How does optimism suppress immunity? Evaluation of three affective pathways.

Segerstrom, Suzanne C.

doi:10.1037/0278-6133.25.5.653

Cited by 53 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Milam et al [23], on the other hand, found that high levels of optimism do not confer any clinical improvement to AIDS patients, although moderate levels were found to be associated with more efficacious immune systems. Segerstrom [24,25] examined two hypotheses that may explain these results: the disappointment hypothesis, according to which persistent and uncontrollable stressors reduce the positive expectations that are typical of optimists and thus consequently control over the stress factors, leading to decrease in immune defence. The other is the engagement hypothesis theorizing that more optimistic individuals are more easily drawn to trying to resolve a problem while pessimists tend to let the matter drop, thus ending up more exposed to stress.…”

Section: Optimism and Physical Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimism and Its Impact on Mental and Physical Well-Being

Conversano¹,

Rotondo²,

Lensi³

et al. 2010

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Many studies have been carried out about the effectiveness of optimism as a psychological phenomenon, leading to various theoretical formulations of the same concept, conceptualized as "disposition", "attributional style", "cognitive bias", or "shared illusion". This overview is an attempt to explore the "optimism" concept and its relations with mental health, physical health, coping, quality of life and adaptation of purpose, health lifestyle and risk perception.Positive and negative expectations regarding the future are important for understanding the vulnerability to mental disorders, in particular mood and anxiety disorders, as well as to physical illness. A significant positive relation emerges between optimism and coping strategies focused on social support and emphasis on positive aspects of stressful situations. Through employment of specific coping strategies, optimism exerts an indirect influence also on the quality of life. There is evidence that optimistic people present a higher quality of life compared to those with low levels of optimism or even pessimists. Optimism may significantly influence mental and physical well-being by the promotion of a healthy lifestyle as well as by adaptive behaviours and cognitive responses, associated with greater flexibility, problem-solving capacity and a more efficient elaboration of negative information.

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Section: Optimism and Physical Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimism and Its Impact on Mental and Physical Well-Being

Conversano¹,

Rotondo²,

Lensi³

et al. 2010

CPEMH

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show abstract

“…Under the more difficult circumstance, optimism (as measured by the Life Orientation Test-Revised) was negatively associated with delayed-type hypersensitivity responses, a measure of immune responsiveness in the skin. This relationship was not due to the effects of stress as reflected in, for example, negative mood (Segerstrom, 2006). The other possibility is that energetic demands of coping with difficult stressors are greater among optimists, who are more likely to use active than passive coping strategies, both cognitive and behavioral (Solberg Nes & Segerstrom, 2006).…”

Section: Optimism and Immunosuppressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress, Energy, and Immunity

Segerstrom

2007

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

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A common perspective on stress-related changes in the human immune system is that such changes are potentially harmful, especially those occurring during chronic stress. In contrast, an ecological perspective views the immune system as an energetically costly system that may or may not have priority over other uses of that energy. From this perspective, the immune system may have energy made available for it via reduction of other activities, may change in energetically conservative ways when the protection it confers needs to be balanced with the energetic demands of other activities such as fight or flight, or may be suppressed when other activities are more important than immunity for total well-being. This last type of change can explain why aspects of psychosocial health such as optimism relate to worse immunity under some circumstances and suggests that both benefits and costs of immunosuppression during stress should be considered in research on human stress and immunity.

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“…However, the proportion having to do with spending time with others (e.g., "make time for friends and family") was markedly higher among resident students (42% vs. 17% for relocated). These descriptive data suggest that being resident was, in fact, associated with more social goals and obligations having to do with spending time with others (cf., Segerstrom, 2006).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The DTH skin test provides an in vivo assessment of cellular (Th1) immune responses, such that larger indurations reflect more robust cellular immunity. Further analyses then tested whether negative affect could mediate between social network parameters and DTH (c.f., Segerstrom, 2006). If stress contaminates social relationships, then one would expect negative affect to mediate any inverse relationship between social connectedness and immunity; however, if stress results in ecological immunosuppression in order to maintain relationships, mediation by negative affect is less likely.…”

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confidence: 99%

Social networks and immunosuppression during stress: Relationship conflict or energy conservation?

Segerstrom

2008

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

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Despite the apparent health benefits of social relationships, some studies indicate that larger social networks can be associated with greater vulnerability to infectious disease, particularly if stressors are also present. Two possibilities for such effects are, first, that more social contacts lead to more negative affect and social conflict during stressors, or second, that maintaining more social contacts is an energetically costly activity, and ecologically motivated immunosuppression is one means of providing energy to maintain social resources. First-year law students (N = 76) completed questionnaires and had delayed-type hypersensitivity skin tests at five time points during their first 6 months of law school. Both moving away from home and a smaller social network associated with larger DTH responses (both p < .05) across all time points. However, negative affect, either broadly defined or as specific affects (hostility, sadness, guilt), did not mediate social network effects, suggesting that negative affect and social conflict are less plausible explanations than ecological immunosuppression. Ecological models would predict that temporary immunosuppression is less harmful to health in the long run than loss of social resources.Social relationships seem to yield significant health benefits, with the mortality risk of a small social network approximately equaling that for cigarette smoking (House et al., 1988). One potential pathway between social connectedness and clinical health is physiological: higher social support is associated with lower tonic blood pressure, reduced cardiovascular reactivity, and higher functional immune assays (e.g., natural killer cell cytotoxicity) and, conversely, loneliness is associated with elevated cortisol and lower functional immune assays (see Cacioppo et al., 2000;Uchino et al., 1996; for reviews). Beneficial effects of social relationships extend to non-human animals. For example, juvenile macaques separated from their mothers had higher lymphocyte proliferative responses if they were housed with conspecifics with whom they had "significant, complex relationships" than if they were housed alone; furthermore, proliferative responses were positively correlated with degree of affiliation with others during the separation (Boccia et al., 1997, p. 193).However, there are some notable cases in which a larger number of social relationships negatively correlated with immunity and health. Miller and Cole (1998) reviewed 10 studies of social relationships and HIV progression. In these studies, loneliness and other measures of low emotional satisfaction with social relationships associated with faster HIV progression. However, larger social network size and other measures of greater social integration such as intent to participate in social activities and greater affinity with social networks also associated with faster progression. An interaction between stress and social connectedness was observed Correspondence to: Suzanne C. Segerstrom, Ph.D., Department of Psycholo...

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How does optimism suppress immunity? Evaluation of three affective pathways.

Cited by 53 publications

References 36 publications

Optimism and Its Impact on Mental and Physical Well-Being

Optimism and Its Impact on Mental and Physical Well-Being

Stress, Energy, and Immunity

Social networks and immunosuppression during stress: Relationship conflict or energy conservation?

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