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| | Optimism/Pessimism (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20) |
 | | For example, in the context of HIV infection, negative HIV-specific expectancies predicted immune decline (Kemeny, Reed, Taylor, Visscher, and Fahey, 1996), symptom onset (Reed, Kemeny, Taylor, and Visscher, in press), and survival time for AIDS (Reed, Kemeny, Taylor, Wang, and Visscher, 1994); dispositional optimism did not (although positive versus negative items were not examined separately). |
 | | The chief disadvantages of situational optimism measures are two: they change from study to study, depending on the stressor, and to the extent that a stressor is differentially interpreted or experienced as stressful by virtue of social class, the meaning of situationally optimistic expectancies may be unclear. |
 | | Although the literature is spare, investigations to date suggest considerable utility in exploring the relation of optimism/pessimism as a mediator or moderator of the SES and health relationship. |
| www.macses.ucsf.edu /Research/Psychosocial/notebook/optimism.html (2260 words) |
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