Positive illusions and well-being revisited: Separating fact from fiction.

S. E. Taylor and J. D. Brown (see record 1992-16903-001) published an article that challenged the notion that accurate perceptions of self and the world are essential for mental health. The authors argued instead that people's perceptions in these domains are positively biased and that these positive illusions promote psychological well-being. In the current article, the authors review their theoretical model, correct certain misconceptions in its empirical application, and address the criticisms made by C. R. Colvin and J. Block (see record 1994-41047-001). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological resources, positive illusions, and health.

Psychological beliefs such as optimism, personal control, and a sense of meaning are known to be protective of mental health. Are they protective of physical health as well? The authors present a program of research that has tested the implications of cognitive adaptation theory and research on positive illusions for the relation of positive beliefs to disease progression among men infected with HIV. The investigations have revealed that even unrealistically optimistic beliefs about the future may be health protective. The ability to find meaning in the experience is also associated with a less rapid course of illness. Taken together, the research suggests that psychological beliefs such as meaning, control, and optimism act as resources, which may not only preserve mental health in the context of traumatic or life-threatening events but be protective of physical health as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do positive illusions foster mental health? An examination of the Taylor and Brown formulation.

The proposition recently offered by S. E. Taylor and J. D. Brown (see record 1988-16903-001) that positive illusions foster mental health has garnered considerable attention and acceptance. However, the significant theoretical and applied implications of their view for mental health require a critical evaluation of their argument. An examination of the logic and empirical evidence used to relate mental health to 3 key positive illusions (unrealistically positive views of the self, illusions of control, and unrealistic optimism) failed to substantiate Taylor and Brown's thesis. Further survey of more recent studies on positive illusions and mental health also failed to lend support to the Taylor and Brown generalization. Close consideration of several assumptions underlying the formulation raises further questions regarding their thesis. The present article concludes that it remains unproven that positive illusions foster mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Constructing desirable identities—Self-presentation in psychotherapy and daily life: Comment on Kelly (2000).

A. E. Kelly's (see record 2000-08364-001) thesis that psychotherapy clients benefit from withholding negative information is considered in flight of current social-psychological theory and research. Positive illusions about oneself are associated with indexes of mental health; this is consistent with treating therapy as positive identity development. Self-presentation can shape self-concept, even apart from the feedback that an audience might provide; the social construction of identity is a powerful process, suggesting that withholding negative and presenting only positive information is adaptive. However, evidence concerning the level of identification of one's actions suggests complexities in understanding ways clients might deal with disclosing negative information; the authors argue that the impact on self-concept is probably more complex than A. E. Kelly's characterization and that the implications are of a broader scope than indicated so far. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive illusions about marriage among married and single individuals.

The common tendency to describe one's marriage in unrealistic terms has been conceptualized as a positive illusion about marriage. Studies of positive illusions have relied on the logical argument that these perceptions are unreasonably positive. This reasoning is insufficient, because previous studies have relied on volunteer samples with high marital satisfaction and long marital duration, both of which could explain rosy evaluations of one's marriage. The current series of studies examined whether positive marital illusions are an artifact of marital satisfaction and duration. Married and single individuals' estimates of their divorce likelihood and other measures of positive marital illusions revealed that illusions about marriage are not dependent on a volunteer bias, marital satisfaction, or duration. The presence of illusions about a future marriage among single individuals suggests that positive marital illusions are a cultural phenomenon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using participatory research to help promote the physical and mental health of female social workers in child welfare

Forty female workers from child welfare agencies were interviewed in focus groups regarding the positive and negative aspects of their work, their perceptions of its effects on their physical and mental health, and what they did in response to either cope or to protect their health. The results showed that despite certain positive aspects of their work, these women overwhelmingly felt that their work had adversely affected both their physical and mental health, and that they used a variety of strategies (both problem focused and emotion focused) to cope. Implications are discussed in terms of the need for intervention at the micro-, mezzo-, and macrolevels, as well as in terms of the appropriateness of participatory research methods for future studies with this population.     

Positively biased appraisals in everyday life: When do they benefit mental health and when do they harm it?

