Stephanie J Sohl, Anne Moyer, Konstantin Lukin, Sarah K Knapp-Oliver
{"title":"Why are Optimists Optimistic?","authors":"Stephanie J Sohl, Anne Moyer, Konstantin Lukin, Sarah K Knapp-Oliver","doi":"","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examined what is brought to mind when responding to the items comprising a measure of dispositional optimism. Participants (N = 113) completed the Life Orientation Test and the COPE, a measure of coping style, and described why they responded the way they did to the items assessing optimism. Participants' explanations comprised eight types of reasoning: (1) faith in a higher power; (2) belief in fate or a just world; (3) personal fortune; (4) belief in the role of one's own ability; (5) reliance on idioms; (6) beliefs about the usefulness of thinking optimistically; (7) matter-of-fact statements; and (8) a feeling, intuition, or hope. These types were also related to coping styles. Responses to positively-worded items were explained with respect to external forces and responses to negatively-worded items were explained with respect to internal forces. Understanding how people explain their optimism may be the first step in fostering this outlook.</p>","PeriodicalId":89678,"journal":{"name":"Individual differences research : IDR","volume":"9 1","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3519290/pdf/nihms376636.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Individual differences research : IDR","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study examined what is brought to mind when responding to the items comprising a measure of dispositional optimism. Participants (N = 113) completed the Life Orientation Test and the COPE, a measure of coping style, and described why they responded the way they did to the items assessing optimism. Participants' explanations comprised eight types of reasoning: (1) faith in a higher power; (2) belief in fate or a just world; (3) personal fortune; (4) belief in the role of one's own ability; (5) reliance on idioms; (6) beliefs about the usefulness of thinking optimistically; (7) matter-of-fact statements; and (8) a feeling, intuition, or hope. These types were also related to coping styles. Responses to positively-worded items were explained with respect to external forces and responses to negatively-worded items were explained with respect to internal forces. Understanding how people explain their optimism may be the first step in fostering this outlook.
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