On the Power of Positive Thinking: The Benefits of Being Optimistic

Abstract

If believing in something can make it so, then there really would be power in positive thinking. From the little train in the children's tale who said, I think can, to popular writers such as Norman Cousins and Norman Vincent Peale, to wise grandmothers everywhere?many people have espoused the benefits of positive thinking. But are these ben efits real? Do people who think pos itively really fare better when facing challenge or adversity? Do they re cover from illness more readily? If so, how and why do these things happen? We and a number of other psy chologists who are interested in is sues surrounding stress, coping, and health have for several years focused our research attention on questions such as these. The primary purpose of this brief review is to provide a taste of the research conducted on this topic. We first document that positive thinking can be beneficial. We then consider why an optimistic orientation to life might confer ben efits. After considering how individ ual differences in optimism might arise, we take up the question of whether optimism is always good and pessimism always bad. We close by discussing the similarities between our own approach and other related approaches. CHARACTERIZING POSITIVE THINKING