The Pessimism Schema: Key Features And Clinical Observations

Pessimism can be more than just “negative thinking.”

In schema therapy, the pessimism schema is a longstanding pattern characterized the expectation that things will go wrong and that positive experiences are fleeting or insignificant. For some clients, this schema can play a key role in chronic hopelessness, worry, and indecision.

What are schemas?

Schema therapy posits that psychological difficulties stem from early maladaptive schemas (or ‘schemas’ for short) and clients’ characteristic responses to them, called coping styles. Schema therapy was initially developed for treating complex, longstanding, and diffuse psychological difficulties. It combines cognitive behavioral, attachment, gestalt, object relations, constructivist, psychoanalytic, and neurobiological approaches within a unifying conceptual model (Young, 1999; Young et al., 2003).

Pessimism (sometimes referred to as negativity/pessimism) is one of several schemas that people can develop.

1. Chronic anxiety is a core feature of pessimism

People with a pessimism schema are preoccupied with the negative aspects of their lives, such as loss, strife, and conflict, resulting in pervasive negativity and hopelessness. They believe the worst is likely to happen and place undue attention on potential pitfalls, which fuels the perception that problems are ever-present.

Young et al. (2003) identify chronic anxiety as a characteristic feature of the pessimism schema. People with this schema might anticipate disasters, focus on negative outcomes, and doubt their ability to cope, resulting in a persistent state of stress and tension. Their anxiety might be buoyed by beliefs that worrying is somehow protective, avoids mistakes, or prevents catastrophes (Borkovec et al., 1999).

2. Hypervigilance and rumination are common

Believing that things will inevitably go wrong, people with this schema will often monitor for threats and negative outcomes. As a result, they are highly sensitive to events and experiences that seem to confirm their negative expectations (Young et al., 2003). Rumination is also common. The client might dwell on threats, their sense of uncertainty, and self-doubt. This can lead to excessive checking and other threat-management behaviors (Cousineau, 2012; Moritz & Jelinek, 2009).

3. Indecision may reflect a fear of disastrous mistakes

Clients with this schema often have an exaggerated fear of making mistakes, believing that even small errors can lead to disastrous outcomes, such as significant losses or social humiliation. As a result, they may find it difficult to make decisions, believing that they will inevitably choose incorrectly. This belief may lead them to avoid making choices altogether. Unfortunately, this pessimistic outlook combined self-doubt often further justifies the importance of exercising extreme caution (Winston & Seif, 2022).

4. Hopelessness can be pronounced, especially in depressed clients

While Young and colleagues (2003) identify anxiety as the “default position” among people with a pessimism schema, hopelessness is also common. Beck (1972) suggests that pessimism can predispose individuals to feel hopeless and depressed, while Chang (1996) found that pessimism accounted for 17% of the variance in depression in some cultural groups. These findings provide some explanation for the high prevalence of the pessimism schema among depressed and suicidal individuals (Bishop et al., 2022; Flink et al., 2017).

5. Interpersonal difficulties are not unusual

Pessimistic individuals often frustrate others due to their persistent negativity and cheerlessness (Arntz et al., 2013). As a result, people with this schema may experience social rejection and isolation, which may confirm their negative social expectations (Helweg-Larsen et al., 2002).

6. Developmental origins often include modeling and adversity

Young and colleagues (2003) suggest that the pessimism schema usually has three origins: modeling, adversity, and biology. Through modeling, the client internalizes the pessimistic attitudes of significant others. Alternatively, a parent figure may make pessimistic attributions for events in the child’s life or reinforce the child’s pessimistic interpretations. Research suggests that children’s pessimistic explanatory styles often correlate with parental styles (Seligman et al., 1984).

Negative life experiences such as abuse, parental mental illness, familial conflict, poverty, violence, or repeated failure can also predispose children to pessimistic explanations and expectations. Drawing on helplessness research, Gillham and colleagues (2001) suggest that chronic exposure to uncontrollable adverse events often results in resignation, passivity, and pessimism.

