Optimism and social support: The providers’ perspective

Vollmann, Manja; Renner, Britta; Weber, Hannelore

doi:10.1080/17439760701409660

Cited by 30 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Consequently, others may be more likely to effectively support behavior that signals adaptive coping. This interpretation would be consistent with prior findings indicating that other persons are more willing to support coping behavior that they perceive to be appropriate than behavior they expect to be less appropriate, especially distress-focused behavior (e.g., Silver, Wortman, & Crofton, 1990;Vollmann, Renner, & Weber, 2007). An alternative explanation of the present findings would be that people who perceive themselves to be socially supported feel more encouraged to pursue the goal of coming to terms with the situation and are more likely to attain this goal.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

The Differential Relations between Perceived Social Support and Rumination-Associated Goals

Siewert

Kubiak

Jonas³

et al. 2013

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

in this study with N = 93 student participants, we employed a daily process approach to investigate sadness-associated rumination in daily life. Specifically, we examined whether the attainment of coping-related goals that people intend to achieve with their sadness-associated rumination were associated with changes in perceived social support. Moreover, we investigated the relations between sadness-related cognitive appraisals, goal pursuit and attainment, and ruminative process variables. Perceived social support was positively related to the attainment of resolution-focused goals, but not to understanding-focused goals, suggesting that social support is particularly associated with a functional ruminative style.According to emotion theories, sadness arises as a response to the experience of loss, which can come in different forms such as losses in relationships, physical health or functioning, self-esteem, or

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

The Differential Relations between Perceived Social Support and Rumination-Associated Goals

Siewert

Kubiak

Jonas³

et al. 2013

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the area of future business forecasts, valence might affect perceptions of warmth and morality. A generally optimistic worldview and smiling behavior are associated with perceptions of warmth and morality (Evans & van de Calseyde, 2017;Vollmann, Renner, & Weber, 2007;Wang, Mao, Li, & Liu, 2017). Thus, optimistic forecasters may be seen as more friendly, likeable, and well-intentioned.…”

Section: Perceptions Of Warmth Morality and Competencementioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the trade‐off between confidence and optimism in future forecasts

Stavrova

Evans

2018

Behavioral Decision Making

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Confident business forecasters are seen as more credible and competent ("confidence heuristic"). We explored a boundary condition of this effect by examining how individuals react to the trade-off between confidence and optimism. Using hypothetical scenarios, we examined this trade-off from the perspectives of judges (i.e., business owners who hired analysts to make sales predictions) and forecasters (i.e., the analysts hired to make predictions). Participants were assigned to the role of either judges or forecasters and were asked to rate 2 potential forecasts. In the "no trade-off" condition, the 2 forecasts were aligned in optimism and confidence (the more confident forecast was also more optimistic); in the "trade-off" condition, the more confident forecast was less optimistic. In Experiment 1, judges were more likely to positively evaluate confident forecasters when confident forecasters were the more (vs. less) optimistic ones. Experiment 2 demonstrated that forecasters were aware of judges' preferences for optimism and strategically relied on methods that resulted in more optimistic (but less reliable) predictions. Experiment 3 directly compared the perspectives of judges and forecasters, revealing that forecasters overestimated judges' preferences for optimism over confidence. The present studies show that forecasters and judges have different views of the trade-off between confidence and optimism and that forecasters may unnecessarily sacrifice accuracy for optimism. What factors shape perceptions of forecasts and forecasters? Advice-taking research has shown that advisor confidence is a primary factor in perceptions of advisor credibility (Price & Stone, 2004;Sniezek & Van Swol, 2001;Van Swol & Sniezek, 2005). Confidence may serve as a cue to the advisor's expertise: People might trust confident advisors more because they assume that confidence is a direct consequence of expertise-the phenomenon labeled "confidence heuristic" (Price & Stone, 2004). -----------------------------------------------------------This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

show abstract

“…To examine whether optimists actually differ from pessimists in the amount of support they receive from their social environment, the perspective needs to be switched from the support recipient to the support provider (Dunkel‐Schetter, Blasband, Feinstein, & Herbert, 1992; Vollmann, Renner, & Weber, 2007). However, virtually all studies on optimism and social support have focused on the recipients' perspective, while the providers' perspective has been widely neglected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Better Liked but Not More Supported: Optimism and Social Support from a Provider's Perspective

Vollmann

Renner

2010

Applied Psych Health & Well

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Optimists commonly report a higher availability of supportive others and more received social support than pessimists. However, these results are silent on the question of whether this effect is due to an overly optimistic view on their social environment or whether the social environment actually provides optimists with more support than pessimists. Accordingly, the present study tested in an experimental design whether potential support providers react differently toward optimists, pessimists, and realists. Participants viewed videotaped interactions displaying either an optimistic, pessimistic, or realistic target person. Results show that the personality, the behavior, and the interpersonal attraction of optimists and realists were evaluated more positively than that of pessimists. Nonetheless, participants were equally or even less willing to provide social support to optimists compared to pessimists and realists. Thus, the greater amount of received support reported by optimists possibly represents an optimistically biased perception rather than a veridical reflection of the support they are provided with.

show abstract

Optimism and social support: The providers’ perspective

Cited by 30 publications

References 30 publications

The Differential Relations between Perceived Social Support and Rumination-Associated Goals

The Differential Relations between Perceived Social Support and Rumination-Associated Goals

Examining the trade‐off between confidence and optimism in future forecasts

Better Liked but Not More Supported: Optimism and Social Support from a Provider's Perspective

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About