daily stressors and positive and negative moods on eight consecutive evenings up to three times over an eight-year span from 2002 to 2010.
Those who were more optimistic were less likely to report negative moods, and optimism was unrelated to emotional reactivity to or recovery from daily stressors.The optimistic men reported lower negative moods and more positive moods, in addition to fewer stressors. "Findings from a sample of older men suggest that optimism may be associated with more favorable emotional well-being in later life through differences in stressor exposure rather than emotional stress response," the authors wrote."Optimism may preserve emotional well-being among older adults by engaging emotion regulation strategies that occur relatively early in the emotion-generative process.
"This study tests one possible explanation, assessing if more optimistic people handle daily stress more constructively and therefore enjoy better emotional well-being," Dr. Lewina Lee, corresponding author and clinical psychologist at the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, said in a