To promote optimal mental health, is it best to evaluate negative experiences accurately or in a positively biased manner? In an attempt to reconcile inconsistent prior research addressing this question, we predicted that the tendency to form positively biased appraisals of negative experiences may reduce the motive to address those experiences and thereby lead to poorer mental health in the context of negative experiences that are controllable and severe but lead to better mental health in the context of controllable negative experiences that are less severe by promoting positive feelings without invoking serious consequences from unaddressed problems. In 2 longitudinal studies, individuals in new marriages were interviewed separately about their ongoing stressful experiences, and their own appraisals of those experiences were compared with those of the interviewers. Across studies, spouses' tendencies to form positively biased appraisals of their stressful experiences predicted fewer depressive symptoms over the subsequent 4 years among individuals judged to be facing relatively mild experiences but more depressive symptoms among individuals judged to be facing relatively severe experiences. Furthermore, in Study 2, these effects were mediated by changes in those experiences, such that the interaction between the tendency to form positively biased appraisals of stressful experiences and the objectively rated severity of initial levels of those experiences directly predicted changes in those experiences, which in turn accounted for changes in depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that cognitive biases are not inherently positive or negative; their implications for mental health depend on the context in which they occur. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disability and the law: Attitudes of police, lawyers, and mental health professionals.

A literature review on the attitudes of police officers, lawyers, and mental health professionals toward the disabled indicates that police officers' attitudes are related to the extent of their formal education and the amount of information they have about relating to persons with various types of disabilities. Lawyers who have disabled clients tend to be more knowledgeable and to have more positive attitudes than lawyers without such clients, but it is not easy to turn lawyers into advocates for disabled clients. Mental health professionals, who may be called on to provide advice to police officers or lawyers or to testify in court cases, have some negative aspects that may impair their helpfulness, but their attitudes are more positive than those of less educated persons. Data also indicate that the attitudes of psychologists are less negative than those of psychiatrists. It is concluded that rehabilitation psychologists need to undertake studies of the attitudes of these groups and to set up programs designed to change the attitudes of members of these professions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Illusion" of mental health does not explain positive illusions.

Comments on the argument by J. Schedler et al (see record 1994-09623-001) that standard mental health scales appear unable to distinguish between genuine mental health and the illusion of mental health created by psychological defenses. It is asserted that Schedler et al go beyond appropriate empirical and conceptual boundaries by extending their analysis to the body of research known as "positive illusions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

To use or not to use: Clinicians' perceptions of telemental health.

Equal access to mental health services is necessary for healthy individuals and communities. However, due to geographical distances and other barriers, some clients cannot easily access mental health professionals. Technologies such as videoconferencing for clinical purposes (i.e., telemental health) may help to bridge these gaps to connect clients and clinicians at geographically diverse locations. However, despite its potential utility, telemental health has not been widely adopted in Canada. This study is an exploratory investigation into mental health professionals' attitudes toward telemental health, factors that affect the frequency with which they use this technology, and their perceptions of individual characteristics that make clients more or less suitable candidates for telemental health. This study has a particular focus on remote and rural and Operational Stress Injury (OSI) contexts. One hundred sixty mental health workers across Canada participated in an online survey, and 25 mental health workers from Operational Stress Injury clinics across Canada participated in in-person interviews. The data were examined using qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. Findings suggest that mental health workers have overall positive attitudes toward the use of telemental health—particularly for clients in remote and rural locations. Additionally, receiving training in telemental health, being in the mental health field for longer, and perceiving the technology as easy to use are associated with more frequent use of telemental health. Finally, clinicians reported specific client characteristics that they perceive to make some clients unsuitable candidates for telemental health. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive Affect and the Complex Dynamics of Human Flourishing.

Extending B. L. Fredrickson's (1998) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and M. Losada's (1999) nonlinear dynamics model of team performance, the authors predict that a ratio of positive to negative affect at or above 2.9 will characterize individuals in flourishing mental health. Participants (N=188) completed an initial survey to identify flourishing mental health and then provided daily reports of experienced positive and negative emotions over 28 days. Results showed that the mean ratio of positive to negative affect was above 2.9 for individuals classified as flourishing and below that threshold for those not flourishing. Together with other evidence, these findings suggest that a set of general mathematical principles may describe the relations between positive affect and human flourishing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social judgment and social memory: The role of cue diagnosticity in negativity, positivity, and extremity biases.

