Search results for " optimism"
showing 10 items of 24 documents
Optimism and sense of coherence in mothers and fathers of children with cerebral palsy participating in an intensified habilitation programme
2015
Background: To describe optimism and sense of coherence in mothers and fathers of preschool children with cerebral palsy (CP), before and after participation in an intensified habilitation program. Methods: Forty-five parents of preschool children with CP answered the Life Orientation Test (LOT) and sense of coherence questionnaire (SOC) twice during one year. Results: Parents of the youngest CP children and those with high stress levels reported reduced optimism and sense of coherence at baseline. No statistically significant changes in LOT and SOC scores were found during the programme period. However, among mothers who reported clinically significant change, 67% reported more optimism af…
Implementation of a Positive Technology Application in Patients With Eating Disorders: A Pilot Randomized Control Trial.
2018
Background: Positive psychological interventions (PPIs) have been suggested to produce benefits in patients with eating disorders (ED) by improving well-being, which might act as a buffer of the harmful effects caused by the disorder. Best Possible Self (BPS) is a PPI which consists of writing and envisioning a future where everything has turned out in the best possible way. In this regard, positive technology (PT) can be of considerable benefit as it allows to implement specific PPIs that have already shown efficacy. Objective: This study tested the preliminary efficacy of the BPS exercise implemented through a PT application and carried out for 1 month, in improving positive functioning m…
Unrealistic Optimism in the Time of Coronavirus Pandemic: May It Help to Kill, If So—Whom: Disease or the Person?
2020
Objective: The results of numerous empirical studies have showed the occurrence of so-called unrealistic optimism. Thus, we aimed to investigate whether in the situation of an imminent coronavirus pandemic, people would still perceive themselves as being less exposed to the disease than others. Methods: Survey studies were conducted to examine the level of unrealistic optimism. Participants (n = 171, 67.3% of women) in a subjective way judged the risk of their coronavirus infection and the likelihood that this would happen to an average student of the same sex from their class. The survey was conducted in three waves: prior to the announcement of the first case of coronavirus (2&ndash
Predicting presenteeism via effort-reward imbalance and dispositional optimism: Is it the interaction that matters? Results from The Saxony Longitudi…
2019
BACKGROUND The importance of experienced work stress and individual traits as well as their interplay is analyzed with regard to dysfunctional coping behavior in case of sickness. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine the predictive capability of effort-reward imbalance (ERI) including overcommitment, meaning the intrinsic propensity in terms of excessive work-related expenditure (OC), in consideration of dispositional optimism/pessimism on presenteeism. METHODS A total of 353 men and women aged 38 from the 25th panel wave of The Saxony Longitudinal Study in 2011 were included in the analysis. Effort-reward imbalance (ERI) including overcommitment was assessed with the Effort-Rewar…
Item Response Theory Analysis of the Life Orientation Test-Revised: Age and Gender Differential Item Functioning Analyses
2015
This study is aimed at testing the measurement properties of the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) for the assessment of dispositional optimism by employing item response theory (IRT) analyses. The LOT-R was administered to a large sample of 2,862 Italian adults. First, confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated the theoretical conceptualization of the construct measured by the LOT-R as a single bipolar dimension. Subsequently, IRT analyses for polytomous, ordered response category data were applied to investigate the items’ properties. The equivalence of the items across gender and age was assessed by analyzing differential item functioning. Discrimination and severity parameters indic…
Research on Unrealistic Optimism among HoReCa Workers as a Possible Future Hotspot of Infections
2021
As we are facing a new surge of the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19, there is an urgent need for research to reduce the harm before this next wave hits. In the present paper, we present data that is alarming. We have found that HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, and catering services) workers, who are highly exposed to many new social interactions in close contact, present an unrealistic optimism (UO) bias: they perceive themselves as less at risk to this virus in comparison to others. From the literature, we already know that individuals holding this view are less involved in preventive actions and present more risky behaviors. In the face of the delta variant, this leads to the conc…
Entrepreneurial optimism and survival
2012
This paper uses entrepreneurs’ survival expectations around the time of market entry and subsequent venture exits to study entrepreneurial optimism. Using data on a large number of nascent entrepreneurs in the US and start-ups in Finland, we find that new entrepreneurs survival beliefs are on average optimistic but heterogeneous: Some are excessively optimistic, whereas a small subset holds unbiased beliefs. Entrepreneurial optimism is increasing in the relative (interpersonal) optimism and decreasing in entrepreneurs level of education and industry experience in both countries. At least in Finland, those holding optimistic views are more likely to transit into entrepreneurship.
Effective pursuit of personal goals: The fostering effect of dispositional optimism on goal commitment and goal progress
2015
Abstract Personal goals play a leading role in directing behavior and influencing well-being. Thus, it is important to assess goal dimensions promoting effective goal pursuit. The current research aimed at identifying the best predictors of goal pursuit, operationalized as perceived goal progress, among goal-related variables and individual differences in dispositional optimism. Two studies examined the influence of optimism on goal progress, commitment, expectancy, value, and conflict. Moreover, the mediation effect of expectancy in the relationships among optimism, commitment and progress was assessed. Participants in the first cross-sectional study were 283 young people (19–32 years old)…
Turning Migration Disadvantage into Educational Advantage. Autobiographies of Successful Students with an Immigrant Background
2018
The article focuses on unexpected pathways of successful students with an immigrant background, in order to investigate the implication of this phenomenon from a theoretical, methodological and empirical point of view. After a review of the main sociological studies on “immigrant optimism” towards educational success, I will reflect on biographical approach, particularly suitable to study this topic. A on-going research project based on the collection of educational autobiographies of successful immigrant-origin students, attending upper secondary schools in Northern Italy, is presented. Then, the story of Destiny, a 16 years-old girl with Moroccan origin, is used as a case study to explore…
Healthy Behavior as a Mediator in the Relationship Between Optimism and Life Satisfaction in Health Sciences Students: A Cross-Sectional Study
2021
Aleksandra M Rogowska,1 Paweł F Nowak,2 Aleksandra Kwaśnicka1 1Institute of Psychology, University of Opole, Opole, Poland; 2Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Opole University of Technology, Opole, PolandCorrespondence: Aleksandra M RogowskaInstitute of Psychology, University of Opole, ul. Staszica 1, Room 312, Opole, 45-052, PolandTel +48 604732259Email arogowska@uni.opole.plPurpose: This study examines the indirect relationship between optimism and life satisfaction via healthy behavior among health sciences students.Participants and Methods: The cross-sectional study involved 349 health sciences students, including 58% of women, ranging in age between…