ABSTRACT
Research demonstrates the powerful effect that expectations have on the outcome of interventions whether educational, medical, pharmacological, surgical, or psychological. The role of expectations is important that, if patients are told that the medicine they are taking for pain relief is morphine, they report more comfort than when they are told they are receiving aspirin. Coe notes that, when these private theories are matched by the therapist's explanations, techniques, and personal characteristics, the strength of the patient's positive expectations of therapy improves. With regard to modifying a patient's expectations to match treatment, Chaves describes a patient who came to him with chronic physical pain and who understandably expected to emerge from therapy pain free. Another less well-known technique for assessing optimistic versus pessimistic attitudes toward the future and obtaining one's goals is age-progression imagery. For these reasons, assessing optimism and considering the role of laughter, creativity, and optimism in the therapy process are of interest to treatment planning.
