Effects of Optimism on Psychological and Physical Health

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of optimism is “A disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.” Looking on the more favorable side can help in the most difficult times. Having a positive attitude is the best response to conflict, especially in time of war. Optimists such as Winston Churchill and Anne Frank kept hope for a better future throughout World War II.

Whenever people go to the movies or read a book, they long for an interesting story to be entertained by. Whether it is action filled or suspenseful, they want a stimulating plot that makes them feel good. In 1952, Carl Foreman wrote the screenplay for a movie called High Noon; a classic tale of when the hunter becomes the hunted. Then in 1924, Richard Connell wrote another classic, called "The Most Dangerous Game". Although both stories demonstrate similar examples of the setting and conflict, the main characters react very differently to the unusual situations they find themselves stuck in.

Lang, explains through a series of scientific studies that pessimism can sometimes be a better form of seeing life than optimism. Throughout the article studies are being done on different age groups, the youngest group always shows a “sunny” outlook on life while the middle aged group is logical and realistic. Optimism has shown health complications and mental issues in older people (Lang, 2013). I usually do not think negatively about life, but as an improvement I should start seeing life for what it truly is, unpredictable and inconvenient in order to prevent a distasteful lifestyle in the

An article written by Kendra Cherry states, “By nurturing positive emotions, even in the face of terrible events, people can reap both short-term and long-term rewards, including managing stress levels, lessening depression, and building coping skills that will serve them well in the future” (Cherry). Optimism has allowed for people to deal with conflicts in a healthy way. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot in her book The Science of Optimism: Why We’re Hard-Wired for Hope argues that optimism provides an adaptive advantage. According to her, “Expecting our future to be good reduces stress and anxiety, which is good for our health. Researchers studying heart attack patients have found that optimists were more likely than nonoptimistic patients to take vitamins, eat low-fat diets, and exercise, thereby reducing their overall coronary risk” (Popova). Dealing with conflicts positively is better for your health and it decreases bad health

Some people argue that happiness helps make good decisions because happy people strive for the best result. David states, “[Positive emotions] help build vital social, physical, and cognitive resources that lead to positive outcomes and affiliations” (124). David points out that with the right amount of positivity, people make good judgments. The author acknowledges that happiness can have benefits, but she states that too much happiness could hurt human development because the mind does not consider the consequences of an action. Julie Norem, a psychology professor, points out, “’If you’re a pessimist who really thinks through in detail what might go wrong, that’s a strategy that’s likely to work very well for you’” (qtd. in Wallis). She explains

You feel happy when you are optimistic. This can result in you feeling more energetic, give you brighter eyes, and bring you success and happiness. You also walk with more confidence and have a stronger voice. Also, your positivity can spread to others, however, any negativity can also spread. Some ways to be positive are to not allow what other people say about you get to you. Other ways are to smile more, try to only visualize positive things, use positive words when talking to people, and don’t give up. (Sasson, The Power of Positive Thinking, Paragraphs 1, 14, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 27) These are great examples of why you would want to be optimistic and respond to conflict with positivity.

When I was in year four, my class did a unit on Optimism. Our Spanish teacher would come to our class and talk about all the reasons why we should be optimistic, and how it would help us later on in life. In the novella Candide, by Voltaire, the title character is also taught to be optimistic by his teacher Dr. Pangloss, who maintains that all things happen for the best of purposes and reasons. In Candide Voltaire asks us if it is wise to so strongly live by that position of extreme optimism, (or even any position at all).

In this Ted Talk cognitive neuroscientist Tali Sharot shared with us the concept of optimism bias and the research that she has been doing on the very topic. She spoke about it as being an illusion. Her description of optimism bias is that we tend to think we will have more positive things happen in our life than bad one. We overestimate the good and underestimate the bad. Optimism bias is something that people throughout the world experience from young to old people. She gave marriage as an example of this kind of bias and stated that forty percent of people that get married will get a divorce but people who just got married will say that there it is unlikely they will end up divorcing. Despite the facts people

The first reading by Tatarsky and Marlatt emphasises upon harm reduction psychotherapy as a treatment for substance abuse disorders. I feel harm reduction represents a new, but timeless, way of approaching substance abuse in order to help people where they live, by recognizing and addressing the multitude of their problems, and by accepting all progress as beneficial and something to be built upon.

Optimism can mean the difference in a patient’s outlook. The first example is when I walked onto the unit one day; a family member approached me and told me that it was nice to see a smiling face. That meant a lot to me. Patients and their families both experience hardships and emotional changes when someone is sick or hurt. Leading me to the next example, being optimistic when my patients fear that they may not return to their former state of independence and acknowledging their concerns. Many patients have these valid fears, and being the positive outlook instead of agreeing with them sometimes helps get them to the finish line.

In the same way that hope has colored the past, optimism and positive thinking has the ability to affect present situations. When enduring struggles or facing fears, hope can provide feelings of comfort. It can be used as a coping mechanism. Maya Angelou relates a tone of satisfaction when she weighs the conditions of her life

American Romanticism illustrates the first truly American literary movement that began alongside the beginning of a new nation. American Romanticism appeared in response to the rationalists, such as Ben Franklin, which the American Romantics believed to be too single-minded and expressive. American Romanticism focused on the beauty of nature, imagination, feelings and expressions, higher truths in life that had to be discovered, and individualism. Consequently, this literary movement turned away from the corruption of cities and the rationalist mindset of the world and focused on nature and imagination. Washington Irving, in his stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”, displays characteristics of American Romanticism and

False optimism, based off the argument of religion, is flawed because it causes people to create excuses. The argument for false optimism based off religion is depicted in “The Worst of All Possible Worlds” where it reads,”The overly optimistic views of these philosophers are based off the religious views they have,”(Morassutti 1). Although it is not right to argue and say one religion is wrong, it is justified to say that religions can be taken too far. The belief that everything that happens is good takes religion too far, because it just causes excuses to be made. People do not have to take responsibility for their actions, because they are all good in their mind. Or no matter how bad their actions are they can still be depicted as good to themselves, through the already mentioned delusion cause by false positivity towards everything. Furthermore, the argument that fake optimism allows people to overcome character flaws is false because it really is just a mask for them. The argument for fraudulent optimism helping people get past personal or characteristic problems is brought up in “For The Gipper”, where it states,”It’s not a virtue but a temperament, and liberal pragmatists from John Dewey to Richard Rorty for years have tried to reduce all philosophical disagreements to matters of temperament,”(Kesler 1). The fact

Being optimistic is the main principle for most people. We may often hear the statement about “be an optimist, not a pessimist!” shouted by people. Sometimes you do it for yourself too. When facing such a failure or problem, this will not only help to relieve your heart. Being optimistic will help someone to be healthy in physical and mental. An optimist will find the best way in any circumstance and hope for every good thing can come to him/her. You may have gone through thousands of hard times. However, if you are a born optimist then you will not care of anything destructing you.

Optimistic and pessimistic attitudes constantly affect the outcome of people's lives. In my life, I try to keep an optimistic attitude about the things I do because I know it will help lead me to more desirable ends. There have been many situations in which optimism has helped me through difficult times. Two areas in particular have provided me optimistic experiences: athletics