In the aging process religiosity has been shown to be associated with important
benefits. In this paper we seek to analyse the agency factors of religiosity
in optimism and its mediation in satisfaction with life in both healthy and ill
elderly people. The sample surveyed by the CROP Questionnaire, consisting of
376 Portuguese elderly people, 238 classified as healthy and 138 as ill, showed
that there is a positive relationship between religiosity and optimism only for
the group of healthy elderly people. For the ill elderly, optimism was only promoted
by satisfaction with life. The distinction between optimism of internality
and externality showed that the healthy elderly anchor their optimism in internality
beliefs, while the ill elderly base their optimism on external factors. The
establishment of a self-regulating system is discussed with beliefs and religious
practices as perpetuators. Confrontation with personal frailty, powerlessness, and
fear were discussed as predetermining factors to disembedding, as described by
Giddens (1991, 1997), while reembedding occurs with the elderly regaining self-
-control, as a result of divine factors prone to optimism.