Pessimism is a related cognitive risk factor for the development of internalizing disorders. Much of the research on the personality dimension of pessimism has focused on how pessimistic individuals exhibit negative expectations of future outcomes across a variety of life domains (Chang, 2001; Scheier & Carver, 1985). These expectations have important implications for how individuals cope with stressful life events, with pessimistic individuals typically withdrawing effort, leading to greater psychological distress over time (e.g., Carver, Pozo, Harris, Noriega, Scheier, & Robinson, 1993). The construct of pessimism is also central to the learned helplessness theory of depression, which posits that after experiencing events that are uncontrollable and aversive, individuals become helpless (Abramson et al., 1978). Pessimistic individuals typically make attributions for negative events that are internal (caused by the individual), global, and stable, and this pessimistic explanatory style has been shown to be a risk factor for depression following adversity and negative life events (Peterson & Seligman, 1984).
