Optimism, coping style and emotional well-being in cardiac patients.
OBJECTIVE
Optimism is associated with superior emotional well-being in people with chronic and acute health problems, possibly because optimists are more likely to implement problem-focused coping. Another interpretation posits that optimism can be a defensive response designed to diminish affective reactions to health problems. The study objective is to investigate this possibility.


METHODS
A cross-sectional examination of relationships between dispositional and relative optimism, threat avoidance and emotional well-being in 85 cardiac patients.


RESULTS
Blunting, a measure of threat avoidance, was found to be associated with both optimism and emotional well-being, and the common variance was predictive of positive affect. As expected, this link was stronger in people with low self-efficacy for problem-focused coping.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings support a defensive interpretation of optimism amongst patients with recently-experienced cardiac disease, particularly as the effect was more pronounced in the low self-efficacy subsample. We discuss possible explanations for these findings and implications for the study of coping with serious illness.
Bedi
Gillinder
G
Department of Psychology, Monash University, Australia.
Brown
Stephen L
SL
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000339:Affect; D001290:Attitude; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012649:Self Concept; D020377:Self Efficacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires