Positive Purpose; The Escape

Bailey Leftwich

In recent years, a great amount of research has been done regarding the effectiveness of optimism as a psychological phenomenon and whether it leads to various theoretical formulations of two closely-correlated concepts. One concept is that optimism can be defined as ‘the inclination to hope.’ Another concept, as told by German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, it is better to think of optimism as being ‘the best of all possible worlds.’ Both concepts are considered to be true, but optimism is most correctly identified by the individual’s state of mind. The expectations we have regarding the future – both positive and negative – are important for understanding our personal vulnerability to mental disorders. Recent studies have also shown that there is an inverse correlation between optimism and depressive symptoms; they have even found that there is an inverse correlation between optimism and suicidal ideation. Though this sounds obvious, a majority of people still choose to think pessimistically. The results of this same research show that pessimists, when compared to optimists, were at more risk for depressive and anxiety disorders in the future. Since they chose to feed the negative energy for their future, they put themselves at risk. Whereas, if people chose to feed positive energy to themselves, nurturing hope, they would result in a better outcome. A question was then raised about the use of psychotherapy to promote an optimistic disposition in pessimistic subjects. In this particular study, subjects were those that were past victims of natural disasters. It was observed that there were positive results even after a single cognitive-behavioral therapy session that was targeted at enhancing the sense of control and coping with devastating disturbances. After viewing the results of this brief study, a focused therapy session of active coping strategies and regaining personal control showed to be significant for the initially pessimistic subjects. Before the study, the subjects were more inclined to avoid their problems and furthermore ‘give up’ on their futures. There have been a limited number of studies done concerning optimism and mental health. However, the question does not stop there; the correlation between optimism and physical health has deemed just as important. Like the results found in the studies described above, optimism has been shown to be a direct connection of better and more positive physical health. Pessimism, on the other hand, is correlated with excessive somatic complaints. In a study on a population of elderly subjects of both sexes 65-85 years of age, it was noted that dispositional optimism predicted less probability of mortality in general and of cardiovascular mortality in particular. This data has also been confirmed in a subsequent longitudinal study on a population of males ages 64-84 in which an inverse correlation was reported between dispositional optimism and the risk of cardiovascular death. It was even found that carotid atherosclerosis tended to progress more slowly in optimistic women in the three years following the menopause, as opposed to the pessimistic subjects. Among the patients with prior neck or head cancer, optimists demonstrated significantly greater survival a year after diagnosis when compared to pessimistic patients. Overall, it can be confirmed that there is a direct correlation with optimism and both mental and physical health in individuals. Though studies have been limited, results continuously show that those who think with a more positive attitude will better their quality of life and lower their health risk. Coping strategies have even had a significant impact on multiple patients and has also been connected with optimism. The ‘inclination of hope’ and the ‘better[ing] of all possible worlds’ are directly correlated with living a better and more fulfilled life.

Sources
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2894461/
http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescent-health-topics/mental-health/positive-health.html