Positive Irrational Beliefs and Mental Health
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Positive Irrational Beliefs and Mental Health J. J. Collard1 · M. Fuller‑Tyskiewicz2 Accepted: 12 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This study examined the relationship between positive irrational beliefs, or positive illusions, and mental health. It attempted to address previous issues with inferential methods for assessing such beliefs by directly assessing positive irrational beliefs relating to the self, control, and optimism. The study included 1243 participants who completed the survey questionnaire. A two-step structural equation modeling framework was used to test associations between positive irrational beliefs and mental health constructs. This allowed for a componential analysis separating a higher order factor, likely representing positive mood from positive irrational beliefs. The study showed that positive irrational beliefs were consistently associated with poor mental health outcomes (i.e. increased emotional distress, reduced self-esteem and optimism, and reduced use of effective coping strategies). The higher order factor instead demonstrated associations with better mental health outcomes. It is concluded that positive illusions may be negative defence mechanisms that are detrimental to people’s long-term mental health. Keywords Positive irrational beliefs · Positive illusions · Mental health
Introduction Over the years there have been a range of proposed models for mental health. The ‘traditional’, and most enduring, holds that the key to good mental health is selfinsight and accurate perception of the world and oneself (e.g. Jahoda 1958; Maslow 1962). However, this was challenged by Taylor and Brown’s (1988) social psychological model. Their model proposed that accurate self-insight is not a requisite for * J. J. Collard [email protected] M. Fuller‑Tyskiewicz [email protected] 1
School of Psychology, Counselling, and Psychotherapy, Cairnmillar Institute, Melbourne, Australia
2
School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
13
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J. J. Collard, M. Fuller‑Tyskiewicz
mental health and that positive irrational beliefs, often labelled ‘positive illusions’, promote psychological wellbeing, and therefore mental health (Taylor and Brown 1988, 1994). This has led to a commentary on the need to “balance” the use of positive illusions (e.g. Baumeister 1989; Takemura et al. 2015) to attain the benefits, but avoid the costs of such beliefs. There is however important criticisms of the Taylor and Brown’s model of mental health that is yet to be resolved. This has been on both theoretical grounds (e.g. Young 2014) and in relation to their operationalization of positive irrational beliefs (for reviews see Collard et al. 2016; Young 2014). The current research attempted to overcome some of these difficulties in operationalising positive illusions, measuring them directly, and explored how the direct measurement of positive illusions related to mental health constructs. Taylor and Brown’s
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