Acceptance as a Positive Attitude

Abstract

We argue in favor of the adaptive value of acceptance and that it deserves a definite status within the ‘positive paradigm’. Acceptance currently suffers from ambiguous connotations because of its lack of optimistic biases and its similarity to resignation. We endeavor to show that acceptance and resignation are distinct attitudes by exploring their relationships with various phenomena–frustration, disappointment, expectation, positive thinking, replanning, and accuracy. The resulting distinguishing features of acceptance–thriving versus returning to baseline; realistic optimism versus hopelessness; persistence and flexible replanning versus disengagement–are crucial for adaptive coping, and appear to be in keeping with the positive paradigm.

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