In this article, we report two experiments that examine a cue-diagnosticity explanation (Skowronski & Carlston, 1986) for the extremity and negativity biases that are commonly found in impression-formation research. The first experiment demonstrates that negative behaviors are generally perceived as more diagnostic than positive behaviors when the former are morality related (honesty-dishonesty) but that these perceptions are reversed when negative behaviors are ability related (intelligence-stupidity). Furthermore, as predicted, extreme behaviors relating to either morality or ability were perceived as more diagnostic than were moderate behaviors. As a consequence of these perceptions, it was predicted that the impression-formation task used in Experiment 2 would detect negativity and extremity biases for the morality judgment, but positivity and extremity biases for the ability judgment. The data confirmed these predictions, providing support for the cue-diagnosticity approach and posing problems for alternative approaches to judgment biases. Experiment 2 also found recall to be characterized by negativity biases for stimulus behaviors relating to both morality and ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can I trust you? Negative affective priming influences social judgments in schizophrenia.

Successful social interactions rely on the ability to make accurate judgments based on social cues as well as the ability to control the influence of internal or external affective information on those judgments. Prior research suggests that individuals with schizophrenia misinterpret social stimuli and this misinterpretation contributes to impaired social functioning. We tested the hypothesis that for people with schizophrenia, social judgments are abnormally influenced by affective information. Twenty-three patients with schizophrenia and 35 healthy control participants rated the trustworthiness of faces following the presentation of neutral, negative (threat-related), or positive affective primes. Results showed that all participants rated faces following negative affective primes as less trustworthy than faces following neutral or positive primes. Importantly, this effect was significantly more pronounced for participants with schizophrenia, suggesting that schizophrenia may be characterized by an exaggerated influence of negative affective information on social judgment. Furthermore, the extent that the negative affective prime influenced trustworthiness judgments was significantly associated with patients' severity of positive symptoms, particularly feelings of persecution. These findings suggest that for people with schizophrenia, negative affective information contributes to an interpretive bias, consistent with paranoid ideation, when judging the trustworthiness of others. This bias may contribute to social impairments in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure and health correlates of trait repetitive thought in older adults.

Repetitive thought (RT) involves frequent or prolonged thoughts about oneself and one's world, encompassing discrete forms such as trait worry, rumination, processing, and reminiscing. These forms of RT can be described using 3 basic, underlying qualities: total propensity for RT of all types, valence (positive vs. negative content), and purpose (searching or uncertainty vs. solving or certainty). The adaptiveness of discrete forms with regard to health is likely to be related to these qualities, particularly valence and total propensity. The present study confirmed the model and identified the relationship of these qualities of RT to subjective psychological, physical, and cognitive health in older adults aged 60–94 (N = 179). As predicted, more negatively valenced trait RT was associated with worse psychological, physical, and cognitive health. More total propensity for RT was associated only with worse psychological health. Searching purpose was associated only with worse cognitive health. In turn, negatively valenced RT was predicted by poorer executive functions, suggesting that such functions may be important for directing this quality of RT. The valence of older adults' RT is important insofar as it may contribute to their sense of good or ill health. However, the propensity for all kinds of RT to associate with poorer psychological health may reflect the co-occurrence of negative and positive RT, such as rumination and emotional processing. Although RT has not been extensively investigated in older adults, it appears to play an important role in their subjective health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Struggling for control: the care experiences of 'difficult' patients in mental health services

Although there is increasing recognition of the existence of 'difficult' patients who present particular challenges to mental health nurses, no research has been conducted into their perceptions of services and their experiences of care. This study identifies mental health service users who are defined by nurses as 'difficult' and explores their perceptions of their care experience. The results support earlier studies which suggested that 'difficult' patients challenge nurses' competence and control: despite their different roles both nurses and 'difficult' patients were aware of the struggle to gain or retain a notion of control. Respondents were able to identify the qualities of nurses and nursing interventions which had a positive effect on their care experience. Where nurses were perceived to demonstrate respect, time, skilled care and a willingness to give patients some control and choice in their own care, feelings of anger were reduced. These findings are discussed within the conceptual framework of 'power over' and 'power to' and implications for practice and research are considered.     

Barriers to the provision of mental health services to individuals with severe physical disability.

