title: Giving off a rosy glow: the manipulation of an optimistic orientation.
abstract: Research on generalized optimism has been primarily correlational in nature. The authors attempted to experimentally manipulate optimism separately from several related constructs (i.e., mood and self-esteem). They examined 2 different optimism manipulations. For the 1st one, participants generated thoughts about positive future events to induce an optimistic orientation. For the 2nd one, the authors exposed participants to an optimism-priming task. Both manipulations produced modest increases on a dispositional optimism measure and a situational optimism measure, compared with a control group. The momentary increases appeared particular to the optimism construct because the authors did not find similar increases on measures of mood and self-esteem. The authors provide preliminary evidence that generalized optimism can be validly and discriminantly manipulated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, OH 43066-3390, USA.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fosnaugh
authors.forename: Andrew L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Geers
authors.forename: Justin A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Wellman
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D001290:Attitude; D032763:Behavior Control; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012649:Self Concept; D012660:Semantics; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology