Learn English – Expression for someone who thinks bad things will happen and makes plans for it

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I read an online article recently about psychology, which referred to a type of person who always expects bad things to happen. But rather than worrying or being unduly anxious about it, they plan ahead, in order to mitigate a future bad situation they expect might happen to them. This wasn't perceived as a negative attitude and the article gave this behaviour a description. Maybe it's well known in psychology circles or maybe it was just used in this article.

Unfortunately I cannot find the article, so I am enlisting your assistance. What we are looking for is a two word expression to describe such behaviour. It should not describe someone who is pessimistic, but rather someone who takes into account that bad things may happen and structures his life accordingly.

A similar example would be 'active defence,' which describes the behaviour of getting your retaliation in first.

Best Answer

An expression / not one word:

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

"Essentially, the importance of expecting the best lies in having the best possible outcome to aim for – to achieve. It provides our mind a goal to strive for. It is important to understand that preparing for the worst has nothing to do with being optimistic or pessimistic. It is simply a sound thing to do in executing our analysis of our current situation. We simply need to look at all possible outcomes from the best to the worst in order for us to be able to make a sound analysis and decision of what would be the best decision to take next."

http://psychoadvantage.blogspot.gr/2012/02/expect-best-prepare-for-worst.html