The Importance of Optimism

        Traditionally, the main concern of research in psychology has been focused on disabilities, deficits, and the contributions of negative emotions to stress and illness. Recently; however, Professor Martin Seligman and his colleagues have begun laying the foundations for positive psychology. This research is primarily concerned with the scientific study of human strengths and the identification of factors that promote well-being. (Larsen & Buss, 2008). In 1989, Professor Shelly Taylor wrote a summary of various studies which showed that most healthy people are biased towards viewing themselves in an optimistic way (Carr, 2004). This link between optimism and health is a significant breakthrough which could eventually enable psychologists to teach specific skills and coping methods associated with long, healthy lifestyles. Psychologists have theorized about the possibility of five mechanisms operating to produce better health among optimists. They propose that optimism may relate to better health through the immune system,  an emotional mechanism, a cognitive process, the promotion of social contact, a behavioral mechanism, or a combination of a few of these mechanisms. The following paper provides an overview of these mechanisms and describes various researches that prove behavior to be the most powerful link, and suggest the immune system to be the least powerful link, in the connection between optimism and health.

How Optimism Promotes Health

        Seligman suggests that one of the ways optimism fosters longer and healthier lives is through the immune system. Although research and results on this topic are mixed, some evidence suggests that dispositional optimism predicts slower disease progression. For example, one study found that optimism in HIV patients predicted less decrease in CD4 cells and less increase in viral load when compared to pessimists. The CD4 count tells how strong the immune system is, how far HIV disease has advanced (the stage of the disease), and helps predict the risk of complications and debilitating infections. It is used in combination with the viral load test, which measures the level of HIV in the blood, to determine the staging and outlook of the disease. Therefore, the levels found in this study resulted in slower disease progression (Ironson et al., 2005). This positive effect on the immune system could occur as the brain registers the experience of optimism and reaches down pathways to affect cellular function throughout the system, or it could be a more indirect link, meaning the health benefits are a result of behavioral, cognitive, or emotional pathways. This is an issue that must be further addressed in order to establish the optimist’s immune system as a sufficient mechanism in promoting health.

        Another plausible mechanism by which optimism could impact health is by resistance to negative emotional states like depression, which are linked to increased risk for disease and poor health. This mechanism is founded on the premise that each thought and emotion is a message to the rest of the body, mediated by an intricate array of nerve signals, hormones, and various other substances. In optimists, the thoughts and emotions are processed in a way that helps them resist depression. Carver and Gaines (1987) conducted a study on pregnant women to measure this phenomenon. They found that women who were more optimistic during pregnancy had significantly fewer episodes of post partum depression after childbirth.

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        Beliefs about oneself and the world, or the cognitive process, may be a third promoting factor in health. Several studies show that what one thinks about his or her health is an accurate predictor of longevity (Dossey, 2006). A clear example of the link between optimism and health on a cognitive level is the placebo effect. Dr. Bruno Klopfer’s “treatment” of a man with advanced lymphoma is evidence of the healing power of optimism and its link to a cognitive process. The terminal patient was injected with a shot of Krebiozen and within ten days was practically free of disease. ...

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