Facets of optimism: Comment on Scheier et al. (2021).

In light of the analyses of Scheier et al. (2021) concerning differential associations of optimism and pessimism measures with physical health, we argue here that whether optimism and pessimism are bipolar, lying on separate ends of a spectrum, or whether they represent two separate dimensions is a conceptual, rather than an empirical, question. Differential associations of various indicators, or indicator sets, with health may indeed be of interest, but there are also different ways of grouping indicators other than whether items are worded to correspond to optimism or pessimism. We do nevertheless believe that the analyses of Scheier et al. (2021) can be useful in helping guide intervention development in precisely the ways they suggest. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).