Children with "negative" dispositions ...

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... if you have one, do you do anything about it?

Simple example: two children in café looking at menu. One - a glass-half-full person - says, Oh look at all this, there's bound to be something I like!! The other - a glass-half-empty person - says, I bet there won't be anything I want.

Is being a glass-half-empty person a fixed innate state, or can these natures be warmed up?

And, if so, how do (or would, if you don't have one of these) you do that?

No I don't think it's innate. I think it's a learned reaction which takes years to learn. I think it is very much dependent on how your issues have been dealt with when you were a child.

I firmly believe that if emotional needs are met during childhood that when that child becomes and adult they are much more likely to be optimistically minded.

Of course you can help the more pessimistic children to view the way they interpret their life experiences things in a better way.

i think it's very much innate, myself, negative vs positive temperament i mean, but agree that 'warming up' is possible, with a lot of good cheer, patience and time!! my DD is intrinsically negative and always has been, but is getting much less dark and broody and volatile with age. she is even able to laugh at her own negative mindsets in retrospect (sometimes!). we have had to jolly her along an awful lot since toddlerhood and it's been very hard at times - it's had a big impact on family outings, meals out, special occasions. but she's 7 now and things have got better with every passing year. we spend a lot of time discussing emotions with her when she is in the right (calm, positive) frame of mind. she had a difficult start to life (premature, born by emergency section 10 weeks early) but then i know others who have had equally hard starts who are innately sunny and cheery by disposition - all a bit of a mystery, in short!

Have a look at Martin Seligsman and Learned Helplessness....................I believe it is learned!

He has a site called positive psychology too which may direct you.

Seligman

temperament is at least in part innate, surely? even if there are lots of environmental issues which contribute (would never seek to deny that!). martin seligsman is the happiness guru isn't he - will check him out, thanks

But no such thing as a gene without an environment.

I am not a bio-determinist - too fatalistic for me. I believe the environment is the majority causal factor for behaviour.

In fact Oliver James ( although I have my crits to him did a nice piece about it in the guardian a few weeks ago)

nature/nurture oliver james

I think positive psychology is exactly what I'm after - Seligman's writing on "The Optimistic Child" sounds bullseye (and I'd never heard of him).

Thank you (and thank MN!)

hmm. i liked 'affluenza' a lot (oliver james) but i had my criticisms of 'they f* you up' on this topic. still - food for thought, thanks. will check out 'the optimistic child'.

I think we all have aspects within own personality/makeup that are susceptible to certain influences. Say that for example you have an addictive personality then in the wrong circs you will probably become addicted to something, but it is not a given that you will.

There are probably some people who are more predisposed to becoming pessimists but that does not by any means MEAN that they will become so. It all depends imo on their particular life influences and experiences.