ReviewThe American psychologist2018
Dispositional optimism and physical health: A long look back, a quick look forward.
Review in The American psychologist, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 86 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
86 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- 'Now I Have Dreams in Place of the Nightmares': An Updated Systematic Review of Post-Traumatic Growth Among Refugee Populations.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2024Pooled it
- Self-enhancement and physical health: A meta-analysis.The British journal of social psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Unveiling the neural underpinnings of optimism: a systematic review.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Optimism in adults born preterm: Systematic review and individual-participant-data meta-analysis.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- Positive psychological well-being and clinical characteristics in IBS: A systematic review.General hospital psychiatryPooled it
- How Does Dietary Intake Relate to Dispositional Optimism and Health-Related Quality of Life in GermlineNutrients · 2023Trial
- Optimism as a Predictor of Employee Engagement in the Media Industry: An Empirical Study.Annals of neurosciences · 2026Article
- Psychological Resources in Adults with Cancer: A Systematic Review of Quantitative Studies.Cancers · 2026Review
- Wellbeing trajectories and dementia risk among Mexican-origin adults living in the U.S.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- The relationship between stress perception and anxiety among patients with polycystic ovary syndrome: the mediating role of negative coping strategies.BMC women's health · 2026Article
- Positive mental attitude and depressive symptoms among medical students and residents: a cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2026Article
- Change in nutrition patterns through a school-based intervention-The Altus health and wellness academy model.Journal of education and health promotion · 2026Article
- Optimism and cognitive functioning trajectories in a cohort of aging men.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Exploring the Psychometric Properties of the Spanish Version of the Life Orientation Test-Revised Among Multiple Sclerosis Patients: Insights into Optimism.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2025Article
- Health Behaviors in the Context of Optimism and Self-Efficacy-The Role of Gender Differences: A Cross-Sectional Study in Polish Health Sciences Students.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The Role of Optimism and Self-Efficacy in the Relationship between Academic Stress and Depressive Symptoms in Medical Students Including the Use and Knowledge of Structural Health Promotion Offers.Medical science educator · 2025Article
- Article
- Analyzing latent categories of stress, anxiety, and depression in medical students: insights into their psychological resilience.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The influence of hope and optimism on trajectories of COVID-19 stress, health anxiety, and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of clinical psychology · 2024Article
- Dispositional Optimism Predicts Antidepressant Treatment Response in Major Depressive Disorder: Potential Relevance for Positive Psychology Interventions.The journal of positive psychology · 2024Article
26 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Dispositional optimism is the generalized, relatively stable tendency to expect good outcomes across important life domains. This article provides a representative review of 30 years of research on dispositional optimism and physical well-being. Assessment of optimism is described, along with data regarding its stability. A review of the research linking optimism and physical health is then presented. Included in the review are initial studies suggesting that optimism and physical well-being might be linked as well as more recent, larger scale epidemiological studies that make the point more emphatically. Also considered are potential pathways-behavioral, biological, and social-that might explain these associations. The article concludes with a brief look to the future, describing several issues and questions that still need to be answered. These questions include the relationship of optimism and pessimism to each other (and the implications of that relationship for physical well-being), the origins of optimism and pessimism, and interventions that might be implemented to reduce the negative impact of a pessimistic outlook. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.