If you frequently expect bad things will happen, you will probably feel demoralized or depressed. If you expect something horrible or dangerous to happen to you, you may feel frightened, anxious or worried. And when people fail to live up to your expectations about them, you can easily feel annoyed, disappointed, angry, or sad. Positive, hopeful expectations can lead to positive emotions as well. Optimism, enthusiasm, confidence, and contentment are all maintained, in part, by persistent, positive expectations.
Love is a good example of positive, but sometimes unrealistic, expectations.
When people fall in love, they are often temporarily overcome by positive, euphoric emotions. This intense positive emotional state often leads people to believe that all is fine and that their future is bright. When the realities of love, commitment, and relationships emerge, however, people are frequently caught off guard. As a result, they tend to suffer and their relationships sooner or later become strained. Whenever we form a relationship with another person, we almost always have expectations about how both we and that person should think, feel, and behave.