Optimism and Its Impact on Mental and Physical Well-Being

Abstract

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.

Amniocentesis increases level of anxiety in women with invasive prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome

“…Optimism is often associated with the reduction, elimination or management of the stressors during pregnancy. (12,13) Contrary to that hypothesis, our study revealed that women's perceived risk for having a baby with Down syndrome did not affect their level of depression, anxiety or stress. This might be due to a lack of understanding of the risk or poor risk information.…”

“…(14) Women who are optimistic tend to use problem focused coping strategies more frequently which are characterized by acceptance of the situation, humor or showing evident positive results on their life. (12,15,16) A previous study by Podolska et al (17) revealed that pregnant women who used emotion-concentrated styles of coping in stressful situations increased the risk of perinatal depression. Thus, further study is needed to know the kind of coping strategy that participants use to cope with their stress.…”

Diet And Perceptions Change With Supermarket Introduction In A Food Desert, But Not Because Of Supermarket Use

“…The new supermarket may also have stimulated economic development in the neighborhood and hope among community residents heartened by public and private investment in their neighborhood and their health. 39, 40 …”

Measuring resilience among homeless youth: psychometric assessment of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale in Ghana

“…It is therefore expected that a high score among Ghanaian youth on this factor would translate into the ability to overcome difficult situations through the use of both personal and interpersonal resources. The relevance of optimism as a construct of resilience has been documented in some psychological studies (Conversano et al, 2010;Ho, Cheung & Cheung, 2010) and has appeared as a separate factor in previous validation studies of the CD-RISC (Yu & Zhang, 2007;Singh & Yu, 2010). Young adults who are optimistic are more likely to report higher levels of satisfaction with life and less likely to experience psychosocial problems (Ho et al, 2010).…”