Coping with stress: Divergent strategies of optimists and pessimists.

TLDR

Optimism has been shown to predict successful adaptation to stressful encounters. The study aims to identify mechanisms linking dispositional optimism to coping strategies by comparing optimists and pessimists. The authors examined coping strategy differences between optimists and pessimists to uncover underlying mechanisms. Optimists more frequently use problem‑focused coping, seek social support, highlight positives, and accept uncontrollable events, whereas pessimists tend toward denial, distancing, emotional focus, and disengagement.

Abstract

Previous research has shown that dispositional optimism is a prospective predictor of successful adaptation to stressful encounters. In this research we attempted to identify possible mechanisms underlying these effects by examining how optimists differ from pessimists in the kinds of coping strategies that they use. The results of two separate studies revealed modest but reliable positive correlations between optimism and problem-focused coping, seeking of social support, and emphasizing positive aspects of the stressful situation. Pessimism was associated with denial and distancing (Study 1), with focusing on stressful feelings, and with disengagement from the goal with which the stressor was interfering (Study 2). Study 1 also found a positive association between optimism and acceptance/resignation, but only when the event was construed as uncontrollable. Discussion centers on the implications of these findings for understanding the meaning of people's coping efforts in stressful circumstances.