Thesis (Ph.D.) --University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2008. / "October, 2007" Bibliography: leaves 298-322. Also available in print form.

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 83 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Drexel University, 2006. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-88).

M.A. / The power of positive thinking to promote and maintain well-being has enjoyed widespread popular appeal. Spurred largely by the development of the Life Orientation Test (LOT) (Scheier & Carver, 1985), mounting evidence now attests to the apparent benefits conferred by an optimistic life outlook. Optimism, the inclination to expect favourable outcomes, has been linked to both psychological and physical well-being (Taylor, et al., 1992; Cheng & Hamid, 1997; Marshall, Wortman, Kusalas, Hervig, & Vickers, 1992; Scheier, Carver & Bridges, 1994; Scheier et al., 1989; Segerstrom, Taylor, Kemeny, & Fahey, 1998). Optimists and pessimists have been shown to differ in the manner in which they cope with the challenges in their lives. They differ in their stable coping tendencies and in the kinds of coping responses that they spontaneously generate when given hypothetical coping situations (Scheier, Weintraub, & Carver, 1986). Optimists also differ from pessimists in the manner in which they cope with serious disease and with concerns about specific health threats (Friedman, et al., 1992), and these coping mechanisms in optimists in turn have been linked to improved physical and psychological functioning. There is also a clear biological link between optimism and physical well-being and this has been noted in such areas as immune functioning (Peterson & Bossio, 2002). The current study examines these apparent benefits of optimism on health and explores the medical bases for this connection. The study also examines whether these benefits may be of use in the treatment and recovery from the unique secondary medical complications experienced by those who are spinal cord injured.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the phenomenon of repression and to study its relationship to optimism/pessimism as measured by a subjective and an objective measuring instrument.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Trait expectancies are related to several aspects of psychological well-being. Specifically, hope, optimism, and hopelessness have been associated with positive and negative indicators of mental health, including suicidality. In addition to empirical similarities, these constructs also have substantial conceptual and measurement overlap. Moreover, while current literature suggests hope and optimism are unique constructs, the distinctions between hopelessness, hope, and optimism remain unclear. The main goals of the present study were: 1) to identify the best structural conceptualization of hope, optimism, and hopelessness; and 2) to apply this conceptualization to examine how different trait expectancies uniquely predict suicidal ideation. Undergraduate students (N= 456) completed a battery of questionnaires at two time points, two months apart. To achieve the first goal, a series of a priori factor models of hope, optimism, and hopelessness was tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). CFA was also performed to confirm the best factor structure of suicidal ideation. Finally, using results from these CFAs, the differential relationships between trait expectancies and suicidal ideation were examined using latent variable path analysis. Results showed that hope, optimism, and hopelessness are best conceptualized as distinct but related constructs. Results also found that both hope and hopelessness predicted increased suicidal ideation over time; whereas, optimism was not predictive of suicidal ideation. Surprisingly, these results suggest that higher hope may be a risk factor for increased suicidal ideation among undergraduates.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Older adults with persistent pain experience reduced physical functioning, increased disability, and higher rates of depression. Previous research suggests that different types of positive and negative expectancies (e.g., optimism and hopelessness) may be associated with the severity of these pain-related outcomes. Moreover, different types of expectancies may interact with perceived control to predict these outcomes. However, it is unclear whether different types of expectancies are uniquely predictive of changes in pain-related outcomes over time in older adults and whether perceived control moderates these relationships. The primary aims of the current study were to 1) examine how the shared and unique aspects of optimism and hopelessness differentially predict changes in pain-related outcomes (i.e., pain severity, pain interference, disability, and depressive symptoms) in older adults experiencing persistent pain over a 10-year and 2-year timeframe and 2) examine whether perceptions of control over one’s health moderate these relationships. The present study sampled older adults with persistent pain who participated in a nationally representative, longitudinal study (i.e., The Health and Retirement Study) at three timepoints across a 10-year period. First, confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted to determine appropriate modeling of expectancy variables. Second, mixed latent and measured variable path analyses were created to examine the unique relationships between expectancy variables and changes in pain-related outcomes over both a 10- year and 2-year period. Finally, mixed latent and measured variable path analyses and PROCESS were used to test perceived control as moderator of the relationships between expectancy variables and changes in pain-related outcomes over time. CFA results suggested that measures of optimism and hopelessness were best understood in terms of their valence, as positive (i.e., optimism) or negative (i.e., pessimism and hopelessness) expectations. Results from path analyses suggested that only negative, not positive, expectancies were significantly associated with worsening pain severity, pain interference, disability, and depressive symptoms across both 10-year and 2-year periods. Moderation analyses demonstrated inconsistent results and difficulties with replication. However, post-hoc path analyses found that perceptions of control over one’s health independently predicted some changes in pain-related outcomes over time, even when controlling for expectancies. Altogether, the current findings expand our knowledge of the associations between expectancies and pain by suggesting that negative expectancies are predictive of changes in mental and physical pain-related outcomes across years of time. The current study also suggests that positive and negative expectancies may be related, but distinct factors in older adults with persistent pain and that health-related perceived control may be predictive of changes in pain over time. The current discussion reviews these extensions of our current knowledge in greater detail, discusses the potential mechanisms driving these relationships through a theoretical lens, and identifies the implications of this work.

