One thing is worrying me though, there seems to be a bit of optimist-abuse appearing here from some commenters :-)

Apparently optimists 'lack mechanisms for evaluating success', are 'mindless' and 'annoying'.

Which all makes me somewhat nervous to admit that yes I'm an optimist.

Luckily, as I'm an optimist it's all water off a ducks back to me...

An interesting story about how the field got started: Mike Czikszentmihalyi, an avid swimmer, was taking a rather lengthy swim in Hawaii (during the APA conference there, I believe), and fan into some trouble trying to get back to shore (something about a reef in the way). Anyway, he makes it back, barely, in sorry shape, and Seligman comes across him and gets him some help. They talk on the way, and the seeds of positive psychology are planted.

My favorite topic in the field is Mike's notion of flow and creativity. That optimal point when one is completely engrossed in what they are doing -- I think it's safe to say that we've all been in that "zone" -- we lose track of time, we are completely engaged in whatever activity we are doing...

It is an area of research that I'm seeking to expand upon, delving into the cognitive implications of flow.

As for optimism, I guess the only thing I can say is to expand on what I wrote in the previous post (about middle-aged men): We are all pretty much delusional (Just World Phenomenon, Attribution Bias, Self-Serving Bias, and so on), but the optimists are just more annoying, generally speaking (although I must concede that I have no research to cite on this last point :-)

I agree with a lot of the other comments. Positive Psychology does study sadness and anger and pessimism as well. Positive Psychology, as Tal Ben-Shahar says, is the permission to be human - the good and the bad.

I'd say also that another reason life is worth living is that positive emotions actually motivate us and we grow (this is related to your reason 3 - excellence).

Senia Maymin
Editor, Positive Psychology News Daily

I don't consider myself an optimist, but I also don't consider myself a pessimist. I try to be as aware and balanced as possible, as much as I can, realizing that I'm human and will not be balanced all of the time.

I think true optimism is as misguided as true pessimism. Both are unrealistic and only take into account one side of the picture.I think all this striving for "happiness" is really unhealthy and misses the point entirely.

Intersted in the evolutionary advantage of pessemism, as in self presrvation through risk avoidance ?

The wisest men in history, from Solomon to Tolstoy, have all been self-doubting pessimists, and in evolutionary terms this makes much more sense. You can most easily understand happiness by viewing it as a reward mechanism that's gone wrong, and "positive psychologists" are merely the most extreme expression of this malfunction.