快乐的人更健康

有人问：为什么很多人都推荐要乐观积极，难道悲观没有它的优点吗？人们都推崇乐观态度，也许这是出于生活的积累；这种经验现在已经获得研究结论的支持了：快乐及其他积极情绪对健康的重要性要比以前认为的要更大。一般来说，拥有积极情绪的人比较不容易患感冒，并且即便生病了也较少告诉别人症状。在你身边是否同样得到验证？-psytopic.com



心理学家说，快乐的人更健康

根据卡内基梅隆大学心理学教授Sheldon Cohen发表在《身心医学》期刊上的研究表明，快乐及其他积极情绪对健康的重要性要比以前认为的要更大。

这项最新研究进一步证实了Cohen及其同事2004年的里程碑式文章的结果，即在感冒病毒的侵袭下，快乐的、活泼的、平和的或表现出其他积极情绪的人要比报告有极少数这类情绪的人更不容易生病。在2004年研究中，Cohen发现即便因感冒而病倒，快乐的人所报告的症状也要比疾病应有的客观诊测症状要少。
相反的，报告更多诸如抑郁、焦虑和愤怒之类消极情感并不与患上感冒相关联。

然而2004年的研究遗留下一种可能性，即更快乐人群对流行性疾病的更强抵抗力忧可能并不是因为快乐，而是因为其他经常与报告积极情绪相关的特征相关，如乐有观、外向、目标感和自尊。

Cohen的最新研究控制了这些变量，得出了同样的结果：报告积极情绪的人更不容易患感冒，并且即便生病也更少的报告症状。不管他们的乐观、外向、目标感和自尊水平如何，不管他们的年龄、种族、性别、教育、体重或研究前病毒免疫性如何，都得到这一结果。

研究者在几周的时间内对志愿者进行采访来评估他们的心境和情绪类型，然后是他们感染鼻病毒或流感病毒。志愿者被隔离并且检验其是否患上了感冒。这与Cohen先前研究中的方法相同，但是增加了流感病毒。

“我们需要更认真地考虑积极情绪方式在疾病风险发挥重要作用的可能性了。”Cohen，卡内基梅隆大学Robert E. Doherty 心理学教授如是说。


附原文：

Happy People Are Healthier, Psychologist Says


Happiness and other positive emotions play an even more important role in health than previously thought, according to a study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine by Carnegie Mellon University Psychology Professor Sheldon Cohen.


This recent study confirms the results of a landmark 2004 paper in which Cohen and his colleagues found that people who are happy, lively, calm or exhibit other positive emotions are less likely to become ill when they are exposed to a cold virus than those who report few of these emotions. In that study, Cohen found that when they do come down with a cold, happy people report fewer symptoms than would be expected from objective measures of their illness.


In contrast, reporting more negative emotions such as depression, anxiety and anger was not associated with catching colds. That study, however, left open the possibility that the greater resistance to infectious illness among happier people may not have been due to happiness, but rather to other characteristics that are often associated with reporting positive emotions such as optimism, extraversion, feelings of purpose in life and self-esteem.


Cohen's recent study controls for those variables, with the same result: The people who report positive emotions are less likely to catch colds and also less likely to report symptoms when they do get sick. This held true regardless of their levels of optimism, extraversion, purpose and self-esteem, and of their age, race, gender, education, body mass or prestudy immunity to the virus.


"We need to take more seriously the possibility that positive emotional style is a major player in disease risk," said Cohen, the Robert E. Doherty Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon.


The researchers interviewed volunteers over several weeks to assess their moods and emotional styles, and then infected them with either a rhinovirus or an influenza virus. The volunteers were quarantined and examined to see if they came down with a cold. This was the same method Cohen applied in his previous study, but with the addition of the influenza virus.


Cohen collaborated on the study with Cuneyt M. Alper of the Department of Otolaryngology at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; William J. Doyle of the Infectious Disease Unit at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; and John J. Treanor and Ronald B. Turner, M.D., of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center.


Source: Carnegie Mellon University
译者：张璇
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