A new instrument for measuring optimism and pessimism: Test-retest reliability and relations with happiness and religious commitment

Abstract

The main purpose of the present study was to assess the test-retest reliability of a newly devised instrument for measuring optimism and pessimism. In addition, correlations were obtained between the optimism and pessimism scores and two measures of happiness as well as with subjects' responses to single-item questions about the likelihood of a nuclear encounter and about their religious and political commitment and philosophy oflife. The instruments were administered to 106 introductory psychology students on two occasions separated by a 2-week interval. The test-retest reliability for the optimism scale was .75; for pessimism, .84. Both optimism and pessimism were correlated, on both administrations, with both happiness measures in the high .50s to low .60s. Of the remaining items, the strongest relation was between optimism and religious commitment (r = .27), conflrming prior results.A newly devised instrument for measuring optimism and pessimism has been described by Dember, Martin, Hummer, Howe, and Melton (in press). The original impetus for that work stemmed from an interest in investigating the correlates of individual differences in susceptibility to the Pollyanna principle-a common tendency to "accentuate the positive" that is manifested in a wide variety of circumstances (see Matlin & Stang, 1978). Dember and Penwell (1980) reported modest correlations between one measure of the Pollyanna tendency and two indices of subjective well-being, or happiness. The measure of happiness used was chosen by virtue of its ease of administration and its good psychometric properties (Kammann, Christie, Irwin, & Dixon, 1979); a direct measure of optimism would have been preferable, but an acceptable one was not available at the time.The Dember et al. instrument was devised speciflcally to flll that gap. In the meantime, interest in optimism and pessimism burgeoned, stimulated in large part by the revised learned helplessness model of Seligman and his collaborators (e.g., Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978).Research performed within that framework has identified what have been called optimistic and pessimistic explanatory styles as implicated in physical health (Kamen, Rodin, & Seligman, 1987; Peterson, Seligman, & Vaillant, 1988) and even in the attractiveness of political candidates (Zullow, Oettingen, Peterson, & Seligman, 1988). That work was carried out with the aid of an instrument for measuring explanatory style, the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; see Peterson et al., 1982), or with a content analysis system (Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanations, or CAVE; see Peterson, Luborsky, & Seligman, 1983) based on the ASQ for use with existing documents.Correspondence may be addressed to William N. Dember, Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0376. 365At present, then, there are competing instruments for measuring optimism and pessimism, including a brief scale developed by Cloninger (1987) and one, very similar to ours, by Scheier and Carver (1985). It would be ...

State or trait: effects of state optimism on job‐related outcomes

“…When individuals feel as though they make an impact, they are more committed (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 1982). Indeed, other forms of commitment relate to optimism such as religious commitment (Dember & Brooks, 1989), goal commitment (Werenfels, 2006;Montgomery, Haemmerlie, & Ray, 2003), and commitment to schoolwork (Hoekman, McCormick, & Barnett, 2005). We argue that when controlling for trait optimism, state optimism will be positively related to organizational commitment while trait affect will not significantly predict affective commitment when controlling for state optimism.…”

The relationship between optimism-pessimism, loneliness, and death anxiety

“…Thus, separate optimism and pessimism scores are produced by the instrument. Dember and Brooks (1989) reported that the test-retest reliability for the optimism scale was .75, whereas the test-retest reliability of the pessimism scale was .84.Additionally, these scales were shown to be significantly related to measures of happiness.The DAS consists of 15 true-false items. This instrument has been shown to have a test-retest reliability of .83 (Templer, 1970).…”

“…The Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale is a 20-item scale that correlates significantly with scores on the Beck Depression Inventory and the CosteUo-Comrey Anxiety and Depression Scale (Russell et al . , 1980).The Dember et al . (1989) Optimism-Pessimism Scale consists of 56 items to which subjects indicate their degree of agreement.…”

Optimism, self-esteem and personality: adaptation and validation of the Brazilian Version Of The Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R)

“…Several studies performed with this instrument pointed to controversial results regarding the construct unidimensionality and also for coincidences with neuroticism, trait anxiety, self-mastery and self-esteem (Chang, D'Zurilla, & Maydeu-Olivares, 1994;Dember & Brooks, 1989;Smith, Pope, Rhodewalt, & Poulton, 1989). Due to such criticisms, Scheier, Carver and Bridges (1994) revised the instrument, removing items that did not focus explicitly in expectations regarding the future.…”