10.1177/0146167204271319 ARTICLEPERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETINSolberg Nes et al. / OPTIMISM AND ENGAGEMENT Engagement and Arousal: Optimism’s Effects During a Brief Stressor

Optimism is usually associated with better psychological and physiological adjustment to stressors, but some contradictory findings exist. The purpose of this study was to investigate how optimism could result in negative immunological changes fol-lowing difficult stressors. Because optimists are likely to see posi-tive outcomes as attainable, they may invest greater effort to achieve their goals. It is proposed that such engagement would be more physiologically demanding when pursuing difficult goals. Participants (N = 54) worked on 11 difficult or insoluble ana-grams. Optimism when combined with high self-awareness in-creased time spent working on the anagrams and skin conduc-tance and salivary cortisol during the recovery period. The results support the notion that the increased engagement that arises from optimism may lead to short-term physiological costs