Related Constructs
One methodological issue concerning optimism is that several
other constructs exist that relate to optimism but are not
quite the same as optimism. Two that are closely related to
each other are the sense of control (e.g., Thompson,
2002
xClose
Thompson, S. C. (2002). The role of personal control in adaptive
functioning. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook
of positive psychology (pp. 202-213). New York: Oxford
University Press. ) and the sense of personal efficacy
(e.g., Bandura,
1997
xClose
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control.
New York: Freeman. ). These concepts have strong overtones
of expecting desired outcomes, as does optimism. However,
there is a difference in the assumptions made (or not made)
about how the desired outcomes are expected to occur. Self-efficacy
is a concept in which the self as a causal agent is paramount
(see Self-Efficacy in
Other Constructs). If people have high self-efficacy expectancies,
they presumably believe that their personal efforts (or personal
skills) are what will determine the outcome. If, for example,
you believe you have the personal fortitude to overcome the
side-effects of chemotherapy, you are more likely to struggle
harder to do so. The same is true of the concept of control.
When people see themselves as being in control, they believe
that the desired outcome will occur through their own personal
efforts.
In contrast to this emphasis, optimism takes a broader view
of the potential causal forces assumed to be at work. People
can be optimistic because they are immensely talented, because
they are hard-working, because they are blessed, because they
are lucky, because they have friends in the right places,
or any combination of these or other factors that produce
good outcomes (cf. Murphy
et al., 2000
xClose
Murphy, P. E., Ciarrocchi, J. W., Piedmont, R. L., Cheston,
S., Peyrot, M, & Fitchett, G. (2000). The relation of religious
belief and practices, depression, and hopelessness in persons
with clinical depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, 68, 1102-1106. ). For example, a person
could be optimistic about being able to overcome side effects
of chemotherapy either because of her personal fortitude or
because her oncologist has a useful bag of tricks for dealing
with side-effects. The latter would be optimistic but not
because of the role of self as the agent of the outcome.
Without question there are some circumstances in which personal
efficacy is the key determinant of a desired outcome. There
are also cases in which the goal is explicitly to do something
yourself. In the latter case, only a personally determined
success is the desired end-point, so personal control is critical.
However, there are also many cases in which the causal determinant
of the outcome is far less important than the occurrence of
the outcome (for broader discussion see Carver,
Harris, et al., 2000
xClose
Carver, C. S., Harris, S. D., Lehman, J. M., Durel, L. A.,
Antoni, M. H., Spencer, S. M., & Pozo-Kaderman, C. (2000).
How important is the perception of personal control? Studies
of early stage breast cancer patients. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 139-150. ). Those
cases are also included within the optimism construct.
Another construct that resembles optimism, and which has
its own substantial literature, is hope (Snyder,
1994
xClose
Snyder, C. R. (1994). The psychology of hope: You can
get there from here. New York: Free Press. , 2002
xClose
Snyder, C. R. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind. Psychological
Inquiry, 13, 249-275. ). Hope is said to have
two parts. One part is the person's perception of the existence
of pathways that are needed for the person to reach his or
her goals. The second is the person's level of confidence
of being able to use those pathways to reach the goals. Thus,
hope has been characterized (e.g., Snyder
et al., 1991
xClose
Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A.,
Irving, L. M., Sigmon, S. T. Yoshinobu, L., Gibb, J., Langelle,
C., & Harney, P. (1991). The will and the ways: Development
and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60,
570-585. ) as reflecting both the will (confidence)
and the ways (pathways). The confidence dimension is similar
to optimism, though with more overtones of personal agency.
The pathway component is a quality that the optimism concept
doesn't address. You can see, though, that a person who sees
many pathways to a particular desired outcome may be especially
likely to remain persistent if one particular pathway is blocked.
Finally, it has also been noted that pessimism has a considerable
resemblance to the construct of neuroticism
(Smith,
Pope, Rhodewalt, & Poulton, 1989
xClose
Smith, T. W., Pope, M. K., Rhodewalt, F., & Poulton, J. L.
(1989). Optimism, neuroticism, coping, and symptom reports:
An alternative interpretation of the Life Orientation Test.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56,
640-648. ). Neuroticism (or emotional instability)
is defined by a tendency to worry, to experience unpleasant
emotions, and to be pessimistic. Smith
et al. (1989)
xClose
Smith, T. W., Pope, M. K., Rhodewalt, F., & Poulton, J. L.
(1989). Optimism, neuroticism, coping, and symptom reports:
An alternative interpretation of the Life Orientation Test.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56,
640-648. found that a commonly used measure of optimism
related strongly to a measure of neuroticism, a finding also
reported by Marshall
and Lang (1990)
xClose
Marshall, G. N., & Lang, E. L. (1990). Optimism, self-mastery,
and symptoms of depression in women. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 59, 132-139. . Smith et
al. also found that correlations between optimism and several
outcome variables were sharply reduced when neuroticism was
controlled. Scheier,
Carver, and Bridges (1994)
xClose
Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994). Distinguishing
optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery,
and self-esteem): A reevaluation of the Life Orientation Test).
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67,
1063-1078. later found that the overlap between constructs
was more limited, but noted that the existence of a relationship
was unsurprising, inasmuch as part of neuroticism is a sense
of pessimism.
Bipolar or Dual Unipolar?
A second methodological issue concerns the fact that measures
of optimism versus pessimism sometimes separate into two factors,
one defined by positively framed items (e.g.,
"I'm always optimistic about my future"), the other defined
by negatively framed items (e.g., "I hardly
ever expect things to go my way"). It has been shown that
the two subscales have somewhat different personality correlates
(Marshall,
Wortman, Kusulas, Hervig, & Vickers, 1992
xClose
Marshall, G. N., Wortman, C. B., Kusulas, J. W., Hervig, L.
K., & Vickers, R. R. (1992). Distinguishing optimism from
pessimism: Relations to fundamental dimensions of mood and
personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
62, 1067-1074. ). Some studies (though not others)
have found that one subscale is more important than the other
in the prediction of relevant outcomes (Robinson-Whelen,
Kim, MacCallum, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 1997
xClose
Robinson-Whelen, S., Kim, C., MacCallum, R. C., & Kiecolt-Glaser,
J. K. (1997). Distinguishing optimism from pessimism in older
adults: Is it more important to be optimistic or not to be
pessimistic? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
73, 1345-1353. ), though which subscale is more
important varies from study to study.
The question is what to make of this difference between the two subsets of items. Is this purely a methodological artifact, caused by the reverse phrasing of half the items, together with the general tendency toward agreeing in responding? Or does one item set provide a more valid measure of the underlying construct? When the item subsets have differed in their prediction, it generally (though not always) has been the negative items that predicted better. A summary recommendation is often that the subsets be examined separately, with results reported separately only if the two subsets of items behave differently.
|