The Value of Positive Psychology for Health Psychology: Progress and Pitfalls in Examining the Relation of Positive Phenomena to Health

“Most of these unsolicited reports were obtained in studies of cancer patients who reported the domains of posttraumatic growth described by Tedeschi and Calhoun [40], as well as positive changes in health behaviors.”

“It is beyond the scope of this article to review many of the positive psychology constructs that are related to health, so we will consider some representative and welldeveloped areas of study: sense of coherence [9, 17], optimism [15, 16], and benefit-finding and posttraumatic growth [18–20].”

“(2011) and Aspinwall and Tedeschi (2010). Further studies will be necessary to explore this aspect.”

“Research on psychological well-being (PWB) has received increasing attention over the past decade in part due to the growth of the positive psychology movement [1] and renewed interest on the relationship between positive psychology and health [2].”

“During each Web-based writing session, participants logged onto the study website and wrote a journal entry on 1 of the 7 commonly used positive affect prompts (eg, What are you thankful for? What did someone else do for you?; full details available upon request) [60]; all entries were saved on a secure server.”

“This is especially germane as advances in medicine result in more people surviving and even thriving despite significant illnesses [2].”

“…by guest on 30 July 2018 light of limitations of correlation-based analysis (i.e., SeM) used in this study. indeed, the relationships between physical health and SWB are still a matter of debate (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010; Coyne & Tennen, 2010).”

“The counter position by Aspinwall and Tedeschi (2010b) suggest that some key studies were overlooked by the critics, and that narrow health outcomes such as mortality rates do not capture important variables such as quality of life, social support, and reduced anxiety.”

“of positive psychology and health showed that the type of disease might influence the mental health outcomes (Aspinwall and Tedeschi 2010).”

“Psychological States, Health Outcomes, and Health Behaviors.”

“…such as hope, optimism, reciprocity, benefit-finding and personal growth are linked with positive adjustment to chronic physical health problems (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010) and such constructs are beginning to be applied to understanding adjustment to dementia (Duggleby, Williams, Wright, &…”

“1 million persons in the United States are hospitalized for an acute coronary syndrome (ACS; myocardial infarction or unstable angina) (Mozaffarian et al. 2015; Aspinwall and Tedeschi 2010).”

“Since it is recognized that concepts with a ‘positive flavour’ link to multiple processes likely to influence health outcomes (Aspinwall and Tedeschi, 2010) such as less emotional distress (Ickovics et al.”

“In contrast, positive psychological interventions (PPIs), empirically derived activities that promote the building of positive states (Pawelski, 2009), have been found to promote physical health (Seligman, 2008; Fowler, 2009; Aspinwall and Tedeschi, 2010).”

“To be clear, the literature is mixed with regard to whether or not positive psychological processes definitively enhance psychological health among cancer survivors [29]; the causality may indeed be reversed such that having better psychological health may lead to increased use of positive psychological processes.”

“It encompasses many different theoretical and research areas that have a common focus on positive human functioning, health and adaptation to adversity (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010).”

“A large body of psychological evidence implicates thoughts that emphasize negativity in stress and depression, whereas thoughts that emphasize positivity often, although not always, can benefit well-being (cf. Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010; Beck, 2008).”

“Recent research has gradually shifted attention from negative predictors to exploration of the effects of positive constructs in cancer patients [11, 14, 15].”

“Zoellner and Maercker, 2006 [19]) PTG specifically refers to a person's transformation, after some time elapsed from trauma, to gain a better appreciation of life, an improvement in their relationships with others, an increase in their personal strengths, a spiritual change and development, and to gain new life opport…”

“Previous research has linked dispositional optimism to more effective coping strategies and positive health behaviors, leading to better health outcomes and subjective well-being (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010; Carver et al., 1994, 2010; Nes & Segerstrom, 2006).”

“Positive mental health in young adulthood can even predict a range of health outcomes (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010; Howell, Kern, & Lyubomirsky, 2007) as well as mortality in late adulthood (Danner, Snowdon, & Friesen, 2001).”

“…of coping than pre-to-post-trauma changes (Frazier et al., 2009), others have leveled significant methodological concerns over the strength of this evidence, critiquing sample characteristics, study design, and operationalizations of “actual,” versus perceived growth (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010).”

“While PTG has been associated with several positive health outcomes, caution has been advised to not simply prescribe explicit PTG-enhancing interventions prematurely as it may lead to cancer patients blaming themselves or feeling inadequate if these phenomena do not naturally occur [25].”

“On the other side of the coin, recent commentary in health psychology has pointed to a surge of interest in positive psychology, resulting in research claims and conclusions that may be premature and misleading (Aspinwall and Tedeschi, 2010; Coyne and Tennen, 2010).”

“…more than reducing stress, it could also make individual feel good in the short-term, and build personal and social resources in ways that promote better long-term outcomes (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010), which makes it reasonable to infer that positive coping could facilitate the PTG of mothers.”

“Another issue regarding PTG is the increased wellbeing, which causes mental and physical health promotion by improving positive thinking, emotions, and experiences.(30)”

“The more general question to which degree optimism serves as a resilience factor in the face of adversity, such as multimorbidity, requires more research into the diversity of optimism constructs and their interplay with related positive resources or human strengths and values ( Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010 ).”

“, happy, pleased, joyful, inspired) on health and longevity [1,2,10,11].”

