خوش بینی و پنج عامل بزرگ شخصیت: فراتر از روان رنجورخویی و برون گرایی

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the Big Five factors of personality and dispositional optimism. Data from five samples were collected (Total N = 4332) using three different measures of optimism and five different measures of the Big Five. Results indicated strong positive relationships between optimism and four of the Big Five factors: Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Agreeableness and Conscientiousness explained additional variance in dispositional optimism over and above Neuroticism and Extraversion, providing evidence for the complexity of optimism. The position of optimism in the larger web of human personality constructs is discussed.

As interest in positive psychology has grown in recent years (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000 and Seligman et al., 2005), the construct of optimism has received an increased amount of research attention (Peterson, 2000). Optimism is typically defined in terms of positive expectations about future events. For research purposes, optimism is often viewed as a bipolar individual difference variable ranging from pessimistic at the low end to optimistic at the high end, although some have argued that optimism and pessimism are relatively independent (Herzberg et al., 2006, Marshall et al., 1992 and Zuckerman, 2003). Various approaches to operationalizing optimism have been put forth, including dispositional optimism (Carver and Scheier, 2002, Scheier and Carver, 1985 and Scheier et al., 1994), explanatory style (Buchanan and Seligman, 1995 and Seligman, 1991), and hope (Snyder, 1994). Research has demonstrated that optimists are psychologically well-adjusted and satisfied with life, engage in adaptive behaviors, and tend to have better physical health (Rasmussen et al., 2009, Scheier and Carver, 1992 and Scheier et al., 2001). While the outcomes of optimism have been studied quite extensively, the position of optimism in the larger web of human personality constructs is less well understood (Peterson, 2000). Along these lines, investigators have called for more research aimed at understanding the relationship between optimism and other well-established personality constructs (Boland and Cappeliez, 1997, Carver and Scheier, 2003, Marshall et al., 1994 and Milligan, 2003). The Big Five model of personality has steadily emerged over the past twenty-five years as a comprehensive taxonomy of individual differences in human personality (John and Srivastava, 1999 and Wiggins and Trapnell, 1997), and thus provides a standard framework within which many other specific personality constructs can be better understood. 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. The optimism construct has most often been linked to low Neuroticism and high Extraversion/Positive Emotionality (Boland and Cappeliez, 1997, Marshall et al., 1992 and Williams, 1992). Much of the research in this area has focused on whether or not optimism–pessimism adds anything over and above Neuroticism to the prediction of relevant mental and physical health outcomes (Scheier et al., 1994, Scheier et al., 1999 and Smith et al., 1989). Although the majority of research concerning relationships between optimism and the Big Five factors has centered on Neuroticism and Extraversion, some investigators have found significant correlations between optimism and other major factors. In a study with undergraduate students conducted by Milligan (2003), four different measures of optimism had modest positive correlations with Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness as measured by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992), and strong negative relationships with Neuroticism. Marshall et al. (1994) and Ebert, Tucker, and Roth (2002) obtained similar results using the Life Orientation Test (LOT; Scheier & Carver, 1985) and the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R; Scheier et al., 1994). In a study with undergraduates who took the Adolescent Personal Style Inventory, Lounsbury, Saudargas, and Gibson (2004) found modest positive correlations with Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, and a strong positive correlation with Emotional Stability. Segerstrom, Castañeda, and Spencer (2003) assessed optimism using the LOT-R and a measure of academic optimism and, in addition to the typical significant relationships with Neuroticism and Extraversion, obtained strong positive correlations with Conscientiousness as measured by the NEO-PI-R. Of the studies mentioned above, only Milligan (2003) set out explicitly to examine the relationship between optimism and the Big Five model of personality. Because research has demonstrated that optimism results in a number of positive physical, psychological, and behavioral outcomes, it is critical to gain a deeper understanding of its relationship with basic factors of personality, and perhaps gain insight into potential antecedents of optimism. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to conduct a more thorough investigation of the relationship between the Big Five factors of personality and the construct of optimism by examining a number of various Big Five and optimism measures across multiple samples. Given the well-established relationship between optimism and both Neuroticism and Extraversion, emphasis was placed on examining the added effects of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness in the prediction of optimism. Optimism was operationalized in the present study as a bipolar, dispositional construct. Data from five different samples were examined involving multiple measures of dispositional optimism and the Big Five. Based on previous research findings already discussed, optimism was hypothesized to be positively related to Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, and negatively related to Neuroticism. No clear hypothesis concerning the relationship between optimism and Openness emerged based on past research and current theoretical understanding of these constructs. However, based on the modest positive correlations found by Lounsbury et al. (2004), optimism was expected to be positively related to Openness.