Abstract
Zusammenfassung. Im ersten Teil des vorliegenden Beitrags wird ein Überblick zum Stand der Forschung im Themengebiet “Optimismus und Gesundheit” erstellt. Die einflußreichsten theoretischen Ansätze und der Stand ihrer empirischen Bestätigung werden kurz dargestellt. Auf dieser Informationsbasis wird die Frage aufgeworfen, ob Optimismus nicht eher als deskriptives Merkmal der Gesundheit, statt als ihr Prädiktor konzeptualisiert werden sollte. Eine Lösung ergibt sich nach unserer Auffassung, wenn zwischen (1) Optimismus als dispositioneller Variable und (2) optimistischen Kognitionstypen bzw. optimistischen Bewertungen und Erwartungen in bestimmten Situationen und Handlungsphasen unterschieden wird. Nur für letztere ergibt sich die gesundheitspsychologisch aussagekräftige Forschungsperspektive, funktionale und dysfunktionale Konsequenzen optimistischer Kognitionen zu untersuchen. Methodisch ist dieser Zugang unter anderem durch Prozeß- und Kontextorientierung und eine Mehrebenendiagnostik beider Konstrukte (“Optimismus” und “Gesundheit”) gekennzeichnet.
Abstract. In the first section of this paper, a review of research on optimism and health is presented. Influential theoretical approaches and their empirical validation are briefly described. On this basis, the question whether optimism should be regarded as a part of (psychological) health rather than as its predictor arises. An answer to this question is offered by differentiating between dispositional optimism and optimistic cognitions, e. g., appraisals and expectations in specific situations and phases of the action process. The latter provides an appropriate perspective for health psychology that accounts for functional as well as dysfunctional consequences of optimistic cognitions. This approach is characterized by a process and context orientation and a multi method assessment of both, optimism and health.
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