Optimism

Publication Title: 
Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin

From the perspective of the terror management health model (TMHM), expectancies as to whether a health behavior is likely to effectively protect one's health (i.e., response efficacy) and whether an individual is optimistic about the outcomes of his or her health risk assessment (i.e., health optimism) should have a more potent influence on health decisions when thoughts of death are conscious and the health risk domain is potentially fatal.

Author(s): 
Cooper, Douglas P.
Goldenberg, Jamie L.
Arndt, Jamie
Publication Title: 
Applied Psychology. Health and Well-Being

BACKGROUND: This research was conducted to examine whether people high in emotional intelligence (EI) have greater well-being than people low in EI. METHOD: The Situational Test of Emotion Management, Scales of Psychological Well-being, and Day Reconstruction Method were completed by 131 college students. RESULTS: Responses to the Situational Test of Emotion Management were strongly related to eudaimonic well-being as measured by responses on the Scales of Psychological Well-being (r=.54).

Author(s): 
Burrus, Jeremy
Betancourt, Anthony
Holtzman, Steven
Minsky, Jennifer
MacCann, Carolyn
Roberts, Richard D.
Publication Title: 
Applied Psychology. Health and Well-Being

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the Basic Psychological Needs at Work Scale (BPNWS) in French, but items are also provided in English in the article. The BPNWS is a work-related self-report instrument designed to measure the degree to which the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as identified by Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), are satisfied at work. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the first study examines the structure of the BPNWS in a group of 271 workers.

Author(s): 
Brien, Maryse
Forest, Jacques
Mageau, GeneviËve A.
Boudrias, Jean-SÈbastien
Desrumaux, Pascale
Brunet, Luc
Morin, Estelle M.
Publication Title: 
Applied Psychology. Health and Well-Being

This study aimed to examine the relations between character strengths and dispositional positive emotions (i.e. joy, contentment, pride, love, compassion, amusement, and awe). A sample of 574 German-speaking adults filled in the Dispositional Positive Emotion Scales (DPES; Shiota, Keltner, & John, 2006), and the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS; Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005). The factorial structure of the DPES was examined on item level. Joy and contentment could not be clearly separated; the items of the other five emotions loaded on separate factors.

Author(s): 
G¸sewell, Angelika
Ruch, Willibald
Publication Title: 
American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias

We examined whether grounded optimism and external locus of control are associated with admission to dementia day care centers (DCCs). A total of 130 informal caregivers were recruited from the Alzheimer's Association in Salamanca (northwest Spain). All caregivers completed an assessment protocol that included the Battery of Generalized Expectancies of Control Scales (BEEGC-20, acronym in Spanish) as well as depression and burden measures.

Author(s): 
Contador, Israel
Fern·ndez-Calvo, Bernardino
Palenzuela, David L.
Campos, Francisco Ramos
Rivera-Navarro, Jes˙s
de Lucena, Virginia Menezes
Publication Title: 
Journal of Nursing Management

AIM: The study investigated the three symptoms of burnout among hospital nurses and examined the buffering effects of optimism and proactive coping in relation to burnout. BACKGROUND: Nursing is a profession that can easily lead to burnout. Burnout has been one of the most investigated work outcomes in current research. Previous research has largely ignored the positive influence of individuals on job outcomes and has not tested a constructive framework that might facilitate interventions to prevent burnout.

Author(s): 
Chang, Yuhsuan
Chan, Hsin-Ju
Publication Title: 
Stress and Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress

Although previous studies indicate a negative association between caregivers' anger and health, the potential mechanisms linking this relationship are not yet fully understood. The aim of this study was to explore the potential mediating role of optimism in the relationship between anger and caregivers' physical health. Dementia caregivers (n?=?108) were interviewed and filled out instruments assessing their anger (reaction), optimism and health (vitality). A mediational model was tested to determine whether optimism partially mediated the relationship between anger and vitality.

Author(s): 
LÛpez, J.
Romero-Moreno, R.
M·rquez-Gonz·lez, M.
Losada, A.
Publication Title: 
Journal of Health Psychology

Previous research has indicated that both cognitive and behavioral variables mediate the positive effect of optimism on quality of life; yet few attempts have been made to accommodate these constructs into a single explanatory framework. Adopting Fredrickson's broaden-and-build perspective, we examined the relationships between optimism, self-rated health, resilience, exercise, and quality of life in 365 Chinese university students using path analysis.

Author(s): 
Ramsay, Jonathan E.
Yang, Fang
Pang, Joyce S.
Lai, Ching-Man
Ho, Roger Cm
Mak, Kwok-Kei
Publication Title: 
Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners

PURPOSE: To evaluate the influence of a mental health training module on the therapeutic optimism of advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) students in primary care (family practice). DATA SOURCES: Three cohorts of ANPs who undertook a Mental Health Problems in Primary Care Module as part of their MSc ANP (primary care) run by the University of Huddersfield completed the Elsom Therapeutic Optimism Scale (ETOS), in a pre- and postformat. The ETOS is a 10-item, self-administered scale, which has been used to evaluate therapeutic optimism previously in mental health professionals.

Author(s): 
Hemingway, Steve
Rogers, Melanie
Elsom, Stephen
Publication Title: 
The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry

OBJECTIVE: Mental health services in the UK, Australia and other Anglophone countries have moved towards supporting personal recovery as a primary orientation. To provide an empirically grounded foundation to identify and evaluate recovery-oriented interventions, we previously published a conceptual framework of personal recovery based on a systematic review and narrative synthesis of existing models. Our objective was to test the validity and relevance of this framework for people currently using mental health services.

Author(s): 
Bird, Victoria
Leamy, Mary
Tew, Jerry
Le Boutillier, Clair
Williams, Julie
Slade, Mike

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