“For instance, psychological resources such as optimism and sense of coherence can help deal with adversity (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010; Taylor & Brown, 1998; Taylor, Kemeny, Reed, Bower, & Gruenewald, 2000).”

“44 To characterise the role of SLEs in each health transition leading to PPC-MM, we further conducted multi-state models to explore the associations between stressful life events across life course and the likelihood of transitions from baseline to different PPC-MM patterns.”

“Recent health psychology research has moved away from an exclusive focus on negative predictors and started to explore the role of positive psychological constructs in order to explain differences in quality of life among cancer patients [12].”

“Factors affecting VR, including rehabilitation assessment procedures [158], strategies and dosage, and patients’ involvement [159].”

“In addition, mood (Affleck et al., 1999, 2000) and psychological functioning (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010) have been implicated in health-related outcomes.”

“The growth of positive psychology has led to an increased focus on personal strengths in coping with stressful situations (Aspinwall, 2010; Bonanno, 2008; Carver, 2010; Park, 1998; Rasmussen, Wrosch, Scheier, & Carver, 2006).”

“social support) processes have been proposed to act as mechanisms that mediate wellbeing and health relationships (Aspinwall and Tedeschi, 2010), which deserve attention in future global research.”

“a generalized expectancy for positive outcomes [31]) has been found to predict QoL and one-year survival among HNC survivors [32-33].”

“According to many psychologists, to live a more fruitful, productive, and healthy life, or even to beat cancer or cope with chronic diseases, it is essential to keep a positive outlook (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010 ).”

“This is of interest as the body of work on psychological resilience factors and health outcomes is quite robust across other racial and ethnic groups (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010; Park et al., 2014).”

“[45] Self-affirmation, a strategy to increase self-efficacy in threatening situations, may enhance people’s ability to overcome any negative expectations of their own ability to stay resolved to practice positive health behaviors.”

“Positive psychological changes are also related to favorable health outcomes (Aspinwall and Tedeschi 2010).”

“…(Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), the focus of some psychological research shifted from a deficit-based approach to studying strengths and virtues of an individual to capture a full spectrum of human experiences (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010; Gable & Haidt, 2005; Mann, 2001; Wood & Tarrier, 2010).”

“Negative and positive thoughts and feelings can coexist (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010), and thus parents may embrace seemingly contradictory strategies in their efforts to achieve balance.”

“The distinctiveness of optimism, hope and related constructs has been debated (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010; Lagacé-Séguin & d’Entremont, 2010; Roesch & Vaughn, 2006; Smith, 2006; Tennen, Affleck, & Tennen, 2003).”

“These studies evidenced a strongly predictive effect of SOC on general mental health in nurses of intensive care units (Schäfer et al.)”

“Hope is a source of strength: when we face life events with hope, we face them with a sense that there is something we can do about them; this feeling makes life “easier to live [89,90]”.”

“…people to acknowledge both their own capabilities and the uncertain nature of the world may be beneficial for inspiring continued goal-pursuit in a variety of domains (for conceptualizations related to trauma, see Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010; James, 2012; James, Noel, Favorite, & Jean, 2012).”

“Positive aspects of mental health or psychological protective factors (14,15) might explain the better than expected psychological state of PALS”

“Such benefit finding could lead to enhanced well-being (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010; Helgeson, Reynolds, & Tomich, 2006).”

“This definition refers to positive characteristics and gains including positive affect, optimism, mastery, hope and meaning (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010).”

“Even though positive psychological factors (which have been shown to predict slower HIV disease progression[5] are only weakly, negatively correlated with psychological factors [9, 58], the capacity to thrive psychologically with HIV infection and its consequences is an advantageous quality.”

“Interest in psychological factors that may protect health has grown substantially in recent years.(5) Positive affect, or the well-being associated with pleasurable engagement with one’s environment (ie, hedonic well-being),(6) has been related to psychosocial resilience, longevity, and better health in healthy popula…”

“Optimism and a positive mood state have been indirectly linked to an internalized HLC, by fostering less risky health-related behaviors [37].”

“From the positive psychology perspective, which focuses on the study of positive experience and psychological functioning (Seligman 2002; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000), there is currently a growing interest in researching, in connection with health psychology, how some positive phenomena may influence the etiolo…”

“A recent book(63) draws a portrait of 50 renowned individuals whose major life achievements occurred at age 50 or later: Fred Astaire made a very successful come back to the silver screen after he retired at age 50, Johan Sebastian Bach composed the Art of Fugue at 65, Sir Francis Chichester sailed around the world al…”

“There has been an emphasis on positive individual qualities, such as hope, optimism, spirituality, and forgiveness, and how these help to promote positive feelings, thoughts, and experiences to enhance happiness and health[3].”

“…resources and physical health as well as the potential psychobiological and psychosocial mechanisms underlying these relationships are still a matter of debate (Aspinwall and Tedeschi, 2010a; Aspinwall and Tedeschi, 2010b; Coyne et al., 2010; Pressman and Cohen, 2005; Steptoe et al., 2015).”

“Researchers have also opined that the positive sequelae and growth resulting from adversity are worthy of investigation [48].”

“61 In that sense, it has been shown that interventions 49 The effect of level of arousal of positive emotions on mortality must thus be clarified.”

“Optimism and positive thinking encourage positive emotions, perceptions, and interactions to enhance health and well-being (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010).”

“Tedeschi [16], who highlight some of the recent advances in this area and the potential value of this line of inquiry.”

“It is also important to assess for anticipated deleterious consequences resulting from chronic illnesses (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010).”