"Sitting across from Dr. Martin Seligman in January 2024, I was confronted with a question I'd never fully examined as a police officer. The founder of positive psychology asked: "What is the psychological theory of an individual running into gunfire when everyone else is running away?" I offered the reflexive answers from lived experience-duty, honor, service, commitment. These words felt true, but were not science."
"When gunfire erupts, when buildings collapse, when violence threatens innocent lives, our survival instinct screams at us to run. This response is hardwired, evolutionary. Yet some individuals override this programming and move in the opposite direction. They transform instinct into purposeful action. Understanding this transformation requires examining three psychological forces: self-determination, self-efficacy, and courage. Self-determination provides the "why" of heroic action. It's the intrinsic motivation that drives someone to choose a profession where sacrifice isn't hypothetical but probable."
Courageous Optimism frames heroism as a learnable blend of self-determination, self-efficacy, and courage that transforms instinctive flight into deliberate rescue. Self-determination supplies the intrinsic "why": identity-aligned choice, agency, competence, and relatedness to a community worth serving. Self-efficacy provides belief in one's capability to make a meaningful difference. Courage enables action despite fear. Together these forces allow some individuals to override evolutionary survival impulses and act purposefully in danger. The reversible-cape metaphor balances acknowledgement of evil with promoting good, especially for first responders whose service frequently requires probable sacrifice.
Read at Psychology Today
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