Stress and Health

PROJECT III: THE EFFECTS OF OPTIMISM, HOPE AND CONTROL ON HEALTH

Karren, Hafen, Smith and Frandsen (2001) have noted that the notion that mental and emotional states influence the body's susceptibility to and recovery from disease has a long and hallowed history in medical folklore and practice, even though it is only now starting to be accepted as a possible scientific fact. According to the authors, anxiety, joy, love, hate, and depression, optimism, and hope all exert effects on the molecules and cells that ward off disease in the human body and help the body to recovery from disease and injury. Today, this possibility is more and more often being explored in medical research.

The purpose of this project is to examine the current literature on one facet of the existing research on the effects of human emotions and thoughts upon health. Specifically, the paper examines the current research on optimism, hope and control as mental/emotional states that affect both susceptibility to and recovery from disease.

The review begins with a brief definition of terms which is followed by a review of the literature on the effects of optimism, hope and control on a variety of health outcomes for diverse patient samples. The final section of the report presents a summary of research findings followed by a series of conclusions and recommendations formulated on the basis of the reviewed literature.

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e authors, there exists substantial research showing that high levels of prenatal stress have a negative impact on birth weight and gestational age at delivery. The authors hypothesized that prenatal stress arises from a certain predisposition to perceive self and events in a generally negative way; this in turn, was said to negatively impact upon birth by lowering prenatal health behaviors. Thus, it seemed reasonable to speculate that a disposition to perceive events in a positive or optimistic way may exert somewhat opposite effects. Subjects in the study were 129 pregnant women, all of whom were considered to be at high risk for negative pregnancy outcomes. These women were measured for both prenatal maternal stress levels and for dispositional optimism (using a standard scale). Effects of risk and ethnicity were controlled for statistically in the performed data analyses. Findings showed that the higher a womanÆs dispositional optimism, the less prenatal maternal stress she experienced. It was also found that women who were least optimistic delivered infants who weighed significantly less, controlling for gestational age. Further, it was noted that as dispositional optimism increased, women were more likely to exercise, and
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Approximate Word count = 3724
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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