Research Paper - Just so I don't have to find it again.
6 May 2005
Research Paper - Rough Draft
Optimism and Happiness: The Greatest Impact on Life
Throughout the ages depression and pessimism has been studied ad nauseam. Something that isn’t quite so concentrated on is the topic of happiness and being optimistic. According to a recent survey taken among Americans, 79% of the people in this country consider themselves to be optimists. 15% of people said they were not optimists, and 6% of people surveyed reported that they did not know. (Wallis, A4.) Optimism has been shown to dramatically affect the well being of a person. In a large study, 1,300 men were tracked for 10 years. Those who considered themselves to be optimists had half the rates of acquiring heart disease as opposed to those who did not consider themselves to be optimists. The difference in the heart disease rates between optimists and pessimists was almost as great as the difference between smokers and non-smokers. (Wallis, A7.) In another recent study people aged 20 to 24 are emotionally low for an average of 3.4 days per month while people ages 65 to 74 seem to be down less often - a mere 2.3 days per month. (Wallis, A5.) The difference in these numbers may have occurred because on a whole, young people tend to be less satisfied about how their life is because of all of the expectations they have been instilled with by society, while older people seem to have experienced many things and let go of those expectations. This lets them enjoy life more as well as lower their stress levels. The attitudes people take towards the things in their lives can drastically affect the outcome of their health.
When people are in any mood they have special chemicals in their bodies, which are affecting their actions, thoughts, and general outlook at the time being. One of these chemicals is called cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone, which is produced in times of stress. (Lemonick, A17.) This hormone is known to depress immune function, thus increasing the chances that the person will become sick. There is also another hormone involved in a person’s state of emotion. This hormone is called dopamine. When a person feels happy, dopamine fills the synaptic gap between nerve endings in the brain. This chemical then binds to the receptors on the ends of the nerves and emphasizes the feeling of joy at that moment. (Dell, A10.) In addition to this mood lift, dopamine is also known to increase the memory capability of individuals.
Optimism has a drastic affect on the health of people. Maybe it’s that most optimists seem to take better care of their health than pessimists, or maybe it is because the chemicals involved in someone’s brain when they are happy might actually prolong the healthy state of your body. Either way, just being optimistic about the little things in life has been shown to have a major impact on a person. There are many things in life that people feel may increase your happiness level such as income, religion, education, money, marital status, or even children. In reality, these opportunistic factors really only contribute to 8% of one’s happiness in life. (Wallis, A5.) Religion may be something that makes people happier, but scientists have yet to figure whether it is because those people feel a sense of security from the idea of someone watching over them, or if it is from the religious community aspect of it all. (Wallis, A6.) It has been found that 50% of someone’s outlook on life, be it optimistic or pessimistic, stems from his or her genetic programming. (Wallis, A7.) This may be supporting evidence to those who believe people are born with their personality “preset”. While many parents believe this, there isn’t an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence behind it. Even though genetic programming has a major part in personality, it is also thought that while you may have a happy baby at birth, multiple traumatic events during childhood could potentially scar the individual and leave them with a negative outlook. A similar concept applies to individuals with a negative outlook. Many positive things could happen to a person and make them happier, and chances are they will be. The only thing is that that person will probably never consider himself or herself to be an optimist, and since their genetic programming is ingrained in their genes, they do not have the ability to make as much dopamine as a genetic optimist. Thus, they will never be quite as happy. There are ways to reduce pessimism slightly in an individual such as cognitive behavior therapy, or self help techniques (Gilbert, 2), but again, these methods will never turn a very gloomy person into an overly bubbly type.
There are many ways that this optimism proves itself to have a powerful affect on one’s health. As for the basics, optimists are often less stressed, have less intense mood swings, exercise more, consume less alcoholic beverages, and smoke less than their pessimistic counterparts. (Gilbert, 2.) While it could be that all of the above actions contribute to the more complex outcomes of optimism, it is believed that the outlook itself is the cause. As stated before, cortisol reduces immune system functionality. Since optimists produce less cortisol than pessimists, optimists tend to have less frequent colds. (Gilbert, 1.) People who have been placed in the upper levels of happiness in psychological tests develop 50% more antibodies than others. (Wallis, A7.) And since the people who have more antibodies in their blood can fight off infection and illness better than those who have fewer antibodies, optimists seem to become ill much less than others. Positive people can withstand coronary bypass better than pessimists. They also live longer with HIV than pessimists. (Gilbert, 1.) “In a 1994 study, men with HIV who thought their illness could be controlled showed increased t-cell counts over time and lived 9 months longer than HIV positive men with negative expectations of their disease.” (Gilbert, 2.) Optimists have a lower chance of developing hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, upper respiratory infection, as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. (Lemonick, A17.) As shown in a recent Dutch study, elderly patients who were happy reduced their chances of death 50% compared to pessimistic patients. (Wallis, A7.) This statistic may have just taken into consideration how happy they were at the time of their hospitalization, but more likely it is because happy people tend to take excellent care of themselves and have healthier habits throughout their lifetimes.
Overall, if someone is optimistic, they will have an overwhelmingly better life than those who always look at negative things in their life. With so many other factors on the rise such as diabetes, obesity, AIDS, etc., the everyday person who looks at things through rose-colored glasses seems to have a better chance at surviving life and all of the circumstances that come with living today. It’s funny how whether you are a healthy person or not during your lifetime can all come down to asking yourself… Is the glass half empty or half full?
Works Cited
Dell, Kristina. “The Paths to Pleasure”. Time. 17 Jan 2005; A10.
Gilbert, Susan. “Optimism’s Bright Side.” New York Times. 30 June 1998, Late
Ed. :F7
Lemonick, Michael D. “The Biology of Joy.” Time. 17 Jan 2005: A12-A17.
Wallis, Claudia. “The New Science of Happiness.” Time. !7 Jan 2005: A3-A9.