<p dir="ltr">Hope and optimism are associated with many positive life outcomes, including better physical functioning (Cherry et al., 2017), less psychological dysfunction (Shanahan et al., 2021), and general well-being and better academic achievement in college students (Rand et al., 2020). College students in particular are known to struggle with a variety of issues and could benefit from increased hope and optimism. Interventions have been developed to increase hope and optimism, but these have largely been delivered in person. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of delivering hope and optimism interventions in an online format to college students. There was mixed evidence of feasibility, but results did suggest online hope and optimism interventions are acceptable to college students. Although 94.3% of participants were retained, only 23% of participants met the active engagement word count requirement across conditions, and only 52.2% of participants adhered to intervention instructions in the hope condition. Acceptability was met across conditions with most participants reporting engagement (89.6%), vividly imagining their scenario (94.3%), thinking carefully about the prompt (95.4%), and putting effort into the task (93.1%). Examining the preliminary efficacy of these interventions showed no differential changes in state measures across conditions, although there were overall changes for hope and optimism across all conditions. Thus, it may be useful to examine these findings further in a fully powered study to determine the efficacy of these interventions.</p>

Syftet med denna studie var att inom den positiva psykologins ramar se hur optimism (LOT-r, Scheier, Carver, &amp; Bridges, 1994) förhåller sig till lyckonivå (OHQ, Hills &amp; Argyle 2002) och livstillfredsställelse (SWLS, Diener, Emmons, Larsen &amp; Griffin, 1985) och om detta skiljer sig i kön, civilstånd och ålder. Studien undersökte också vad som gör individer lyckliga. Urvalet var av snöbollsmetoden och 106 respondenter deltog där 47 var män och 59 var kvinnor. Civilstånd delades upp i tre kategorier, gifta/sambo, särbo och ensamstående. Ålder delades upp i tre kategorier, 18-29, 30-49 och 50-74. Den statistiska analysen gjordes med icke-parametriska test. Resultatet visade att optimism korrelerade positivt med lyckonivå och livstillfredsställelse i alla kategorier förutom för särbo där det inte fanns någon korrelation mellan optimism och livstillfredsställelse. Det fanns en signifikant skillnad i ålderskategorin i avseende på livstillfredsställelse. Det som gjorde individer lyckliga var familj (51.5%), vänner/umgänge (36.4) och fritid (35.4%). / The aim of this study was, on the basis of the positive psychology perspective, to investigate how optimism (LOT-r, Scheier, Carver, &amp; Bridges, 1994) relates to happiness (OHQ, Hills &amp; Argyle 2002) and life satisfaction (SWLS, Diener, Emmons, Larsen &amp; Griffin, 1985) and the influence of gender, age and marital status. The study also examined what makes people happy. The selection was made by the snowball method and 106 respondents participated in which 47 were male and 59 were women. Marital status was divided into three categories, married / partner, live-apart and single. Age was divided into three categories, 18-29, 30-49 and 50-74. Statistical analyses were made with non-parametric tests. The results showed that optimism was correlated positively with happiness and life satisfaction in all categories except for the live-apart where there was no correlation between optimism and life satisfaction. There were significant differences in the age group in terms of life satisfaction. What made people happy were family (51.5%), friends / relations (36.4) and leisure (35.4%).