Youthful Pessimism Tied to Illness Later in Life

The way people account for the bad events that befall them is a subject of great interest to research psychologists, for in those explanations lie subtle clues to personality and, some now believe, to future physical health.

It is the style of those explanations that is revealing--specifically, are they optimistic or pessimistic? Does the person see the causes of misadventures as permanent or fleeting, circumscribed or pervasive? Do they blame themselves or someone else?

A newly concluded 35-year study suggests that a pessimistic explanatory style in youth predicts poor health in later life. Among 99 men studied, those who offered pessimistic explanations at age 25 experienced more illness between 45 and 60 than the optimists.

The research provides evidence to support the premise that psychological factors may affect physical health and illness. Although the precise link between the two remains unexplained, the researchers have some guesses.

“I’m convinced there’s a link between this personality characteristic and subsequent physical well-being,” said Christopher Peterson, a University of Michigan psychologist and co-author of the study, published this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. “The next question is, how do you get from one to the other?”

Peterson and Martin E. P. Seligman, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, examined questionnaires filled out in 1946 by 99 Harvard University graduates who had been asked at age 25 to answer questions about their wartime experiences.

The questionnaires had inquired about difficult personal situations encountered and how successfully the men felt they had handled them. They also asked how the situations were related to work or health, and what physical or mental symptoms were experienced.

The researchers rated the explanations for optimism and pessimism.

As examples of pessimistic style, they offer the following hypothetical answers: It’s never going to go away; It’s going to ruin everything I do; It’s me. Optimistic alternatives would be: It was a one-time thing; It has no bearing on my life; The heat was bothering me.

The researchers then examined medical data collected by a third co-author, Dr. George E. Vaillant, professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School, who had been monitoring the physical and mental health of those Harvard graduates since the mid-1940s.

The data included the results of extensive physical examinations done every five years from age 25 through 60. According to that data, some of the men had developed serious and chronic illnesses, including heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.

In the early years, there appears to have been no relation between explanatory style and physical health. But in early middle age, as health became more variable, those who were pessimistic in their 20s grew sicker than their more sanguine counterparts.

The correlation persisted even when the researchers accounted for other possible variables, such as the subjects’ physical and mental health at 25.

After age 50, the relationship fell off slightly. That decline remains unexplained. The researchers suggest alcoholism or constitutional factors may become more powerful influences over health in later life, overshadowing psychological factors.

The reasons for the apparent correlation remain to be explored. Perhaps pessimists neglect basic health care in the first place, the researchers suggest. Once they become sick, maybe they fail to get help or follow medical advice.

Pessimists are often poor problem solvers; because they fail to avert crises, they may have more misfortune, researchers say. Previous research suggests they lack the social supports that serve as buffers against poor health.

Finally, the researchers theorize that a pessimistic explanatory style may weaken a person’s immune defenses. They cite new data suggesting that people who have become helpless and pessimistic exhibit some degree of immune system suppression.

In a recent interview, Seligman said the findings suggest a new role for cognitive therapy, a type of therapy he said has been shown to change explanatory style from pessimistic to optimistic.