POSITIVE Health Psychology

Transcription

1 POSITIVE Health Psychology Edited by Amrita Yadava Nov Rattan Sharma Published by Global Vision Publishing House Personal Positivity as a Correlate of Health Dinesh, Satish Kumar and Rajbir Singh Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. This field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is the best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work and play (Seligman and Csikszentimihalyi, 2000). Positive psychology is an umbrella term for the study of positive emotions, positive character traits, and enabling institutions. Understanding positive emotions entails the study of contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and hope for the future. Understanding positive individual traits consists of the study of the strengths and virtues, such as the capacity for love and work, courage, compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self-knowledge, moderation, selfcontrol, and wisdom. Understanding positive institutions entails the study of the strengths that foster better communities, such as justice, responsibility, civility, parenting, nurturance, work ethic, leadership, team work, purpose, and tolerance. Peterson and Seligman (2004) classified 6 virtues and 24 character strengths that enable human thriving. The general scheme of the character strengths and virtues relies on six overarching virtues that almost every culture across the world endorses: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and Dinesh, Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, M.D. University, Rohtak. Satish Kumar, Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, M.D. University, Rohtak. Rajbir Singh, Professor and Head, Department of Psychology, M.D. University, Rohtak.

2 396 Positive Health Psychology transcendence. Park, Peterson, and Seligman (2004) found that some of the character strengths such as zest, gratitude, hope, and love are more robustly associated with life satisfaction than are the more cerebral strengths such as curiosity and love of learning. Research in the area of happiness, optimism, satisfaction with life, positive thinking showed strong relationship with health. In most of the studies, it was found that people rank the pursuit of happiness as one of the most cherished goal in life (Triandis, Bontempo, Leung and Hui, 1990; Suh, Smith and Shao, 1995; Lyubomrisky, 2000; Diener and Oishi, 2000). Happy people always focus on good events and worthy quality of life. They have optimistic view of life. Smith, Young and Lee (2004) reported that positive psychological characteristics, including optimism and health related hardiness correlated with good self-rated health, but these variables were affected by socio-economic status, social support, physical illness and access to services. Seligman (1998) reported that optimistic people experienced less depression and increased enjoyment in social interactions. This is due to their ability to expect positive future outcomes based on positive past experiences. Leung, Moneta, and McBride-Chang (2005) reported that optimism predicted life satisfaction directly and indirectly through self-esteem and relationship harmony, perceived/expected health status was predicted by optimism did not predict life satisfaction. Optimism is a key contributor to subjective well-being. Piko (2006) investigated the relationship between youth s life satisfaction, materialism and their psychosocial health. The findings show that youth s psychosocial health may play an important role in their levels of life satisfaction, particularly depressive and psychosomatic symptoms and health behaviours. The materialistic happiness was negatively related to youth s life satisfaction. Life satisfaction and happiness are modestly associated with other indicators of mental health (Bray and Gunnell, 2006).

3 Personal Positivity as a Correlate of Health 397 The above recent studies clearly reveal a thrust on positive characteristics in relation to perceived health. Moreover, several other studies too have been able to establish the role of positive life orientation in diseased groups, e.g., positive life orientation emerged as an important factor in recovery from myocardial infarction (Agarwal, Dalal, Agarwal and Agarwal, 1995); positive states of mind in HIV patients help undergoing highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) (Gonzalez, Penedo, Antoni, Duran, Fernandez, McPherson-Baker, Ironson, Klimas, Fletcher and Schneiderman, 2004), faith, hope and optimism speed up recovery in cardiac surgery patients (Ai, Peterson, Tice, Bolling and Koenig, 2004). Therefore, the present study was planned to explore the correlational aspect of personal positivity in health. The host of studies carry toward expecting personal positivity as a positive correlate of health. METHOD Sample A sample of 697 rural subjects (male=339, female=358) of Rohtak and Jhajjar districts with average age of years (Mean=37.31, SD=11.82) were taken for the present study. The main occupation of the subjects was agriculture and they were free from any major chronic illness. Tools A Health Related Schedule-II (2006) was used by incorporating items from a number of tests. It is a revised and abridged version of Health Related Schedule(2005) described in Singh et al.(2006). The variables operationalized in the present schedule were as follows: Positive thoughts: Positive thoughts was used as a broad term for capacity to work, balance of health and nature, meditation, active life, health value, social sharing, future control, self-activity and karma. It includes 9 items which were additive in nature.

