Hope, optimism and delusion

Abstract

Optimism is generally accepted by psychiatrists, psychologists and other caring professionals as a feature of mental health. Interventions typically rely on cognitive-behavioural tools to encourage individuals to ‘stop negative thought cycles’ and to ‘challenge unhelpful thoughts’. However, evidence suggests that most individuals have persistent biases of optimism and that excessive optimism is not conducive to mental health. How helpful is it to facilitate optimism in individuals who are likely to exhibit biases of optimism already? By locating the cause of distress at the individual level and ‘unhelpful’ cognitions, does this minimise wider systemic social and economic influences on mental health?

Learned Helplessness and Depressive Symptoms Following Myocardial Infarction

“…Explored methods to shift the helpless individual toward a more empowered cognitive optimism is part of the concept of cognitive-behavioral therapy (McGuire-Snieckus, 2014). Interventions that may be useful include increasing positive cognition and self-affirmation, and using “as if” statements to envision their lives improved in a desired way (McGuire-Snieckus, 2014). While our study criteria did not exclude individuals involved in psychiatric counseling, or support groups, future studies may consider excluding such individuals as they could potentially confound research results.…”

“…Learned Optimism (Seligman, 2011) is a contrary concept to learned helplessness. Explored methods to shift the helpless individual toward a more empowered cognitive optimism is part of the concept of cognitive-behavioral therapy (McGuire-Snieckus, 2014). Interventions that may be useful include increasing positive cognition and self-affirmation, and using "as if" statements to envision their lives improved in a desired way (McGuire-Snieckus, 2014).…”

Inculcating Dispositional Optimism for Prevention of Mental and Substance Use Disorders Throughout and After the Coronavirus Disease-19 Pandemic

“…28 In fact, all the psychological therapies have similar effect sizes and are built on ultimately generating hope and optimism. 38,39 In the next few sections, we discuss the role of optimism in health and wellness and the advantages of teaching and promoting this trait through schools, universities, and workplaces to maintain a sense of equilibrium in day-to-day lives.…”

What can we learn about stress and sleep from COVID-19 pandemic—perspective from the theory of preventive stress management

“…In addition, trait hope may also amplify the role of social support. High hopefuls have a positive bias ( 15 ) and therefore may overestimate the effectiveness of treatment ( 19 ). As for the effect on perceived stress, overestimating the effectiveness of social support may contribute to reducing perceived COVID-19 stress.…”