds me of . . .

In his book, Seligman describes the reactions in terms of pervasiveness and permanence.  If an event is good, an optimist interprets the event as being "permanent".  They tell themselves that the good event happens a lot. They also see the event as "pervasive".  They generalize.  The event isn't just a fluke, it reflects a broad pattern in their life such as a personality trait or a skill.  Optimists react in exactly the opposite way.  If the event is good, they see it as temporary.  It's a one time thing that isn't likely to happen again.  They also think of it as being specific.  This time, in these unique circumstances, that will never occur again in a million years, something good happened.

It flip-flops again for bad events.  Pessimists think this type of event is "permanent".  It always happens.  They think it is general--that it reflects a broad issue in their lives such as a bad habit they can't break, incompetence, or a character trait.  Optimists say that the bad event is rare and is specific.  Something went wrong, but the situation was very specific.  Not likely to happen again.