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Background: Despite advances in cancer prognosis and increased survival rates for childhood cancer, having a child diagnosed with cancer can be considered one of the most stressful life events in a parent’s life. The adverse psychological impact of childhood cancer on parents has been found to be higher than in any other childhood chronic illness. Parents can find it difficult to adjust and use effective coping strategies to deal with the illness-related demands. Dispositional optimism (i.e. positive outcome expectancies for the future) has become a key theoretical component in positive and health psychological research, aiming to explain adjustment and coping in distressing life situations. However, optimism in the context of caregiving for a child with chronic illness and especially cancer has received little research attention, but may be important as optimistic people tend to show greater psychological adjustment and effective coping. Aims: To identify the characteristics of optimistic parents of children with cancer. To examine the relationship between optimism, anxiety, depression, life satisfaction, coping and subjective health perception in parents of children with cancer and parents of healthy children. Also, to provide a more in-depth understanding of the needs and experiences of parents in relation to their level of optimism/pessimism. Methods: A mixed methodological approach (quantitative and qualitative methods) was adopted to study optimism as well as the impact and the experiences of parents caring for their child with cancer. The mixed method design comprised two phases of data collection and analysis. In Phase I, quantitative methods were used. 100 parents of children with cancer were recruited during attendance at Oncology Out-patients Clinics at a UK regional Cancer Centre. A comparison group of 117 parents of healthy children were also recruited. All parents completed a questionnaire, providing demographic and medical information relating to their child, dispositional optimism, psychological distress, life satisfaction, coping and subjective health perception. Descriptive statistics, unrelated t-tests and x2 tests were used where appropriate to examine differences on optimism, psychological distress, life satisfaction and coping variables between the SG and CG. Bivariate Pearson correlations were used to identify any possible differences between the two groups. In Phase II, qualitative data were collected and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 high optimistic and 5 high pessimistic parents of children with cancer given their optimism score in the quantitative study. Results: In the Phase I of the study, findings showed that the parents of children with cancer had higher levels of anxiety, depression, lower levels of optimism, satisfaction with life and subjective health perception than the comparison group. Optimism was significantly correlated with satisfaction with life, subjective health perception, anxiety and depression in both groups. The interviews in Phase II of the study explained better the role of optimism and pessimism in parental experience of adjusting to and coping with childhood cancer. Interviewees described the way that their child’s diagnosis of cancer had affected their lives and their journey from shock to acceptance and adjustment for the optimistic parents or despair and feelings of helplessness and inability to cope for the pessimistic parents. Regardless of level optimism/pessimism, interviews underlined the importance and parents’ need for social support, ongoing communication with health professionals and contact with other parents of children with cancer. Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of optimism and pessimism in relationship to psychological distress in parents of children with cancer. Interventions targeting parents’ optimism are recommended as a potential source of coping with adversity within this population.

Par sa vision tragique du monde, René Char semble, à première vue, bien éloigné des penseurs utopistes, moins intéressé par les lendemains qui chantent que par les dangers imminents qui guettent l’humanité. Dans un grand nombre de ses poèmes, il s'attaque aux naïfs qui se persuadent que c'est le bien qui adviendra, valorise les pessimistes dans la mesure où « ils voient de leur vivant l'objet de leur appréhension se réaliser ». Son œuvre semble parfois rejoindre les actes d'accusation faisant de l'utopie l'antichambre du goulag et des camps, la rendant responsable de la dégénérescence des états dits socialistes en systèmes totalitaires. À plusieurs reprises, Char indique qu’entre l’ethos (qui recommande d’arrimer la poésie et la pensée au réel) et l’utopos (qui s’élabore à l’écart de la réalité du monde) il ne peut surgir qu’une incompatibilité essentielle. Mais s'en tenir là serait ignorer que tout une part de sa poésie demeure également marquée par le « principe espérance ». Si ses recueils du début des années 1930 sont traversés par le désir d’un « monde en tout renouvelé de l’attractif », certains de ses écrits plus tardifs sont également ponctués d’« images-souhaits » de la conscience désirante, d’évocations de lieux rêvés : « ville imperforée » ou « pays d’à côté », « citadelle idéale » ou « perfection à la fois territoriale et inspirée du bien commun ». Bien que Char se soit de nombreuses fois attaqué aux utopies du futur, il convient de se demander si on ne peut trouver à l'intérieur même de sa critique une invitation à penser l'utopie autrement. / By virtue of his tragic vision of the world, René Char initially appears to be far from a utopian. He is less interested in “enchanting dawns” than in the imminent dangers that await humanity. In many poems he attacks the naïve who believe that good will triumph, and values instead the pessimists “who see in their very lifetime the realization of what they most feared.” For this reason, Char has been placed alongside those who view utopia as the foyer of gulags and concentration camps, and hold utopianism responsible for the degeneration of so-called “socialist” states into totalitarian ones. Char suggests several times that between ethos (which encourages the adherence of poetry and thought to reality) and utopos (which distances us from the reality of the world) only an essential incompatibility can arise. To leave the question of utopia at this, however, is to ignore how a whole dimension of Char’s poetry is equally inspired by the “principle of hope.” His poetry from the early 1930s flows from a desire for “a world in every respect renewed by the attractive.” His later works are equally filled with “wish-images” of desiring consciousness, evocations of dreamed places – be it an “imperforate city,” a “country at the margins,” an “ideal citadel” or, indeed, “perfection, both earthly and inspired by the common good.” While Char has on several occasions taken it upon himself to attack future-oriented utopias, it is necessary to ask whether, from within this very criticism, we may find instead an invitation to think utopia otherwise

