Explanatory Style test

[EcK]

Apparently, the lower the HoB score, the more "hopeful" we are.

I find it funny that I am as hopeful as whatever, and that there aren't droves of people more hopeful than me. But I suppose recovering from a depression makes one sensitive to the thought patterns that lead to it.

The dualities in the test can make it a bit confusing at first I guess. For example a low score in permanence for the 'bad' would mean that you do not see bad situations as structural and unmutable: Which would make you 'optimistic'.
In parallel, A low score on the 'good' is the opposite, it would mean that (while more realistic) you do not assume that the good will keep on coming like a unicorn spewing rainbow dressing

 

[EcK]

Sweet test !
Was interesting
Love learning new things about the complexity of personalities and how there are so many different aspects to consider!

it's awesome isn't it. I will give more examples of how it works later and explain some test results. I think the 'optimistic'/pessimistic dimension is very important here.
For example if you have an internal locus on control (personalization) but are (lets imagine) optimistic in all situations then you would assume that EVERYTHING good that happens around and to you is because of your work/effort/role/influence.

Now if (again, an extreme that rarely happens out of asylums) you are EXCLUSIVELY PESSIMISTIC and INTERNALIZE the reason for stuff that happens to you are going to see all the bad around you as being your fault. Leading to a much bleaker, counter productive and socially attractive behavior and its own set of self fullfilling prophecies.

Now its never that simple. You can even have strong variations in the explanatory style for good/bad stuff.
One could imagine (or actually know) someone who assumes that everything good that happen to them is INTERNALIZED as their own achievement while everything bad is EXTERNALIZED as the environment's or other people's fault.
I would also assume that there would be an mbti type dependant variation for that type of explanatory style with perhaps Ts more likely to blame the environment and Fs more likely to blame other people (in that particular configuration) but the effect could not show in the data because of other balancing factors

 

[EcK]

Apparently, the lower the HoB score, the more "hopeful" we are.

I find it funny that I am as hopeful as whatever, and that there aren't droves of people more hopeful than me. But I suppose recovering from a depression makes one sensitive to the thought patterns that lead to it.

Hope is basically the belief that the future will be better than the past, that there is always room for improvement. If you recovered from a depression your frame of reference is such that a hopeful outlook will magnified by the differential between your frames of reference (from 'no drive/no positive outlook and self defeating vicious circles to more productive and balanced and 'good thing' generating behaviors and attitudes.

I would say that we live in a pretty hopeful age. We are constantly subjected to positive social and technological evolutions that make it much more apparent that time isn't the perfect circle the cycle of seasons, planets and our own biological rhythms would lead us to intuit.
Now the issue with this type of linear time perception is that it can turn against us when for example a 'bad crisis' isn't counterbalanced by a strong belief in the fact that this is just a temporary state of being rather than something enduring about the world.

Traditional / slow evolving societies tend/tended to have a cyclical time perception. The issue with that is that everything is fated to be, the good has to happen and the bad is also part of a cycle of renewal.
These are society wide patterns but their logic can be applied to the people within them and modify our view of what explanatory styles mean and how they mingle into and create our social/consensual reality

 

[EcK]

Lets take a personality which Internalizes what happens to them and has strong PERMANENCE and PERVASIVENESS.
If they are too pessimistic what will happen is that they will blame themselves for the bad , see it as inescapable (permanence) and meaning something 'universally bad' about themselves (internal+high pervasiveness)
ex: I was terrible during that interview (blames self for what happened), I always get weird in front of recruiters (permanent cause), I just don't have the kind of easy sociability and attractive personality it takes to succeed. (the bad applies in many settings and categories)
--> self defeating to a fault, low self esteem

Now the same but explaining the bad externally.
ex: That interview(er) sucked! Man it's always the same thing, they ask you these pointless questions that have nothing to do with the actual job. I am not surprised the economy's bad with that kind of HR culture!!!
--> High self esteem but also does not take responsibility for the bad. Personality making growth in the face of advertisingadversity more challenging.

 

[Kierva]

Help me interpret this? I think I got the same thing as [MENTION=8936]highlander[/MENTION] did -- missing fields.

 

[Fluxkom]

I could need some interpretation help here.
So I don't see bad experiences as my fault - which is good -, but tend to do the same for the good things?

SCORING KEY

PmB: 3 PmG: 5
PvB: 2 PvG: 2
HoB: 5
PsB: 6 PsG: 2
Total B: 11 Total G: 9
G − B: -2

PmB = Permanent Bad; How permanent/temporary you tend to think the causes of bad events are.
moderately optimistic
PmG = Permanent Good; How permanent/temporary you tend to think the causes of good events are.
average
PvB = Pervasiveness Bad; People who make universal/specific explanations for their failures.
moderately optimistic
PvG = Pervasiveness Good; People who make universal/specific explanations for good events.
very pessimistic
HoB = Hope (probably the single most important score from your test)
moderately hopeful
PsB = Personalization Bad; Blame ourself (internalize) or other people or circumstances (externalize).
moderately low self-esteem
PsG = Personalization Good; Good caused by ourself (internalize) or others (externalize).
very pessimistic
Total B = Total Bad
average
Total G = Total Good
great pessimism
G − B = Overall Score
very pessimistic