Healthy thoughts about unhealthy behaviour

Abstract

Schwarzer (1993) describes a theoretical framework of health-related cognitions and presents an analysis of the role of perceived vulnerability and positive expectancies in behavioural change processes. He argues that positive expectancies such as optimism about one’s vulnerability play a key role in many different approaches in the area of health psychology. Unfortunately, definitions of optimism and measurement techniques used to assess optimism vary widely. One of the aims of Schwarzer’s article is to distinguish the many definitions and concepts used in the literature. The first part of his article focuses on optimism and distinguishes defensive optimism from functional optimism. The former refers to a defensive strategy which could reduce the likelihood that people take precautions (“the risks apply more to others than to oneself”). Functional optimism, on the other hand, refers to positive expectancies that can enhance general health and/or health behaviour . In this context, Schwarzer also reminds us of the necessity to differentiate between optimistic explanatory style (Seligman, 1991) and dispositional optimism (Scheier and Carver, 1992). In the final sections Schwarzer focuses on optimism in terms of self-efficacy expectancies. All in all Schwarzer’s article serves as a timely reminder of the need to carefully define and measure positive expectancies. The increased use in the literature of terms such as optimism, unrealistic optimism, functional optimism, and positive illusions is sometimes accompanied by conceptual confusion. Similar remarks can be made about the use of self-efficacy. In this reaction to Schwarzer’s insightful and useful analysis I would like to address two issues. The first concerns the measurement of vulnerability. The second issue concerns the relation between risk perceptions, defensive optimism and behaviour .