Explanatory style consists of three key dimensions: permanence, pervasiveness, and personalization. Pessimistic children often view bad events as permanent ("I’ll never be good at math"), pervasive ("Everything in my life is terrible"), and personal ("It’s because I’m stupid"). The Optimistic Child program teaches parents how to help their children reframe these experiences. An optimistic child learns to see setbacks as temporary, specific to one situation, and often influenced by external factors that can be changed through effort.
The most practical tool in The Optimistic Child is the concept of "Explanatory Style." This is the habitual way a child explains the causes of good and bad events. Seligman identifies three critical dimensions of this style: An optimistic child learns to see setbacks as
Seligman identified three critical dimensions of a child’s "explanatory style." Pessimistic children consistently use the when something bad happens: specific to one situation