The study focused on claims workers in the short-term insurance industry and on whether their working conditions, such as dealing with traumatised clients and traumatic materials, are affecting them adversely. Equivalent attention fell on underwriting clerks, the comparison group, to ascertain whether they differ significantly from claims workers along the dimensions of compassion satisfaction, burnout, secondary traumatic stress as well as self-esteem and optimism/pessimism. These constructs were measured by the ProQOL-RIII - , the Mehrabian MSE – and MOP Scales, after which the scores were analysed. These scores were then compared across the two groups and also in terms of mode of interaction, using parametric statistical procedures. Although no significant differences were found between the two study groups, interesting interaction effects and other findings were nevertheless revealed that shed valuable light on these groups of workers.

As filosofias da Vontade de Arthur Schopenhauer e Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche apresentam duas posturas antagônicas em relação ao sentido da vida. Em ambos a vida deve ser explicada como a expressão de uma força cega e irracional, tornando-se sinônimo de dor e sofrimento - contudo, a reação de cada um diante deste achado filosófico do século XIX os coloca em caminhos contrários. No elogio schopenhaueriano da negação da vontade, da fuga ascética em direção ao Nada, Nietzsche encontra o antípoda de sua filosofia, o niilismo passivo contra o qual propõe o niilismo ativo da afirmação do Eterno retorno. / Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche\'s philosophies of Will present two contrary positions in relation to the sense of life. In both cases life should be explained as an expression of blind and irrational force, becoming a synonym of pain and suffering - nevertheless, the reaction of each in the face of this philosophic finding of the XIX century, places them in opposing paths. In the Schopenhaueran commendation to the denial of will, of self-denying escape in the direction of Nothing, Nietzsche finds the opposite to his philosophy, passive nihilism against which he proposes active nihilism of the affirmation of the Eternal return.

A presente pesquisa tem como finalidade apresentar uma leitura da obra poética de Giacomo Leopardi, com um olhar atinente à estilística. A fim de abrir horizontes, no sentido de novas pesquisas e perspectivas da poética leopardiana, escolheu-se fazer um cotejo entre poemas selecionados e as suas traduções em língua portuguesa do Brasil, paralelamente, de modo que a análise estilística, feita em etapas, contribua para mostrar o sentido presente no texto poético, sentido esse que pode estar alterado na versão traduzida. Quatro foram os poemas escolhidos: Il passero solitario, Linfinito, Canto notturno di un pastore errante dellAsia e La ginestra, o il fiore del deserto, representando um conceito que circula há tempo, mas que se acredita manter a sua importância, referente às fases do pessimismo leopardiano: individual, histórico, cósmico e heroico. / The present study is to present a reading of the poetry of Giacomo Leopardi, with a look regards on the stylistic. In order to open horizons to new research and perspectives of Leopardi´s poetry we chose to make a comparison between the selected poems and their translations into Portuguese of Brazil, in parallel, so that the stylistic analysis, done in stages contributes to show the sense in this poetic text, meaning that it can be altered in the translation. Four poems were chosen: Il passero solitario, Linfinito, Canto notturno di un pastore errante dellAsia e La ginestra, o il fiore del deserto, representing a concept that circulate for some time, but believed to remain important, on stages of Leopardi´s pessimism: individual, historical, cosmic and heroic.

