Dispositional Optimism in Cardiac Patients and Their Spouses: Dyadic Relations to Well-being and Positive Affect

Abstract

The aim of this prospective study was to examine the relation of a positive personal characteristic, i.e., dispositional optimism, to physical and emotional well-being and positive affect in a sample of chronic cardiac patients and their partners. One hundred and four cardiac patients (25 women; mean age = 64.36 years) and their spouses (mean age = 60.04; all couples were married) participated in the study. Patient and partner dispositional optimism was assessed at baseline; well-being and positive affect, four months later. Τhe Actor-Partner Interdependence Model was used to examine the dyadic effects of optimism on physical and emotional well-being and positive affect. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to run these analyses. In almost all cases, patient and spouse baseline optimism was positively related to their own well-being and positive emotions. Furthermore, patient optimism positively predicted spouse outcomes. However, spouse optimism was not related to any of the patients’ indicators of well-being or positive emotions. These findings provide further support to the beneficial role of optimism, at an intra- and also inter-personal level. Furthermore, they indicate that, even when dealing with severe chronic disease, there are still positive personal characteristics, like dispositional optimism, which may help patients and their partners achieve better adaptation and higher levels of well-being.

Examining intra‐ and inter‐personal health effects of optimism and pessimism: The role of subjective well‐being in romantic couples

“…That is, a person's own positive affect was higher when their partner was more optimistic. This finding is consistent with past work, which has demonstrated inter-personal effects of dispositional optimism on positive affect (Karademas & Thomadakis, 2020). Different from this study, we found no longitudinal effects of partner combined dispositional optimism on changes in a person's own subjective well-being.…”

“…This finding implies that individual differences in personality constructs, such as dispositional optimism, operate in a social context across people (inter-personally) and not only within people (intra-personally). While the latter conclusion is consistent with previous research (e.g., Chung et al, 2016;Karademas & Thomadakis, 2020;Kim et al, 2014), our findings contribute to this literature by documenting that stronger effects of pessimism, as compared to optimism, can be found both intra-personally and inter-personally. Indeed, our findings may help to clarify inconsistent results of past work, which has found greater inter-personal associations between either optimism or pessimism depending on the outcome measured (e.g., Arbel et al, 2020;Haid & Seiffge-Krenke, 2013;Smith et al, 2013).…”

“…Though there were fewer associations between partner combined dispositional optimism and subjective well-being and health, those that were significant were in the expected directions. Actor and partner scores on the combined LOT-R were correlated at .20 (p < .01), matching well with other dyadic studies of dispositional optimism (e.g., Karademas & Thomadakis, 2020;Kim et al, 2014).…”

“…Research also shows evidence for inter-personal effects of dispositional optimism on subjective well-being. For instance, cross-sectional and longitudinal research showed that to the extent people had a spouse who scored high on dispositional optimism, they also reported improved affective functioning and reduced trauma-related symptoms, role burden, and depressive symptoms (Chung et al, 2016;Karademas & Thomadakis, 2020;Ruiz et al, 2006;Weinberg et al, 2016). However, it is important to note that these studies did not distinguish effects of optimism from their corresponding effects of pessimism.…”

“…Dispositional optimism has been associated with better physical health (for meta-analytic review, see Rasmussen et al, 2009) and subjective well-being (e.g., Carver & Gaines, 1987;Chang, 1998;King et al, 1998). In addition to these intra-personal effects, cross-sectional and longitudinal research also showed that having a spouse who scores high on dispositional optimism is associated with a person's own improved physical health and subjective well-being (i.e., inter-personal; Chung et al, 2016;Karademas & Thomadakis, 2020;Kim et al, 2014;Oh et al, 2020;Ruiz et al, 2006;Weinberg et al, 2016).…”