A Qualitative Approach to Studying Health Optimism, Realism, and Pessimism
- 1 May 1999
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Research on Aging
- Vol. 21 (3), 440-457
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027599213005
Abstract
To determine why older people are optimistic, realistic, or pessimistic on self-rated health relative to standard medical health measures, 48 persons older than age 65 were interviewed in an in-depth, semistructured format. Comparisons were made between optimists and poor-health realists, both of whom have serious health problems, to discover the ways in which these groups develop their disparate self-ratings of health. When asked about the meanings they attach to health, respondents variously referred to topics including family history, social comparisons, subjective age, and life expectancy to form their ratings. These results begin to clarify the ways in which different people view similar states of health, building on recent research showing that health pessimists are at an elevated risk of mortality, while health optimists reduce their mortality risk.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Meaning of Older Adults' Health Appraisals: Congruence with Health Status and Determinant of MortalityThe Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 1996
- Self-rated health revisited: Exploring survey interview episodes with elderly respondentsSocial Science & Medicine, 1994
- What Do Global Self-Rated Health Items Measure?Medical Care, 1994
- Self-rated health: Biological continuum or social discontinuity?Social Science & Medicine, 1994
- Psychology and survivalThe Lancet, 1993
- The birthday: lifeline or deadline?Psychosomatic Medicine, 1992
- Health Perceptions and Survival: Do Global Evaluations of Health Status Really Predict Mortality?Journal of Gerontology, 1991
- DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY: MORTALITY SURROUNDING MAJOR SOCIAL OCCASIONSThe Lancet, 1988
- The Management of Illness Among Physically Impaired Older People: An Interactionist InterpretationSocial Psychology Quarterly, 1986
- A Theory of Social Comparison ProcessesHuman Relations, 1954