Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 19, 2026
07:28
A Contusive Model of Unilateral Cervical Spinal Cord Injury Using the Infinite Horizon Impactor
Published on: July 24, 2012
Effect of dispositional optimism before and after injury
Ross Wadey1, Lynne Evans, Sheldon Hanton
1Department of Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, UK. ross.wadey@roehampton.ac.uk
Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
|August 21, 2012
Summary
Dispositional optimism may reduce athletic injury risk and improve recovery. Higher optimism was linked to lower injury likelihood and better post-injury outcomes in athletes.
Area of Science:
- Sports Medicine
- Psychology
- Injury Prevention
Background:
- Athletic injuries pose significant risks to athletes' physical and mental well-being.
- Understanding psychological factors influencing injury is crucial for effective prevention and rehabilitation strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the direct, moderating, and indirect effects of dispositional optimism on athletic injury.
- To examine how optimism influences injury prediction and athletes' responses to injury.
Main Methods:
- A 2-year longitudinal study with 694 asymptomatic athletes (mean age 19.17 years).
- Data analyzed using logistic regression, Pearson correlations, and bootstrapping.
- 104 participants experienced injuries during the study period.
Main Results:
- Optimism showed a significant direct effect, decreasing injury likelihood before injury.
- Optimism had a nonsignificant moderating effect prior to injury.
- Significant direct and indirect effects of optimism were observed post-injury.
Conclusions:
- Dispositional optimism plays a role in both injury occurrence and recovery.
- Findings suggest optimism can be a target for injury reduction and rehabilitation enhancement.
- Future research should incorporate objective recovery measures.
Related Concept Videos
01:30Unrealistic Optimism Bias
Unrealistic optimism bias is the tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive outcomes. This cognitive bias makes individuals believe they are less likely to experience failures, setbacks, or risks and more likely to succeed than others. For example, people may assume they are less prone to health issues, accidents, or financial struggles than their peers, even when they share similar risk factors.One key component of this bias is the above-average effect, where individuals perceive...
01:23Stress Prevention and Stress Management Techniques II
Personality types, particularly Type A and Type B, significantly influence how individuals respond to stress. These personality distinctions are marked by varying levels of ambition, competitiveness, and coping styles, all of which shape an individual's resilience to stressors.
Type A Personality: Driven and Easily Stressed
Individuals with Type A personalities are often highly competitive and ambitious and operate with a strong sense of urgency. Commonly labeled as "workaholics," they...
Type A Personality: Driven and Easily Stressed
Individuals with Type A personalities are often highly competitive and ambitious and operate with a strong sense of urgency. Commonly labeled as "workaholics," they...
01:14Fundamental Attribution Error
According to some social psychologists, people tend to overemphasize internal factors as explanations—or attributions—for the behavior of other people. They tend to assume that the behavior of another person is a trait of that person, and to underestimate the power of the situation on the behavior of others. They tend to fail to recognize when the behavior of another is due to situational variables, and thus to the person’s state. This erroneous assumption is called the fundamental attribution...
01:17Classification of Illness
The meaning of illness is individualized to each person who experiences an alteration in health. In contrast, disease is a medical term indicating a pathological change in the structure and function of the body or mind. It is a condition that has specific symptoms and boundaries.
An illness is a response to a disease in which the person's level of functioning is changed compared with a previous level. The general classification of illness includes acute and chronic.
Acute illness is severe and...
An illness is a response to a disease in which the person's level of functioning is changed compared with a previous level. The general classification of illness includes acute and chronic.
Acute illness is severe and...
01:29Magical Thinking
Magical thinking encompasses the belief in assumptions that defy logical reasoning yet appear intuitively convincing. It is a common psychological phenomenon that persists across various cultural and individual contexts. While these assumptions contradict empirical evidence and scientific laws, they often serve meaningful psychological roles in promoting emotional resilience and a sense of control, especially under stress or uncertainty.Thought-Action Fusion and the Law of SimilarityA key...
01:12Hindsight Biases
Hindsight bias leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn’t. In other words, you knew all along that things would turn out the way they did. Can you relate this to the phrase "Hindsight is 20/20" now?