Optimism
As it is commonly understood, the term ‘optimism’ brings together two closely correlated concepts: the first is the inclination to hope, while the second indicates the tendency to believe that we live in “the best of all possible worlds” Many studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of optimism as a psychological phenomenon, conceptualizing optimism as “attributional style”, “disposition”, “cognitive bias”, or “shared illusion”. Positive and negative expectations about one’s the future is important for understanding the vulnerability to mental disorders, in particular mood and anxiety disorders and physical illness. Optimism can significantly influence mental and physical well-being of an individual by simply creating hope and promoting a healthy lifestyle as well as by making them exhibit more adaptive behaviours and cognitive responses, associated with greater flexibility about the environment in which they belong, problem-solving capacity and a more exploratory and critical analysis of negative information that reaches them.