4 398 Positive Health Psychology Optimism: Optimism was assessed using shorter and modified version of life orientation test (Scheier and Carver, 1985). Two items were worded in a positive direction and two others were in negative direction. High score indicates high optimism with a range of 4 to 8. Scale endorsements were added to get optimism score. Satisfaction with life: Life satisfaction of the respondents was assessed using revised and shorter version of Pavot and Diener (1993) scale. High score indicates greater life satisfaction with a range of 5 to 10. Happiness: Happiness was assessed through the shorter and modified version of Oxford Happiness Inventory (Argyle, Martin and Crossland, 1989) to operationalise life satisfaction and happiness. Usually perceived health: For the present study subjects were asked to rate their usually perceived health on a five-point rating scale. It was a single item measure. Psychological distress and Somatic symptoms: PGI Health Questionnaire N-1 (Verma, Wig and Pershad, 1985) and PGI Health Questionnaire N-2 (Wig and Verma, 1978) were used for measuring the psychological distress and somatic symptoms in participants. High score indicates greater psychological distress and more somatic complaints. Procedure A semi-structured door to door interview was conducted to get the schedule filled individually after the consent of the subjects. Trained investigators were employed for this purpose. In the present study, positive thoughts was taken as the sum total of 9 variables, namely, capacity to work, balance of health and nature, meditation, active life, health value, social sharing, future control, self-activity and karma. After adding the scores of these 9 variables, the score of positive thoughts was obtained. In addition,

5 Personal Positivity as a Correlate of Health 399 personal positivity was taken as the sum total of positive thoughts, optimism, satisfaction with life and happiness. After adding the scores of these 4 variables, the score of personal positivity was obtained. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In order to assess the consistency and additivity of four components into personal positivity inter-correlations among components and with personal positivity were computed (Table-1). All the inter-correlations were positive and significant, therefore, the four components contribute in the same direction and reveal high degree of commonality. TABLE 1 Inter-correlations between personal positivity and components of personal positivity (N=697) Variables Positive Optimism Satisfaction Happiness Personal thoughts with life positivity Positive thoughts *.44*.28*.67* Optimism *.23*.565* Satisfaction with life *.73* Happiness * Personal positivity 1.00 *p<.001 Similarly, the health was conceived to be represented by perceived health, psychological distress and somatic symptoms. Inter-correlations revealed negative relationship between perceived health and psychological and somatic distressing symptoms (Table 2). A significant positive concordance between psychological and bodily symptoms was observed (r=.68, p<.001). Personal positivity was found to be significantly correlated with usually perceived health (r=.322, p<.001). It indicates that when person perceives himself healthy, he has more positive thoughts, more optimism, satisfied with life and fe els happy in

6 400 Positive Health Psychology his daily life. Khoo and Bishop (1997) also reported that optimism was found to predict positive well-being directly, and at the same time reduces the experience of stress. Optimism has also been shown to reduce a number of physical diseases e.g., headaches, upset stomachs, and sleep problems (Robbins, Spence, and Clark, 1991). By having positive thoughts, optimism, satisfaction with life and happiness, one can remain healthy. TABLE 2 Inter-correlations between components of health (N=697) Variables Usually perceived Psychological Somatic health distress symptoms Usually perceived health ** -.359* Psychological distress * Somatic symptoms 1.00 *p<.00; **p<.000 TABLE 3 Correlations between components of health and personal positivity (N=697) Components of health Personal positivity Usually perceived health.322*** Psychological distress -.83* Somatic symptoms -.101** *p<.001; **p<.01; ***p<.05 Personal positivity is negatively correlated with psychological distress (r=-.83, p<.001). It means that when an individual has positive thoughts, optimism, satisfaction with life, and happiness, he has less psychological distress. It indicates that by having these four character strengths one can reduce his psychological distress and can maintain his mental health. Personal positivity is also negatively correlated with somatic symptoms (r=-.10, p<.01). It also indicates that personal positivity

