Optimism is good for you, this feature enhances physical well being, gets you more adjusted and satisfied with life. But what is the relationship between optimism and personality?
Of course the big five was used to answer this question. For those of you who don’t exactly know what the big five is
The Big Five model is an empirically-derived, ‘‘lexical’’ model of personality consisting of the following five major factors identified through analysis of adjectives from the English language: (1) Extraversion/Positive Emotionality, (2) Agreeableness, (3) Conscientiousness, (4) Emotional Stability versus Neuroticism, and (5) Openness/Intellect.
Optimism in this research was defined as a bipolar individual difference variable ranging from pessimistic at the low end to optimistic at the high end. They collected data from 5 samples, together 4332 individuals. They used three different measures of optimism and five different scales for the Big Five factors.
Optimism was positively correlated with extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and a significant negative correlation with neuroticism. Correlations with openness to experience was not very strong. Neuroticism and extraversion had the largest proportion of variance in the disposition of optimism. In their article the researchers also try to explain the possible relationship between personality and optimism. Not easy to grasp, not for the faint of heart but if your interested please read the full publication.
What does this add to all the research?
Mostly that optimism is not solely explained by neuroticism and extraversion.
Sharpe, J., Martin, N., & Roth, K. (2011). Optimism and the Big Five factors of personality: Beyond Neuroticism and Extraversion Personality and Individual Differences DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2011.07.033
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You know that the Big 5 has not been confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis?
In response to this, McCrae (one of the developers of the Big 5) claimed that confirmatory factor analysis was not appropriate for personality items, despite the fact that it has been successfully used for many other instruments.
For some reason, this does not appear to have affected the popularity of this model (which perhaps speaks to the statistical unsophistication of most psychologists).
It’s the most used scale for personality, that’s probably why results don’t seem shocking with this instrument, thnx
Optimism is the key to better life. As the old adage would say ~~after all, no one has ever gone blind by looking at the bright side of life.
Reasonable thinking. I agree that an optimistic outlook makes life more palatable and leads to less brooding over perceived personal injustices.