We all have that friend who can make any situation into a Debbie Downer moment, regardless of what is going on. My Grandmother used to call it being contrary, when I used to disagree with everything my sister said just to be difficult as a child (luckily I grew out if it). Now researchers call this tendency to take an EVERYTHING IS AWFUL or EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL point of view “dispositional attitude.”

What it means is that how people feel in a particular situation isn’t 100% motivated by the circumstances surrounding them. Instead, it is a result of the properties in the mind of the person evaluating them. A person with a dispositional attitude will automatically be pre-disposed, or more inclined, to either love everything or hate everything regardless of whether the sky is full of rainbows and sunshine, or rain clouds and thunder. It is not the situation itself making them feel that way, but an internal tendency to view all circumstances in a particular light. I’ve been known to tell my friends, “Haters gonna hate,” when that kind of person gets them down. Now, at least we have an inkling as to why!