High-Rise Public Housing, Optimism, and Personal and Environmental Health Behaviors

The extent of dispositional optimism and behaviors to protect personal and neighborhood environmental health were measured among residents in a controversial high-rise public housing project. Optimism, measured by the Life Orientation Test (LOT), was the same among respondents to the survey as other populations cited in the literature. Optimists and pessimists identified about the same number and types of problems and amenities in the neighborhood, and their rating of neighborhood quality was almost identical. That is, optimists did not minimize serious problems. Optimists were slightly more likely to engage in behaviors that protect their personal health. They were much more likely to attend a public meeting, participate in a church or civic function, and in other ways engage in neighborhood activities that were consistent with dispositional optimists' pattern of coping with extremely difficult conditions through proactive engagement rather than withdrawal.