Recent medical advances have produced improved treatment of illness. As a result, the field has moved to a model of health promotion and risk prevention to keep us from becoming sick in the first place.
Now that medical technology is capable of extending lifespans, our long term adjustment and factors related to good health and longevity have become a subject of interest. Not surprisingly, these considerations have become focused on our internal characteristics which others can’t see and therefore, others cannot provide effective assistance.
If you notice your roommate is not sleeping much, has stopped exercising and has decreased their eating to basically a few bags of junk food and a soda twice a day, then you might worry knowing lack of sleep, poor nutrition, and lack of exercise have all been connected to the increased likelihood of becoming ill (Lutgendorf, & Costanzo, 2003). Yet these are all things that can be easily observed and perhaps others can provide assistance.
What Were You thinking? Covert Factors
More recently, researchers have discovered that it is what is going inside us -- covert factors such as mood, thoughts, interpretations, what we find meaningful, our sense of self-esteem, the effects of stress, etc. -- that greatly contributes to the likelihood of us becoming ill. And more so, these internal factors influence our behaviors, (FamilyDoctors.org, 2010).
Too much stress? Light a cigarette. Boss insults you making you feel incompetent? Grab a Twinkie. So how we experience and react to things internally affects our behavior, specifically the coping strategies and stress management skills we have become accustomed to using throughout our lives.
Attributions or Explanatory Style – What Causes All Those Hassles in my Life?
One factor thought to influence how we cope with what comes our way, is how that we go about determining what caused various types of situations. As humans, we all want to be able to predict when something is going to occur but more importantly we are always searching for the reasons life events do occur especially when they are negative. Many researchers have believed that there are characteristic categories of causes different people use routinely when explaining unpredictable, uncontrollable negative events.
Peterson and Seligman (1987) began studying this theory and discovered three dimensions or types that describe how individuals tend to attribute causes to negative life events. They came to call this area Attributional Theory or Explanatory Style.
Buchanan and Seligman, (1995), went on to describe what they came to call a Pessimistic Explanatory Style. This referred to the tendency for individuals to explain negative events as occurring due to particular negative categories of causes related to themselves. This manner of attributing causes was said to be based on characteristic negative ways of thinking displayed by the pessimist. These dimensions have been shown to affect how people cope with and adjust to uncontrollable bad events in their lives (Peterson, Maier, & Seligman, 1995).
So, what causes all those hassles in our lives? We do. We create a hassle by how we view what is usually a neutral or relatively minor event. You misplace the car keys and think, "Of course I can't find them, I never pay attention to where I put my things and this is going to keep causing me problems no matter what I do," or we can laugh at ourselves and think, "Okay I forgot this time but they have to be here somewhere. It's not like I do it all the time just when I get distracted by something when I get home. It's not as if it's some permanent flaw or something." Your missing car keys then can either by no big deal or a disaster of gigantic proportions ruining your whole day even after you find them.
I'm the Eternal Optimist - Do Attributions Play a Role in My Outlook Also?
Absolutely.. While pessimists attribute bad events - divorce or the loss of a job - to causes that are their fault, are long lasting or permanent and affect everything they do the optimist does the opposite. The view the causes of negative events as the result of bad luck or other people's actions, temporary and limited to the present case only (Jabs, 1987).
Attributions and Our Health
Researchers agree that explanatory style has an extremely powerful effect on health. Seligman (1991), states that Explanatory Style operates as a self fulfilling prophecy. The way a person "explains things in his life can predict and determine his future."
Yale Oncologist and Surgeon, Dr. Bernie Siegel states that a negative explanatory style is harmful to the body. In an interview he remarked that a negative explanatory style can actually slow or even halt the healing process by negatively effecting the immune system (Prevention, 1988).
In addition to depressing immunity, Explanatory Style can affect how an individual reacts to surgery. Pessimists who believe no good will from the operation frequently have problems for years to come, while those who go in convinced of a completely successful outcome often experience just that - better outcomes and fewer problems (Asuman, Vitaliano, & Crinean, 1988).
Explanatory Style can even effect our circulatory system influencing risk for people with coronary heart disease. Multiple studies have shown that people with a pessimistic explanatory style, were at increased risk for atherosclerosis, blockage or coronary arteries and hearth attack and had much poorer outcomes following coronary bypass surgeries than those with an optimistic explanatory style (Leaderer, 2001).
So What Does It All Mean?
Those with an optimistic explanatory style have better health for several reasons. Some of these are that they have stronger immune systems, they engage i better health habits and have good social support. Those with a pessimistic explanatory style react to illness with a sense of helplessness and fail to do what's necessary to fight off the problem (Lin & Peterson, 1999).
Don't despair though. Explanatory Style doesn't have to be permanent. Coming articles will provide suggestions for you can change from a pessimist to an optimist in terms or how you attribute causation for life events.
Sources
- Asuman. H., Vitaliano, P., & Crinean, J., (1988). "Patients' Expectations as Predictors of Orthognathic Surgery Outcomes," Health Psychology, 7, 251-268.
- Buchanan, G. and Seligman, M.E.P. (Eds.). (1995). Explanatory Style. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
- FamilyDoctors.org, (2010, December). Mind/Body Connection: How Your Emotions Affect Your Health. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
- Jabs C., (1987, Sept.). "New Reasons to be an Optimist," Self,170-173.
- Leaderer, J., (2001). "Surgery: A Mind-Body Event," Mind/Body/Health Digest, 1, 1-4.
- Lin, E., & Peterson, C., (1999). "Pessimistic Explanatory Style and Response to Illness," Behavioral Research Therapy, 28, 243-248.
- Lutgendorf, S. K., & Costanzo, E. S., (2003, August), Psychoneuroimmunology and health psychology: An integrative model. Brain, Behavior and Immunity, 17, 225-232 doi:10.1016/S0889-1591(03)00033-3.
- Peterson, C. and Seligman, M.E.P. (1987). Explanatory style and illness. Journal of Personality, 55, 237-265.
- Peterson, C., Maier, S. F., Seligman, M. E. P., (1995). The Attributional Reformulation. In Learned Helplessness: A theory for the Age of Self Control . Oxford Press: New York, pp.141-182.
- Prevention, (1988, March). "Mind Over Cancer: An Exclusive Interview with Yale Surgeon Dr. Bernie Siegel," 59-64.
- Seligman, M. E. P., (1991). Learned Optimism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
- Seligman, M. E. P., (2006). Authentic Happiness. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
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