Unrealistic Parental Optimism

Abstract

Unrealistic optimism is considered as an optimism bias based on the individual's motives of self-exaggeration and protection and is defined as evaluating oneself more positively than others. An important example of nurturing one's own self through the concept of unrealistic optimism is the parent-child relationship. The parent's having unrealistically positive perceptions about his/her child is reported to play an important role in the parenting experience, nourishing the parent's own self and changing the interaction with the child. An individual's placing parenting at the center of their life is not only limited to seeing themselves as better than they are, but can also affect their evaluations of their child. Unrealistic parental optimism can lead to disappointment, inappropriate persistence and unpreparedness for personal threats. The expectations created by the evolutionarily adaptive ability to look on the bright side of events and the disappointments that may be experienced in line with these expectations are significant for psychological science to be examined in an important context such as child rearing. This review focuses on the motives of parents to exhibit unrealistic parental optimism, what kind of behaviors they exhibit in this context and the outcomes of these behaviors on children.

Keywords

• unrealistic optimism
• optimistic bias
• self-deception