Young and colleagues (2003) also note that pessimism sometimes has a biological component. Similarly, Plomin and colleagues (1992) suggest that around 25% of the variance in dispositional optimism and pessimism relates to hereditary factors.

7. Culture and context can play a role

Therapists should be aware be that cultural factors may play a role in pessimism. For instance, Chang (1996) found that Asian individuals were often more pessimistic than white Americans. Various explanations for these cultural differences have been proposed (Heine & Lehman, 1995). From a clinical standpoint, therapists should not assume that heightened pessimism is indicative of a pessimism schema. Rather, they should establish what constitutes normal versus abnormal expressions of pessimism in the client’s cultural context (Norem & Chang, 2001).

Further Reading

• Arntz, A., & Jacob, G. (2013). Schema therapy in practice: An introductory guide to the schema mode approach. Wiley Blackwell.

• Beck, A. T. (1972). Depression: Causes and treatment. University of Pennsylvania Press.

• Bishop, A., Younan, R., Low, J., & Pilkington, P. D. (2022). Early maladaptive schemas and depression in adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 29, 111–130.

• Borkovec, T. D., Hazlett‐Stevens, H., & Diaz, M. L. (1999). The role of positive beliefs about worry in generalized anxiety disorder and its treatment. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy: An International Journal of Theory & Practice, 6(2), 126-138.

• Chang, E. C. (1996). Cultural differences in optimism, pessimism, and coping. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43, 113–123.

• Cousineau, P. (2012). Strategies to enhance the healthy adult mode. The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Schema Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, 249.

• Flink, N., Lehto, S. M., Koivumaa-Honkanen, H., Viinamäki, H., Ruusunen, A., Valkonen-Korhonen, M., & Honkalampi, K. (2017). Early maladaptive schemas and suicidal ideation in depressed patients. The European Journal of Psychiatry, 31(3), 87-92.

• Gillham, J. E., Shatté, A. J., Reivich, K. J., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2001). Optimism, pessimism, and explanatory style. In E. C. Chang (Ed.) Optimism & pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice (pp. 53–75). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10385-003

• Heine, S. J., & Lehman, D. R. (1995). Cultural variation in unrealistic optimism: Does the West feel more vulnerable than the East?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 68(4), 595.

• Helweg-Larsen, M., Sadeghian, P., & Webb, M. S. (2002). The stigma of being pessimistically biased. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 21(1), 92-107.

• Moritz, S., & Jelinek, L. (2009). Inversion of the “unrealistic optimism” bias contributes to overestimation of threat in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 37(2), 179-193.

• Norem, J. K., & Chang, E. C. (2001). A very full glass: Adding complexity to our thinking about the implications and applications of optimism and pessimism research. In E. C. Chang (Ed.), Optimism and pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice. American Psychological Association.

• Plomin, R., Scheier, M. F., Bergeman, C. S., Pedersen, N. L., Nesselroade, J. R., & McClearn, G. E. (1992). Optimism, pessimism and mental health: A twin/adoption analysis. Personality and individual differences, 13(8), 921-930.

• Seligman, M. E., Kaslow, N. J., Alloy, L. B., Peterson, C., Tanenbaum, R. L., & Abramson, L. Y. (1984). Attributional style and depressive symptoms among children. Journal of abnormal psychology, 93(2), 235.

• Winston, S. M., & Seif, M. N. (2022). Overcoming anticipatory anxiety: A CBT guide for moving past chronic indecisiveness, avoidance, and catastrophic thinking. New Harbinger Publications.

• Young, J. E. (1999). Cognitive therapy for personality disorders: A schema-focused approach (3rd ed.). Professional Resource Press/Professional Resource Exchange.

• Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S., & Weishaar, M. E. (2003). Schema therapy: A practitioner’s guide. Guilford Press.