Surveyed 86 consumer advocates (67 with physical disabilities), 157 rehabilitation counselors, 94 rehabilitation administrators, 323 mental health administrators and professionals, and 145 severely disabled Ss concerning Ss' perceptions of the nature and extent of mental health services, barriers to mental health service provision for individuals with severe physical disabilities, and personal data. Overall, there was a general consistency among the sample groups in their perceptions of the extent to which each of 10 variables is a barrier to service delivery. The lack of accessible public transportation, especially in nonmetropolitan areas, and the accompanying limitation on costly mental health outreach services were viewed as serious problems. The limited knowledge and skills of many mental health professional regarding severe physical disability was perceived to be a moderate to substantial barrier to service provision. Findings indicate that individuals with severe physical disability are an underserved group. Recommendations regarding policy and program development and training of professionals are offered. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social phobia and positive social events: The price of success.

Patients with generalized social phobia (N?=?32; 16 men, 16 women) and nonclinical control participants (N?=?32; 16 men, 16 women) took part in a social interaction that was manipulated to be successful or unsuccessful. Participants rated their ability, perceptions of others' standards, social goals, and emotional responses before and after the interactions. As predicted, the successful social interaction produced a somewhat negative response in patients with social phobia. Social success led to self-protective social goals, negative emotional states and perceptions that others would expect more in future interactions. These results indicate that positive social events may not be processed in a way that leads to a revision of negative self- and social judgments in patients with social phobia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental state decoding abilities in young adults with borderline personality disorder traits.

Previous studies have demonstrated that patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) tend to misattribute malevolence to benign social stimuli, including facial expressions. Yet, facial emotion recognition studies examining those with BPD have yielded mixed results, with some studies showing impaired accuracy and others demonstrating enhanced accuracy in the recognition of emotions or mental states. The current study examined the ability to decode mental states from photographs of just the eye region of faces in a nonclinical sample of young adults who exhibited BPD traits (high BPD) compared with those who did not (low BPD). Group differences in mental state decoding ability depended on the valence of the stimuli. The high-BPD group performed better for negative stimuli compared with the low-BPD group, but did not perform significantly different from the low-BPD group for stimuli of neutral or positive valence. The high-BPD group also demonstrated a response bias for attributing negative mental states to facial stimuli. In addition, findings suggested that the group difference in accuracy for negative stimuli could not be explained by response bias, because the group difference in response bias for negative stimuli did not reach significance. These findings suggest that BPD traits may be associated with enhanced ability to detect negative emotions and a bias for attributing negative emotions to nonnegative social stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure and dynamics of worry: theory, measurement, and cross-national replications

This article presents a comprehensive conceptualization of the structure of worry and the relation of worry to mental health and well-being. It is assumed that worries have two facets, namely, the object of a worry (e.g., self, close others, society, the world) and the domain of a worry (the field of life with which it is concerned). The object of a worry is presumed to be more important than its domain in determining the impact of worries on mental health. Only worries concerned with self and close others (micro worries) are expected to be related to poor mental health, whereas worries about society or the entire world (macro worries) are expected to be positively related to mental health. An instrument is introduced to study worries in accordance with the proposed structure. Its validity is tested by two confirmatory techniques (similarity structure analysis and confirmatory factor analysis) in samples from Israel, West Germany, and (the former) East Germany. Worry scores are also related to five mental health indicators. Results show that across samples micro and macro worries can validly be distinguished. Micro worries are strongly related to poor mental health, whereas macro worries are unrelated to mental health or relate marginally to positive well-being.     

Supporting children's mental health in schools: Teacher perceptions of needs, roles, and barriers.

There is a significant research to practice gap in the area of mental health practices and interventions in schools. Understanding the teacher perspective can provide important information about contextual influences that can be used to bridge the research to practice gap in school-based mental health practices. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' perceptions of current mental health needs in their schools; their knowledge, skills, training experiences and training needs; their roles for supporting children's mental health; and barriers to supporting mental health needs in their school settings. Participants included 292 teachers from 5 school districts. Teachers reported viewing school psychologists as having a primary role in most aspects of mental health service delivery in the school including conducting screening and behavioral assessments, monitoring student progress, and referring children to school-based or community services. Teachers perceived themselves as having primary responsibility for implementing classroom-based behavioral interventions but believed school psychologists had a greater role in teaching social emotional lessons. Teachers also reported a global lack of experience and training for supporting children's mental health needs. Implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)