Optimism and Positive Thinking Effects on Well-being
Section 1:
What is happiness and what causes it? A question that has been discussed through centuries but until today no one really knows one answer to it. The reason behind this ambiguity is that happiness varies from each person’s perspective. If a poor person would be asked what happiness is, the answer would probably be wealth. If a person in his/her deathbed fighting a fatal disease would be asked the same question the answer would certainly be health. A lonely person would likely answer that his/her happiness would be fulfilled through love or social interactions. So happiness and the things that cause it can be anything a person needs and lacks in his life. Happiness is a state of …show more content…
A number of researches demonstrate that optimism is correlated with coping and responding better to difficult events. These researches concludes that “Greater optimism has been found to be associated with less mood disturbance in response to a variety of stressor, including adjustment to law school, breast cancer and coronary bypass surgery, and exposure to SCUD missile attacks”. (Brissette, Scheier & Carver, 2002, p. 102). This proves how positive thinking can change a person’s life and help people adjust to the hardships of life whether it was as simple as adapting to a new environment like law school or as harsh as being imperiled to missile attacks. The coping process of recovering from failures and disappointments is easier in positive people because they look for the positive aspects in situations. Another study that was done by Litt and colleagues (as cited in Snyder & (Snyder & Lopez, 2009)Lopez, 2009) explores positivity and negativity in couples that are facing in-virto fertilization. The experiment resulted in discovering that positive couples that underwent the failure of the fertilization took it rather well and appeared to have positive outcomes from the experience like becoming closer to their spouses. In the case of negative people, they experienced depression and felt responsible for the failure of the attempt. This is a perfect example of how thinking positively in bad situations leads to accepting and managing an unhappy situation happily and positively. Positive thinking can also improve people’s life in terms of developing the skills of problem solving and altering difficult situations. Through focusing on positivity one can avoid feelings of frustration and depression while facing a difficulty and therefore solves the problem efficiently. A study that was done on HIV disease progression by Ironson and Hayward (as
Section 1:
What is happiness and what causes it? A question that has been discussed through centuries but until today no one really knows one answer to it. The reason behind this ambiguity is that happiness varies from each person’s perspective. If a poor person would be asked what happiness is, the answer would probably be wealth. If a person in his/her deathbed fighting a fatal disease would be asked the same question the answer would certainly be health. A lonely person would likely answer that his/her happiness would be fulfilled through love or social interactions. So happiness and the things that cause it can be anything a person needs and lacks in his life. Happiness is a state of …show more content…
A number of researches demonstrate that optimism is correlated with coping and responding better to difficult events. These researches concludes that “Greater optimism has been found to be associated with less mood disturbance in response to a variety of stressor, including adjustment to law school, breast cancer and coronary bypass surgery, and exposure to SCUD missile attacks”. (Brissette, Scheier & Carver, 2002, p. 102). This proves how positive thinking can change a person’s life and help people adjust to the hardships of life whether it was as simple as adapting to a new environment like law school or as harsh as being imperiled to missile attacks. The coping process of recovering from failures and disappointments is easier in positive people because they look for the positive aspects in situations. Another study that was done by Litt and colleagues (as cited in Snyder & (Snyder & Lopez, 2009)Lopez, 2009) explores positivity and negativity in couples that are facing in-virto fertilization. The experiment resulted in discovering that positive couples that underwent the failure of the fertilization took it rather well and appeared to have positive outcomes from the experience like becoming closer to their spouses. In the case of negative people, they experienced depression and felt responsible for the failure of the attempt. This is a perfect example of how thinking positively in bad situations leads to accepting and managing an unhappy situation happily and positively. Positive thinking can also improve people’s life in terms of developing the skills of problem solving and altering difficult situations. Through focusing on positivity one can avoid feelings of frustration and depression while facing a difficulty and therefore solves the problem efficiently. A study that was done on HIV disease progression by Ironson and Hayward (as