Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T18:08:25.459Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Rediscovering confidence as a mechanism and optimism as a construct

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2015

Charles S. Carver
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124ccarver@miami.eduhttp://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/ccarver/ Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
Michael F. Scheier
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. scheier@cmu.eduhttp://www.psy.cmu.edu/people/scheier.html

Abstract

The target article asserts that resilience results from a generalized tendency to appraise stressful circumstances positively. Apparently unbeknownst to the authors, essentially the same idea has been advanced before and studied extensively from a different research perspective. This raises a broader issue: the critical need, when projects attempt to span disciplines, to fully examine work from all relevant backgrounds.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boehm, J. K. & Kubzansky, L. D. (2012) The heart's content: The association between positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular health. Psychological Bulletin 138:655–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carver, C. S. (1998) Resilience and thriving: Issues, models, and linkages. Journal of Social Issues 54:245–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carver, C. S. (2007) Stress, coping, and health. In: Foundations of health psychology, ed. Friedman, H. S. & Silver, R. C., pp. 117–44. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carver, C. S. & Scheier, M. F. (1998) On the self-regulation of behavior. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carver, C. S. & Scheier, M. F. (2014) Dispositional optimism. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 18:293–99. doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.02.003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F. & Segerstrom, S. C. (2010) Optimism. Clinical Psychology Review 30:879–89. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2010.01.006.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rasmussen, H. N., Scheier, M. F. & Greenhouse, J. B. (2009) Optimism and physical health: A meta-analytic review. Annals of Behavioral Medicine 37:239–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheier, M. F. & Carver, C. S. (1985) Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies. Health Psychology 4:219–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Segerstrom, S. C. (2006) Breaking Murphy's law. Guilford.Google Scholar