10/16/13 Annotated Bibliography

Samantha Tracy

Bear, Sun., Mulligan, Crysalis., Nufer, Peter., and Wabun. "Happiness Is the Best Medicine." Walk in Balance: The Path to Healthy, Happy, Harmonious Living. New York: Prentice Hall, 1989. 16-25. Print. Sun Bear discusses how happiness is the best medicine we can have. He demonstrates how a positive attitude and belief in self worth leads to a longer and healthier life. He states how laughing is just like inner jogging; having a positive outlook uplifts our general mood, reduces pain, and stimulates the production of endorphins. Optimists are more likely to face situations head on and confront challenges to their health directly. Exerting control over our lives and making personal decisions has been shown to lead to greater optimism and increase our chance of longevity, reducing pain associated with illness. Stress and illness can alter the self-esteem and sense of self worth of many patients, but those with positive attitudes have been shown to progress faster than those with pessimistic attitudes. Sun Bears ideas on improving our outlook can also lead to the improvement of health.

Garofalo, John P. "Chapter 9: Perceived Optimism and Chronic Pain." Personality Characteristics of Patients with Pain. Washington, DC: Gatchel, Robert J., and James N. Weisberg. American Psychological Association, 2000. 203-217. Print. John Garofalo demonstrates the correlation between optimistic thinking and chronic pain felt by patients. Researching psychology and how it affects our physical pain, Garofalo followed many patients, classified as either optimists or pessimists, through years of treatment. He concluded that those with optimistic attitudes responded

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better to treatment, had a higher sense of self-efficacy, and adapted better to handling their illness. The personality traits associated with optimistic people lead these patients to higher rates of success in treatment and management of their disease. Taking effective coping strategies optimists put themselves in a position to generate the largest benefit from their prescribed treatment. Garofalo also discovered that optimists tended to surround themselves with an optimistic support system. This group of friends and family members lead to slower progression of disease in terminally ill patients and created an environment for enhanced health among patients. He complied large amounts of research and experiments to justify the benefits of optimism in pain management.

Mayo Health Clinic Letter. Optimism and Health. Consumer Health Complete 27.7 (2009): 4-5. Atkins Library. Web. 28 Oct 2013 The Mayo Health Clinic published an article discussing the health benefits of a positive outlook and dispositional optimism. The article argues that optimists experience less pain, have more energy and are generally more relaxed in social situation; these traits along with others increase their chance a living a healthier life. Optimists are 29% less likely to die an early death compared with their pessimistic counterparts. Encouraging the health of their audience the authors provided ways to increase optimistic thinking skills. Refocusing your perspective, looking for pleasure in everyday occurrences, and practicing random acts of kindness are all proven ways to increase positive thinking and increase optimism in day-to-day life. The articles showed the benefits of optimism through illness prevention and faster recovery when exposed to illness, while also giving advice on how to improve our optimism and lead healthier lives.

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"Mindfulness and Positive Thinking." Pursuit of Happiness. Pursuit of Happiness Inc., 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. Mindfulness and Positive Thinking is an online article used to inform an audience about the research of optimism on health and illness. The article discusses different explanatory styles contrasting pessimistic with optimistic styles of thinking. Optimists tend to avoid putting total blame on themselves for their problems, look at ways to change their way of dealing with conflict and view events as having little impact on their life as a whole. These ways of thinking lead optimists to greater success in problems of addiction and faster recovery post surgery. The article also focused on how we can learn to be more optimistic. Through the Penn Resiliency Program children were taught to develop optimistic attitudes and focus on the positive aspects of their lives. These teaching influence the children, granting them future success in both the working world and within their own personal health. Examining both the effects of optimism on health and ways to teach positive thinking skills to the general population, this article examined two topics necessary to the discussion of the physical benefits of increased optimism.

Seligman, Martin E. P. "Part II: Health." Learned Optimism. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1991. 167-84. Print. The main premise of Seligmans article is that positive thinking, especially hope, can be a life sustaining and life saving tool. Optimists take a more active approach to their treatments and tend to be more engaged with medical advice. Seligman states that learned optimism used to deal with tough situations is what causes some people to succumb to disease and others to rise above it. He also discusses the effects of

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helplessness; pessimists are more likely to develop a learned helplessness. This learned helplessness caused progression of tumors and eventual death in experiments conducted with cancer positive rats. Helplessness has also been proven to make the human immune system more passive in its defense against illness. Pessimism and depression lower immune system activity putting the individual at a greater risk for disease and lowering the individuals ability to fight current illness. Seligman and his colleagues developed the concept of psychoneuroimmunology, the study of how psychological events influence the immune system. The combination of optimism and its positive effects on general health and ability to benefit the immune system lead optimists to lead healthier and longer lives than pessimists.