Esta tese consiste numa interpretação da relação da eudemonologia e da filosofia prática com a ética desinteressada, com o pessimismo metafísico e com o ascetismo em Schopenhauer. Para tanto, o presente estudo assume a ótica da caracterologia schopenhaueriana e apresenta uma tentativa de resposta para a questão de como seria possível acomodar, por exemplo, uma arte de ser feliz diante de um pessimismo radical. Trata-se, sobretudo, de uma leitura da natureza da ética e do pessimismo quando estes são tomados sob o ponto de vista empírico-prático. Afinal, se Schopenhauer reconheceu na negação espontânea da vontade a única via de redenção do mundo intrinsecamente egoísta e doloroso, ele também se deteve numa teoria da felicidade em termos de sabedoria de vida e de prudência. Para tratar da questão, este trabalho i) empreende uma análise pormenorizada da noção de caráter (Charakter), tal como este se faz presente nas principais fases de produção do pensador - tanto a partir das obras publicadas, quanto dos manuscritos póstumos -, ii) enfatiza a preocupação do filósofo em estabelecer um desvio da metafísica para abordar sua eudemonologia frente à perspectiva superior de sua metafísica, e iii) defende que as esferas empírica e metafísica desta filosofia, apesar de apresentarem propósitos diversos, são suplementares. As distinções entre o que denomino de grande ética e de pequena ética e entre o que denomino de pessimismo metafísico e pessimismo pragmático - novidade propriamente dita deste estudo - permitiriam entender esta suplementaridade. Em ambas as diferenciações, a noção de caráter proporciona uma peculiar sutura entre as perspectivas metafísica (filosofia teorética) e empírica (filosofia prático-pragmática) deste pensamento: se os conceitos de caráter inteligível e de caráter empírico são centrais sob o viés metafísico da ética da compaixão e do ascetismo (tratados nos capítulos 1 e 2), a noção de caráter adquirido é fulcral na esfera da sabedoria de vida e da filosofia prática (tratada nos capítulos 3 e 4). Da mesma forma, se as ideias de negação imediata da vontade, de rompimento com a ilusão dos fenômenos e de supressão do caráter (Aufhebung des Charakters) compõem a esfera da metafísica da ética, as noções de ética da melhoria (bessernde Ethik), de motivações mediatas, de educação do intelecto (ativo), de ponderação (Überlegung) e de moral do como se (Als-Ob) configuram a dimensão empírica desta mesma ética. Pelo reconhecimento dessas duas perspectivas de consideração da ação e da existência humanas, o pensamento schopenhaueriano não se reduziria, ao contrário do que a doxografia e a historiografia geralmente apresentam, a um pessimismo metafísico e quietista; ou, no âmbito da ética, à radicalidade de uma ordem de salvação acessível a poucos. Isso, tão pouco, admitiria uma passagem do pessimismo a um otimismo, mas permitiria a constatação de uma face do pessimismo que não se restringe aos extremos de afirmação ou de negação da vontade. / This thesis consists of an interpretation of the relationship between eudemonology and practical philosophy with uninterested ethics, with metaphysical pessimism and asceticism in Schopenhauer. Therefore, this study takes the Schopenhauerian perspective of characterology and presents a tentative answer to the question of how it could be possible to accommodate\", for example, an \"art of being happy\" before a radical pessimism. Its about, above all, a reading of the nature of ethics and pessimism when they are taken from the practical-empiric point of view. After all, if Schopenhauer recognized in spontaneous denial of the will the only way of redemption of the inherently selfish and hurtful world, he also stopped himself in a theory of happiness in terms of wisdom of life and prudence. To address the issue, this paper i) undertakes a detailed analysis of the notion of character (Charakter), as it is present in the main stage production of the thinker - both from published works, and the posthumous manuscripts -, ii) emphasizes the philosophers concern in establishing a \"metaphysics deviation\" to address theireudemonology front their top perspective metaphysics, and iii) argues that the empirical and metaphysical spheres of this philosophy, despite having different purposes, are supplementary. The distinctions between what I call great ethics and small ethics and between metaphysical pessimism and pragmatic pessimism - novelty of this study itself - would permit understanding this supplementarity. In both differentiations, the notion of character provides a peculiar suture between the metaphysical perspective (theoretical philosophy) and empirical perspective (practical-pragmatic philosophy) this thought: if the concepts of intelligible character and empirical character are central under the ethics of compassion and asceticism metaphysical bias (covered in Chapters 1 and 2), the notion of acquired character is essential in the sphere of life wisdom and practical philosophy (addressed in Chapters 3 and 4). Likewise, if the ideas of immediate denial of the will, disruption of the illusion of phenomena and character suppression (Aufhebung des Charakters) make up the sphere of ethical metaphysics, the notions of \"ethical improvement\" (bessernde Ethik), mediate motivations, education of the intellect (active), deliberation (Überlegung) and the \"as if\" moral (Als-Ob) configure the empirical dimension of this same ethic. By recognizing these two perspectives of human action and existence consideration, the Schopenhauer thought wouldnt reduce, on the contrary to what the doxography and the historiography generally present, to a metaphysical and quietist pessimism; or, in the ethics scope, to the radical \"order of salvation\" accessible to few. That would barely admit a passage from pessimism to \"optimism\", but would allow the finding of a \"side\" of pessimism that is not restricted to the extremes of affirmation or denial of the will.

