Projects of Interest

Positive Affect and Suicide Ideation (PDF) | Optimism Buffers Influence of Negative Life Events on Suicide Ideation (PDF) | Optimism and Suicide Ideation in College Students (PDF) | Optimistic Explanatory Style Moderates Stress and Suicide Ideation (PDF) |

Latest news

March, 2009: Research Finding: Trait hope moderates relationship between functional impairment and depression. Presentations upcoming at ASRF and APA, Toronto, CA.

March, 2009: Positive Psychology Publication: Happiness mitigates the association between chronic medical problems & distress from suicidal thoughts. Published in International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry [click to link to journal].

Links:

• Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania
• Authentic Happiness
• Self Determination Theory

LRPPH - Current "Positive Psychology" Projects:

The Laboratory of Rural Psychological and Physical Health has as a primary emphasis the investigation of the mechanisms and effects of positively-valenced cognitive and emotional characteristics, taking a positive psychological approach to understanding physical and psychological health.

The LRPPH and our collaborators are working on the following projects that incorporate positive psychological variables:

Characterization of protective factors and psychological health in rural, older adult, primary care patients.

The association of future time perspective and positive affect to self-reported health and health behaviors.

The influence of hope and optimism on immune response in Hepatitis-C and HIV patients.

Optimistic explanatory style as a moderator of association between trauma and PTSD symptoms.

Ethnic differences in moderating effects of trait hope, optimism and religion on association between negative life events and depression

Hopefulness as a moderator of the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol abuse, and suicide ideation and attempts.

Positive Psychological Characteristics and Decreased Risk for Suicide:

College students may be at greater risk for suicide than their counterparts who do not attend college, but risk for suicide may not be inevitable. The LRPPH is currently conducting an online study investigating relationships between potential protective characteristics, such as hope, positive affect and optimism, and deleterious physical and mental health outcomes, such as sucidal thoughts and attempts, in college students. Preliminary results suggest that optimism, hope, and positive affect are associated with reduced suicide ideation and attempts!