Positive thinking is looking at the brighter side of situations, making a person constructive & creative. Positive thinking is related with positive emotions and other constructs such as optimism, hope, joy and wellbeing. McGrath (2004) defined positive thinking as a generic term referring to an overall attitude that is reflected in thinking, behavior, feeling and speaking. Positive thinking is a mental attitude that admits into the mind; thoughts, words and images that are conducive to growth, expansion and success.

There is a relationship between positive thinking and stress. Occurrence of daily positive emotions serves to moderate stress reactivity. There is evidence that stress leads to heart disease, infectious illness and autoimmune disorders. Positive thinking and positive affect have been found to be related with distress reduction and predicting healthy outcomes. Positive emotions undo the effect of negative emotions on cardiovascular function . A study of coping with stress following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States found that resilient individuals were less likely to experience depression and more likely to report increase in psychological growth after the attacks. Moreover, positive emotions experienced after the attack completely mediated the relationship between resilience and coping variables. These moments of positive emotions may be viewed as opportunities to replenish ones system, which has been depleted by grief. A meta-analysis conducted by Lyubomirsky and King (2005) about the benefits of frequent positive thinking, in terms of positive affect, optimism, happiness, satisfaction with life and other related concepts, found that positive affect engenders success across multiple life domains, including work performance, social relationship, perception of self and others, sociability, activity, physical wellbeing, coping, problem solving, creativity and health. A number of constructs have been introduced in the coping literature to explain the capacity of some individuals to maintain a positive out look during negative life circumstances. Optimism, extraversion, sense of coherence, hope and hardiness all refer to general trait that are correlated with positive affect and promote positive thinking during difficult circumstances and all have been related with positive health outcomes. For example, research has demonstrated that optimistic individuals remember potentially threatening health relevant information more than pessimists. However, they use humor and positive reframing instead of denial when coping with highly stressful events. One possibility is that the effects of these constructs on positive moods mediate their relation to physical health outcomes. Although, these concepts differ in a variety of ways but their correlations with positive affect are well established. Carver and Scheier did a lot of research on optimists and pessimists. Optimists are quicker to accept a challenge. They engage in more focused, active coping when such efforts are likely to be productive. They are less likely to display signs of disengagement or giving up. Optimistic women used more adaptive coping strategies and had lower level of perceived stress. Scheier and Carver (1985) found that optimistic students coped well with difficult situations during the semester and reported less physical symptoms. Optimistic women who were pregnant were more likely to engage in constructive thinking than the pessimistic ones. Furthermore, constructive thinking also correlated negatively with anxiety and positively correlated with a positive state of mind. Litt, Tennen, Affelect, and klock (1992) examined the reactions of people whose attempts in vitro fertilization were unsuccessful. Escape was used as a coping strategy by pessimist, which in turn caused greater distress after the fertilization failure. Strategies for maintaining positive emotions and positive thinking help buffer against stress. Most researchers concerned with the issue of finding meaning in adversity perceive it as a powerful human strength associated with the minimization of harm to an individual physical and psychological health. Shiota (2006) observed the effect of positive coping strategies on daily stressors. Dispositional use of positive emotions inducing coping strategy was mostly associated with positive aspects of well being. Positive emotional granularity (PEG) is the tendency to represent experience of positive emotions with precision and specificity. This exerts an important influence on coping by making the individual more attentive to the situation at hand. Therefore the person is more likely to scan coping options thoroughly and less likely to respond spontaneously. Positive thinking has been effective during the resettlement stage of the immigration process. Cognitive strategies of positive comparison and optimistic thinking were utilized by the immigrants to change the meaning of resettlement difficulties. When studying negative effects (NA) and positive effects (PA) on coping, studies have shown that individual high in NA prefer avoidant behavior. Other researches have shownpositive correlation between NA and perceived stressfulness. Research has shown thatstress exposure varies with negative affectivity and gender.In Eaton and Bradley’s study (2008) participant’s perception of stressfulness increased with participant’s negative affectivity. NA predicted use of both emotion and avoidance focused coping. Evidences from a variety of sources show that happy people are more satisfied with their jobs than unhappy people. Positive effect atwork has been found to be directly associated with reduced absenteeism (George, 1989). Positive thinkers appear to secure better jobs. In one study, employees high in dispositional positive affect had jobs as rated by trained observers, that had more autonomy, meaning and variety. In a meta-analysis of 27 studies of affect and job satisfaction, Connolly & Viswesvaran, concluded that 10%-25% of the variance in job satisfaction was accounted for by measures of dispositional effect. Employees high in dispositional effect receive relatively more favorable evaluations from supervisors and others. In Staw and colleague’s study, managers of high positive effects employees of three Midwestern organizations gave them higher evaluations for work quality, productivity, dependability, and creativity. Staw and Barsade (1993) found that, as rated by objective observers, those high in dispositional positive affect performed better on a manager assessment task.

Positive thinkers and happy, satisfied workers are more likely to be high performers on the job and they are less likely to show absenteeism, turnover, job burnout, and retaliatory behaviors. For example positive mood at work predicted lower withdrawal and organizational retaliation and higher organizational citizenship behavior. Ferreira (2006) analyzed the role of coping in the relationship between work stressors and psychological wellbeing in a sample of 464 bank employees. Work related stressors correlated positively with psychological distress and psychosomatic complaints.

In Healy and Mckay’s study (2000) nurse’s work related stressors and coping strategies were studied and its impact on the nurse’s job satisfaction and mood disturbance was estimated. Positive correlation was found between nurse’s stress and mood disturbance, and a significant negative relationship between nurse’s stress and job satisfaction was found. Job and non-work stress correlated positively with behavioral, cognitive, and physiological reactions to stress as well as with negative emotionality

Reference

Naseem, Z., & Khalid, R. (2010). Positive Thinking in Coping with Stress and Health outcomes: Literature Review. (https://ue.edu.pk/jrre/articles/41004.pdf}