The Impact of Positivity on Affective State, Coping, and Quality of Life among Australians Living with Chronic Physical Illness

Abstract

Few experiences in life are as potentially stressful as living with a chronic, physical illness. Research suggests that the way in which individuals cope with illness has a direct effect on their future physical and psychological health and wellbeing (Fitzgerald Miller, 2000). Health care settings have traditionally had a one-dimensional focus where illness is framed as something negative residing within an individual. The main focus of treatment is the eradication of that negative state, with little therapeutic emphasis on positive states present within the individual (Gable & Haidt, 2005; Harris & Thoresen, 2006; Seligman, Rashid, & Parks, 2006). The current research addressed this deficiency by examining the impact that accentuating the positive can have for individuals living with chronic physical illness. A two-wave longitudinal study was conducted (N = 327) utilising three different illness samples (COPD, diabetes, and arthritis). Based on Fredrickson’s Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotion (2001) and the Dynamic Model of Affect (Zautra, Smith, Affleck, & Tennen, 2001), it was predicted that positive predispositions (gratitude, benefit-finding, and forgiveness), through their influence on affective state and breadth of coping repertoire, would moderate the relationship between illness and quality of life (QoL). It was also predicted that affective state would mediate relationships between the positive predispositions and QoL.