The link has been demonstrated in a wide variety of different samples, including HIV-infected men, adult-daughter caregivers, and patients with head and neck cancer. The association between dispositional optimism and these outcomes holds even when taking into account other related traits such as neuroticism, and holds not only for self-reported outcomes, but also for more objective measures of those outcomes. Dispositional Optimismĭispositional optimism is usually measured by the Life Orientation Test (LOT), which includes items such as, “In uncertain times, I usually expect the best.” Michael Scheier, Charles Carver, and others have shown that dispositional optimists experience relatively better physical health, report fewer illness symptoms, cope more effectively with stress, recover more quickly from surgery, are better able to deal with illness, are less likely to need rehospitalization, and have better survival rates following serious disease. This article discusses various definitions of optimism, their relation to health, and explanations for this link.
Traits related to optimism include hardiness (the tendency to appraise stresses as challenges), self-efficacy (a belief in one’s ability to effect positive outcomes), internal locus of control (feeling in control of what happens to oneself), and hope (a belief in one’s ability to achieve goals, combined with planned strategies to achieve those goals).
Optimism is typically defined by psychologists as (1) having a generally positive view of the future, (2) attributing negative life events to factors unlikely to cause problems again, or (3) estimating one’s personal chances of experiencing specific negative outcomes to be low (and positive outcomes high).
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