The third common method of assessing optimism is to ask people to estimate their chances of experiencing one or more outcomes. Some work suggests that the globality and stability dimensions may be more important than the internality dimension. Optimism scores based on explanatory style are positively (though moderately) correlated with scores on the LOT.Ĭhristopher Peterson and Lisa Bossio, in their 1991 book on optimism and health, reviewed several studies linking an optimistic explanatory style with positive health outcomes including general health (based on patient ratings or physician ratings), illness symptoms, illness onset, physician visits, illness susceptibility, immune system functioning, survival times following cancer diagnosis, survival times following heart attack, completion of rehabilitation programs, and longevity. On the other hand, individuals who make internal, global, and stable attributions for negative events are said to have a pessimistic explanatory style, and tend to be more prone to depression. When responses in either of these methods suggest an external, specific, and unstable attribution, the person is said to have an optimistic explanatory style. The second method is to subject written essays to a procedure (Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanations, or CAVE) that assesses each of the foregoing dimensions. global dimension), and whether it can be considered to be a temporary aberration (unstable vs. external dimension), whether it affects other personal outcomes (specific vs. Then they evaluate whether this cause has something to do with them (internal vs. In the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), participants imagine experiencing a negative event and then report what they would consider to be the major cause. Two methods have been used to measure attributional style. The link has been demonstrated in a wide variety of different samples, including HIV-infected men, adult-daughter caregivers, and patients with head and neck cancer. The association between dispositional optimism and these outcomes holds even when taking into account other related traits such as neuroticism, and holds not only for self-reported outcomes, but also for more objective measures of those outcomes. Dispositional Optimismĭispositional optimism is usually measured by the Life Orientation Test (LOT), which includes items such as, “In uncertain times, I usually expect the best.” Michael Scheier, Charles Carver, and others have shown that dispositional optimists experience relatively better physical health, report fewer illness symptoms, cope more effectively with stress, recover more quickly from surgery, are better able to deal with illness, are less likely to need rehospitalization, and have better survival rates following serious disease. This article discusses various definitions of optimism, their relation to health, and explanations for this link. Traits related to optimism include hardiness (the tendency to appraise stresses as challenges), self-efficacy (a belief in one’s ability to effect positive outcomes), internal locus of control (feeling in control of what happens to oneself), and hope (a belief in one’s ability to achieve goals, combined with planned strategies to achieve those goals). Optimism is typically defined by psychologists as (1) having a generally positive view of the future, (2) attributing negative life events to factors unlikely to cause problems again, or (3) estimating one’s personal chances of experiencing specific negative outcomes to be low (and positive outcomes high).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |