![]() ![]() Optimists believe that positive events are more stable and frequent than negative ones. In open contrast, studies carried out by Peterson and Seligman, that were prevalently directed towards the understanding of the psychological bases of pessimism, lead to conception of its opposite, optimism, as an “attributional style”, characterized by the tendency to believe that negative events are inconstant (the negative event will not repeat itself), external (I am not responsible for the event) and specific (the event is “specific”, self-limiting and will not influence any other activities of mine and my life). Optimistic subjects tend to have more frequently protective attitudes, are more resilient to stress and are inclined to use more appropriate coping strategies. In the research carried out regarding this perspective, positive correlations have been found between optimism and physical/mental well-being. Optimistic individuals are positive about events in daily life. ![]() Scheier and Carver theorized the “disposition” towards optimism in their studies, called “dispositional optimism”, considering it a trait of an equilibrated personality, in time and in various situations, that influences the way in which individuals come to terms with present, past and future events in life. Over the last few years, a significant body of research has been carried out about the effectiveness of optimism as a psychological phenomenon, leading to various theoretical formulations of the same concept, understood as “disposition”, “attributional style”, “cognitive bias”, or “shared illusion”. Optimism may significantly influence mental and physical well-being by the promotion of a healthy lifestyle as well as by adaptive behaviours and cognitive responses, associated with greater flexibility, problem-solving capacity and a more efficient elaboration of negative information.Īs it is commonly understood, the term ‘optimism’ embraces two closely correlated concepts: the first is the inclination to hope, while the second more generally refers to the tendency to believe that we live in “the best of all possible worlds”, as coined by the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in his famous theodicy, ridiculed in Voltaire’s Candide. There is evidence that optimistic people present a higher quality of life compared to those with low levels of optimism or even pessimists. Through employment of specific coping strategies, optimism exerts an indirect influence also on the quality of life. A significant positive relation emerges between optimism and coping strategies focused on social support and emphasis on positive aspects of stressful situations. Positive and negative expectations regarding the future are important for understanding the vulnerability to mental disorders, in particular mood and anxiety disorders, as well as to physical illness. This overview is an attempt to explore the “optimism” concept and its relations with mental health, physical health, coping, quality of life and adaptation of purpose, health lifestyle and risk perception. Our findings may be a valuable cue for coping with crisis situations.Many studies have been carried out about the effectiveness of optimism as a psychological phenomenon, leading to various theoretical formulations of the same concept, conceptualized as “disposition”, “attributional style”, “cognitive bias”, or “shared illusion”. ![]() However, there was an effect of positive emotions (both automatic and reflective) having a protective role from the feeling of general anxiety, which was significant for the older group only. ![]() We created models accounting for the variance of general anxiety, finding significant predictors for both separate groups of younger and older adults (negative emotions, both automatic and reflective and preventive behaviours). Unrealistic optimism was also positively correlated with negative automatic emotions and negatively correlated with positive reflective emotions. The results allowed us to confirm the occurrence of unrealistic optimism bias (being significantly stronger for men than women), which correlated negatively with the declared number of preventive behaviours. We also measured twelve specific emotions (differing in valence and origin) and the feeling of the anxiety caused by the coronavirus. In our study, we explored unrealistic optimism bias (the cognitive error giving people a feeling of invulnerability) and any declared preventive behaviours undertaken in order to minimise the risk of contagion. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic (and its consequences, such as lockdown and public health regimes) was a novel and stressful situation for most of people, and, as such, it significantly affected both cognitive and emotional functioning of individuals. ![]()
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