The assessment of components of optimism by POSO-E

This paper presents the POSO-E which is a self-report questionnaire for the assessment of three components of optimism: personal, social and self-efficacy optimism. Three studies which were conducted for extending the existing set of scales and for obtaining validity information are described. In the first study the development of the scale for measuring self-efficacy optimism, which was added to the other scales, is described. In the second study correlations between the optimism scales on the one hand and the scales of the Freiburger-Personality-Inventory [Fahrenberg, J., Hampel, R., & Selg, H. (1994). Das Freiburger Personlichkeitsinventar FPI.6. Aufl. Gottingen: Hogrefe.], the State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory [Laux, L., Glanzmann, P., Schaffner, P., & Spielberger, C. D. (1981). State- Trait-Angstinventar (STAI). Weinheim: Beltz] and the Beck-Depression-Inventory [Hautzinger, M., Bailer, M., Worall, H., & Keller, F., (1994). Beck-Depressions-Inventar (BDI). Bern: Huber] were obtained. The third study was designed to investigate the relationships between the optimism scales and the NEO questionnaire [Borkenau, P., & Ostendorf, F., (1993). NEO-Funf-Faktoren Inventar (NEO-FFI) nach Costa und McCrea, Handanweisung. Gottingen: Hogrefe]. High degrees of internal consistency were observed for the scales of personal, social and self-efficacy optimism. The correlations between the optimism scales and the personality scales corresponded to expectation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.