Optimism and Health
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- Date Submitted: 02/07/2011 07:28 PM
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Optimism has been long been thought to have a positive effect on a persons physical and psychological health. Cancer patient’s families sometimes do not agree with the doctor giving an allotted time for life expectancy, because they feel like they are telling the patient to give up, when in some cases the will to survive outlasted the sickness, and the patient lived a long time after the death date given. Humans tend to be optimistic creatures especially when it comes to the successfulness of live, and acquiring any sort of major health issue. One way to test these theories is for scientists to conduct researches.
In order to conduct research, scientists have to come up with a way to measure optimism. There are two methods of measuring optimism; the first is dispositional optimism and the next is explanatory style. (Harvard Men's Health Watch.2008). Dispositional optimism is based on a person’s outlook or forecast for their lives. Explanatory optimism is based on how a person explains good and bad news.
According to Deslyva and Korn, singer and song writer, a heart full of joy and gladness can banish trouble and strife. (Harvard Men's Health Watch.2008). Now, scientists are agreeing that optimism is good for the heart. In one research doctors took 309 patients that were about to undergo major heart surgery of the same kind. They had each patient psychologically tested for optimistic and pessimistic explanatory style, as well as tested for physical conditions such as obesity, high cholesterol, smoking and a history of heart disease. After six months of tracking each person, the researchers discovered that the optimists were only half as likely to return to the hospital as the pessimists were. A similar study showed that pessimists were three times as likely to have heart attacks as an optimist is.
In another study conducted on 2,564 men and women over the age of 65, researchers found that optimism had direct correlation with lower blood pressure. The...
In order to conduct research, scientists have to come up with a way to measure optimism. There are two methods of measuring optimism; the first is dispositional optimism and the next is explanatory style. (Harvard Men's Health Watch.2008). Dispositional optimism is based on a person’s outlook or forecast for their lives. Explanatory optimism is based on how a person explains good and bad news.
According to Deslyva and Korn, singer and song writer, a heart full of joy and gladness can banish trouble and strife. (Harvard Men's Health Watch.2008). Now, scientists are agreeing that optimism is good for the heart. In one research doctors took 309 patients that were about to undergo major heart surgery of the same kind. They had each patient psychologically tested for optimistic and pessimistic explanatory style, as well as tested for physical conditions such as obesity, high cholesterol, smoking and a history of heart disease. After six months of tracking each person, the researchers discovered that the optimists were only half as likely to return to the hospital as the pessimists were. A similar study showed that pessimists were three times as likely to have heart attacks as an optimist is.
In another study conducted on 2,564 men and women over the age of 65, researchers found that optimism had direct correlation with lower blood pressure. The...