Optimism and well-being: a prospective multi-method and multi-dimensional examination of optimism as a resilience factor following the occurrence of stressful life events

Optimism has been conceptualised variously as positive expectations (PE) for the future , optimistic attributions , illusion of control , and self-enhancing biases. Relatively little research has examined these multiple dimensions of optimism in relation to psychological and physical health. The cur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognition and emotion 2017-02, Vol.31 (2), p.269-283
Main Authors: Kleiman, Evan M., Chiara, Alexandra M., Liu, Richard T., Jager-Hyman, Shari G., Choi, Jimmy Y., Alloy, Lauren B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Anxiety - psychology
Attribution
Bias
depression
Depression - psychology
Female
Health status
Humans
Life Change Events
Life events
Life stress
Male
Mental depression
Mental health
Models, Psychological
Optimism
Optimism - psychology
Principal Component Analysis
Prospective Studies
Resilience
Resilience, Psychological
stressful life events
Symptoms
Vulnerability
Well being
Young Adult
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Summary:Optimism has been conceptualised variously as positive expectations (PE) for the future , optimistic attributions , illusion of control , and self-enhancing biases. Relatively little research has examined these multiple dimensions of optimism in relation to psychological and physical health. The current study assessed the multi-dimensional nature of optimism within a prospective vulnerability-stress framework. Initial principal component analyses revealed the following dimensions: PEs, Inferential Style (IS), Sense of Invulnerability (SI), and Overconfidence (O). Prospective follow-up analyses demonstrated that PE was associated with fewer depressive episodes and moderated the effect of stressful life events on depressive symptoms. SI also moderated the effect of life stress on anxiety symptoms. Generally, our findings indicated that optimism is a multifaceted construct and not all forms of optimism have the same effects on well-being. Specifically, our findings indicted that PE may be the most relevant to depression, whereas SI may be the most relevant to anxiety.
ISSN:0269-9931
1464-0600
DOI:10.1080/02699931.2015.1108284