Background: We assessed the association between medical illness burden and anxiety symptoms, hypothesizing that greater illness burden would be associated with symptoms of anxiety, and that optimism would buffer, while pessimism would exacerbate, this relationship. Methods: We recruited 109 older adults, aged 65 years and older, from primary care and geriatric clinics to participate in this cross-sectional, interview-based study. Participants completed the Snaith Clinical Anxiety Scale and the Life Orientation Test – Revised, a measure of optimism/pessimism. A physician-rated measure of illness burden, the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale, was also administered. Results: Supporting our hypotheses, greater levels of overall optimism weakened, and pessimism strengthened, the association between illness burden and anxiety symptoms, after accounting for the effects of demographic, cognitive, functional, and psychological covariates. Conclusions: Bolstering positive and reducing negative future expectancies may aid in the prevention of psychological distress in medically ill older adults. Therapeutic strategies to enhance optimism and reduce pessimism, which may be well-suited to primary care and other medical settings, and to which older adults may be particularly amenable, may contribute to reduced health-related anxiety.

Objective: Depression is a significant global public health burden, and older adults may be particularly vulnerable to its effects. Among other risk factors, interpersonal conflicts, such as perceived criticism from family members, can increase risk for depressive symptoms in this population. We examined family criticism as a predictor of depressive symptoms and the potential moderating effect of optimism and pessimism. Methods: One hundred five older adult, primary care patients completed self-report measures of family criticism, optimism and pessimism, and symptoms of depression. We hypothesized that optimism and pessimism would moderate the relationship between family criticism and depressive symptoms. Results: In support of our hypothesis, those with greater optimism and less pessimism reported fewer depressive symptoms associated with family criticism. Conclusion: Therapeutic enhancement of optimism and amelioration of pessimism may buffer against depression in patients experiencing familial criticism.

The present study examines predictors and consequences of self-handicapping and defensive pessimism (comprising defensive expectations and reflectivity) from a self-worth motivation perspective. Consistent with self-worth motivation theory, self-handicapping and defensive expectations are proposed as two strategies students use to protect their self-worth in the event of potential failure, and in some cases to enhance their worth in the event of success. Using longitudinal data derived from undergraduate students from three institutions in their first and second years at university, quantitative analyses, involving confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling, tested models in which a set of affective and motivational factors was proposed to predict self-handicapping, defensive expectations, and reflectivity. These three strategies were in turn proposed to predict a variety of academic outcomes including self-regulation, persistence, future academic plans, and grades. Both quantitative and qualitative data hold implications not only for current understanding and existing theory regarding self-handicapping and defensive pessimism, but also for educational practice and research dealing with these phenomena. On a more general level, data derived from the various studies provide new perspectives on defensive manoeuvring and the lengths to which students will go to protect their self-worth, the many reasons they pursue their studies in such a fashion and the diversity (and complexity) of consequences that follow from such behaviour / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)