DISPOSITIONAL OPTIMISM AND PRIMARY AND SECONDARY APPRAISAL OF A STRESSOR - CONTROLLING FOR CONFOUNDING INFLUENCES AND RELATIONS TO COPING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL ADJUSTMENT

Previous research has shown that dispositional optimism (M. F. Scheier & C. S. Carver, 1985) is linked to both coping and adjustment but has failed to consider the potential influence of appraisals in the stres s and coping process (R. S. Lazarus & S. Folkman, 1984). The present s tudy examined the influence of optimism and appraisals on coping and p sychological and physical adjustment in 726 college students. Results from correlational analyses indicated that stress-related appraisals w ere associated with optimism, coping, and adjustment. Comparative anal yses further indicated that optimists (II = 109) and pessimists (n = 1 10) differed significantly in secondary (but not primary) appraisal, c oping, and adjustment. In addition, optimism was found to add signific ant incremental validity in predicting adjustment, beyond what was acc ounted for by appraisals and coping. The implications of these finding s for understanding the influence of dispositional optimism are discus sed.