By Marilyn Elias
USA TODAY
Contrary to the popular image, optimists aren't Pollyannas headed downhill to disappointment. They're more like ''the little engine that could,'' huffing and puffing their way uphill.
They may take short-term hits to their health because they don't give up, but in the long term, these laboring optimists enjoy the last laugh: They could have a better shot than pessimists at reaching a high goal and celebrating with good health once they've arrived.
So says a researcher who has won a $100,000 prize -- the richest award in psychology -- for original work in the ''positive psychology'' field. Suzanne Segerstrom, a University of Kentucky psychologist, took first place in the Templeton Positive Psychology contest, the American Psychological Association (APA) will announce today.
The awards, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and presented by APA, are for scientists who do pioneering research on how to develop and amplify human strengths.
Positive psychology departs from traditional problem-centered research, exploring topics such as moral behavior, courage, happiness and kindness. Four cash prizes, totaling $200,000, are given each May.
In Segerstrom's studies, optimists truly do ''try harder.'' As problems in a lab exercise become more difficult, or social events compete with school demands, they appear to keep trying to do it all, ''while pessimists just aren't that engaged, so they give up,'' she says.
But when optimists ''work extra hard and stress themselves more,'' their immune system falters, which might lead to more sickness in the short term.
She doesn't know whether optimists have more short-term illnesses, and she's following some people over time to test her hunch that ''if you're more engaged, the payoffs will tend to be greater in the end.'' Pessimists' chronic ''undershooting'' could leave them disappointed and possibly beset by worse mental or physical health than optimists over the long term.
''Optimists are not goofy and naive as they've been made out to be,'' she adds. ''For them, it's all about persistence and goals.''
Other Templeton winners:
* Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California-Riverside. She studies why some people are happier than others. ''We all know wealthy people who are living low-stress lives, and yet they're miserable. Then you meet someone who is happy despite all kinds of stress and adversity,'' Lyubomirsky says.
Her studies show that chronically discontented folks view the world ''through blue-tinted glasses.''
Unhappy people compare themselves with others, and it's a no-win game: When others excel, they feel diminished, but poor performance by someone else doesn't cheer them up, either. The happy measure themselves against an internal yardstick, their own standards.
In studies of high school seniors applying to colleges, she finds that happy people protect their egos by changing beliefs. If a college rejected them, the sunnier kids mentioned something negative about the campus that they hadn't mentioned when applying; unhappy seniors didn't change their evaluations, even if rejected.
The reverse happened when students turned down colleges that had accepted them. Unhappy teens put the schools down (''as if to convince themselves they made the right choice,'' Lyubomirsky says), but happier classmates didn't bad-mouth the schools.
Happier folks enjoy ''a more durable sense of self and aren't as buffeted by outside events,'' she concludes.
* Kennon Sheldon, University of Missouri. He has looked at goals and motivations that lead to happiness. Hint: Botox isn't nirvana.
''The more you pursue goals of popularity, riches and beauty, the less happy you are,'' Sheldon says. The more you pursue intimacy, community or personal growth, the happier you are.''
That's because ''what people think of you or what you see in the mirror may not be durable,'' unlike the goals linked to happiness.
He's aware of the irony here: ''I'm receiving a big cash prize for doing work that shows pursuing cash prizes doesn't make people happy, but I'm not going to turn it down.''
* Laura Kubzansky, Harvard University School of Public Health. Her research finds that optimism cuts the chances of developing heart disease and slows the rate of lung-function decline as people age.
She followed 1,300 men, starting in their early 60s, for 10 years. The more optimistic they were, the less likely to suffer coronaries, sudden heart-related deaths or angina, even taking into account major biological risk factors. In a subgroup of these men, she showed that lung function declines significantly faster in pessimists.
Stress hormones, immune system changes, healthier diets or more vigorous exercise could explain the findings.
''It's probably a combination of things that cause optimists to have
healthier lifestyles and healthier bodies as well,'' Kubzansky says.