7 Personal Positivity as a Correlate of Health 401 decreases somatic symptoms. Lai (1995) has also found college students who experienced high stress and scored low on optimism had more somatic symptoms than those who were stressed but scored high on optimism. Research has also found that the effects of dispositional optimism on physical health are mixed, especially in diseases that can be immunologically mediated such as HIV and cancer. Both experimental and naturalistic studies show that optimism is negatively related to measures of cellular immunity when stressors are complex, persistent, and uncontrollable but positively related when stressors are straight forward, brief, and controllable (Segerstrom, 2005). It means that by having personal positivity one can reduce his somatic symptoms and can maintain his physical health. Although the hypothesis seems to be verified, yet it was true in terms of self perceived health as the relationship with symptoms were less strong. The dynamics proposed through cellular processes happens to be not only appealing but convincing and objective, however, more evidences are required to establish a direct relationship between positivity (a purely psychological construct) and bodily processes such immunity. Researches into psychoneuroimmunology has although quiet advanced to include it as a forceful hypothesis. REFERENCES Agarwal, M., Dalal, A.K., Agarwal, D.K., & Agarwal, R.K. (1995). Positive life orientation and recovery from myocardial infarction. Social Science and Medicine, 40, Ai, A.L., Peterson, C., Tice, T.N., Bolling, S.F., & Koenig, H.G. (2004). Faith-based and secular pathways to hope and optimism subconstructs in middle-aged and older cardiac patients. Journal of Health Psychology, 9, Argyle, M., Mortin, M., & Crossland, J. (1989). Happiness as a function of personality and social encounters. In J.P. Forgas, & J.M. Innes (Eds.). Recent advances in social psychology: An international perspective (pp ). North-Holland: Elsevier.

8 402 Positive Health Psychology Bray, I., & Gunnell, D. (2006). Suicide rates, life satisfaction and happiness as markers for population mental health. Social Psychiatry Psychiatric Epidemiology, 41, Diener, E., & Oishi, S. (2000). Money and happiness: Income and subjective well-being across nations. In E. Diener and E.M. Suh (eds.), Culture and Subjective Well-Being (pp ). Cambridge, M.A. : MIT Press. Gonzalez, J.S., Penedo, F.J., Antoni, M.H., Duran, R.E., Fernandez, M.I., McPherson-Baker, S., Ironson, G., Klimas, N.G., Fletcher, M.A., & Schneiderman, N. (2004). Social support, Positive states of mind, and HIV treatment adherence in men and women living with HIV/AIDS. Health Psychology, 23, Khoo, S.A., & Bishop, G.D. (1997). Stress and Optimism: Relationships to coping and well-being. Psychologia: An international journal of psychology in the orient, 40, Lai, J.C.L. (1995). Moderating effect of optimism on the relation between hassles and somatic complaints. Psychological Reports, 76, Leung, B.W., Moneta, G.B., & McBride-Chang, C. (2005). Think positively and feel positively: Optimism and life satisfaction in late life. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 61, Lyubomrisky, S. (2000). Cultural differences in the pursuit of happiness: The case of the United States v/s Russia. Unpublished Manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside. Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2004). Strengths of character and well-being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23, Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the satisfaction with life scale. Personality Assessment, 5, Peterson, C., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A handbook and classification. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Piko, B.F. (2006). Satisfaction with life, psychological health and materialism among Hungarian Youth. Journal of Health Psychology, 11,

9 Personal Positivity as a Correlate of Health 403 Robbins, A.S., Spence, J.T., & Clark, H. (1991). Psychological determinants of health and performance: The tangled web of desirable and undesirable characteristics. Personality Processes and Individual Differences, 61, Scheier, M., & Carver, C. (1985). Optimism, copying and health: assessment and implication of generalized outcome expectancies. Health Psychology, 4, Segerstrom, S.C. (2005). Optimism and immunity: do positive thoughts always lead to positive effects? Brain, Behavior and Immunity, 19, Seligman, M.E.P. (1998). Learned optimism. New York, NY: Pocket Books. Seligman, M.E.P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, Singh, R., Malhotra, S., Batra, P., Yadava, A., Sharma, N.R., Shyam, R., Singh, S., & Kumar, S. (2006). Biopsychosocial perspective of Health Psychology: An empirical tryout. Journal of Indian Health Psychology, 1, Smith, N., Young, A., & Lee, C. (2004). Optimism, health related hardiness and well-being among older Australian women. Journal of Health Psychology, 9, Suh, E.K., Smith, H., & Shao, L. (1995). National difference in reporting well-being: Why do they occur? Social Indicators Research, 34, Triandis, H.C. Bontempo, R., Leung, K., & Hui, C.H. (1990). A method for determining cultural demographic and personal constructs. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 21, Verma, S.K., Wig, N.N., & Pershad, D. (1985). PGI Health Questionnaire N-1. Agra: National Psychological Corporation. Wig, N.N., & Verma, S.K. (1978). PGI Health Questionnaire N-2. Agra: Agra Psychological Research Cell.