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. After two months of health and signs of improvement, reports denouncing the effectiveness of Krebiozen arose, and the patient’s attitude and medical condition returned to the terminal state (Dossey, 2006). The patient’s initial optimistic attitude and thoughts that his health would improve, resulted in his getting better. This shows the importance of self-efficacy; however, upon realizing that his improvement was not medically induced, the patient’s health declined again.
Social interaction, another pathway through which optimism may influence health, is inherent to human existence. Historically, we’ve been basic resources for each other, providing food, shelter and protection from enemies. Though we have adapted to provide for ourselves, social networks are still essential to well-being. The perception of support buffers us against stressful events that could have negative effects on our health. Dr. Larry Dossey (2006), health educator and authority on spiritual awareness, describes a direct link between optimism and social contact. Love, the most profound type of social interaction, leads to and empowers optimism. There is a self-reinforcing cycle between the more endearing optimists receiving love, which in turn generates more optimism. Larsen and Buss emphasize the importance of the feedback that is received from social contacts, which can provide a source of information about one’s health status.
A final way that optimism may relate to better health is through a direct behavioral mechanism. Because optimism is correlated with motivation and taking action, optimistic people are more likely to desire a healthy lifestyle and believe that they can achieve it. This makes it more probably that they will adhere to healthy regimens and medical advice. Different coping strategies and specific health behaviors make this mechanism the most powerful link explaining the connection between optimism and well-being.
Behavior: Linking Optimism and Health
A variety of researches prove the profound impact that certain behaviors exert on both physical and mental health. This is one mechanism that has evidence of a consistent effect on health throughout a number of studies. Optimism influences how people deal with the stress of social conflicts, taxing jobs, or chronic illnesses. It influences people to address those situations actively and therefore lose fewer net resources. When optimists face the threat or the reality of resource loss in a situation, they are more likely to do something about it, rather than avoid the situation like pessimists, a tactic that leads to negative consequences for mental and physical health. Even when a problem cannot be solved through their actions, optimists are more likely to deal with their emotions head-on, an approach that will preserve and rebuild resources most effectively. Researches have concluded that higher levels of optimism may be inversely related to illness because optimists show lower levels of emotional arousal and accompanying low levels of physiological-neuroendocrine reactivity when dealing with stressful circumstances (Hart & Hittner, 1995).
Not only does optimism result in more efficient coping patterns, it also is correlated with doing more of the right things and less of the wrong things regarding a healthy lifestyle. The positive effects of health promoting behaviors and the tendency for optimists to engage in them were evaluated in an empirical study measuring symptoms of influenza in optimists and pessimists (Hamid, 1990). The differences between disposition optimists and pessimists were examined in their self-reporting of ill health and their employment of health promoting behaviors. The study compared the experience of the illness in an undergraduate psychology course at a New Zealand University of 68 pessimistic students and 75 optimistic students. The groups were defined as high or low in optimism based on the Life Orientation Test and the students who scored neutral (between 16 and 24) were discarded. The students answered a questionnaire about their experience of flu, stress, health related behaviors, and expectancy of contracting illness.
In regards to health promoting behaviors, the data suggested that optimists undertake exercise and monitor their nutrition significantly more than pessimists. Optimists clearly appeared to attend to more specific preventative measures than pessimists, such as regular intake of vitamins, fruits, and vegetables, exercise, and regular amounts of sleep. Though causation cannot be assumed, optimists also reported significantly fewer flu symptoms. Pessimists recollection of illness was prolonged with 12 percent more specific symptoms, including headaches, nausea, runny nose, sore throat, cough, and hot or cold flashes. Despite the reliance on student’s reports of their health and not actual behaviors and incidences, these correlations support the benefits of certain behaviors on health.
The Immune System: A Direct Link?
It seems the importance of behavior is evident throughout all of the mechanisms relating optimism to health. Controlling stress is a major factor in the functioning of the immune system. The effects of optimism on immunity are clearly sensitive to the effects of stressor qualities and contexts. Though it seems that under most circumstances optimists will have the predicted relationship with higher immune parameters under, a number of studies have actually demonstrated that difficult stressors have more potentially detrimental effects on the immune systems of more optimistic people (Scheier & Carver, 1987). The conflicting studies and mixed results concerning optimists’ link with a healthier immune system make this mechanism the least powerful mode of explanation.
An example where optimism was correlated with slower disease progression in HIV was mentioned previously, but there is also evidence of the interaction between optimism and lessened immunity to illness. This was found in a study measuring dispositional optimism and affect in 46 first year law students. The Life Orientation Test and Negative Affect Schedule were used to make these measurements, and the student’s cellular immunity was recorded by DTH responses to the Mumps Skin Test Antigen. They were asked to report the class rank that they expected, the rank that they hoped for, and the lowest rank that they would find satisfactory. Their actual class rank was recorded five times throughout the study. Demographic characteristics, Law School Admission Test scores, and whether attending law school required relocation were other factors that were taken into account. The results of this study proved that optimism is not always a protective factor for the immune system. Among law students experiencing low academic-social goal conflict, more optimistic students had higher cellular immunity than the less optimistic counterparts; however, the relationship reversed among students experiencing high conflict (Segerstrom, 2006). This shows that during stressors which offer few difficulties, or in other words are controllable, brief, responsive, or not conflicting, there will be a positive correlation between optimism and immune system functioning. During more difficult stressors, however, more optimism predicts lower immune parameters. Although optimists are typically less distressed than pessimists, optimists who encounter difficult stressors might be more disappointed, distressed, and demoralized than their pessimistic counterparts because such stressors violate their positive expectancies. (Tennen & Affleck, 1987). When optimists encounter these situations, they basically fall apart and their immune system suffers.
How Else Might Optimism Promote Health?
Aside from the five mechanisms that Seligman and colleagues have identified to produce better health among optimists, researchers and psychologists are constantly speculating about what other factors may be behind this association. Scheier and Carver (1987) outline research done by Van Treuren and Hull on cardiovascular reactivity to stress and its association with optimists’ better health outcomes. This research yielded data supporting the idea that optimists sometimes experience less cardiovascular response to stressful occurrences than do pessimists, which may be a path toward more positive health outcomes. Pessimists showed the greatest cardiovascular reactivity and they were also the ones more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and die from related causes. Though this data seems innovative and convincing, it too can be related to the aforementioned mechanisms. This reiterates the complicated link between optimism and health, and ascribes to the problem of pinpointing exactly which factors are responsible for this correlation.
Conclusion
When reviewing the links between optimism and health, it is important to view the different pathways and mechanisms as operating together to produce better health, not as inconsistencies in the relationships. Optimism tends to promote active coping, progress toward goals, and maintenance of resources; all trends which can, in turn, prevent negative mood states and promote positive ones. These methods of avoiding psychological stress also have physiological benefits, accounting for the possible correlation between optimism, health, and the immune system. Optimistic people have tendencies to engage in and try to overcome challenges, conflicts, and stresses. The effect that all of the tendencies have on health will vary depending on the particular vulnerabilities of the people being studied, but overall, we can conclude that optimistic people are healthier and happier.
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