LOTT Analysis

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Discussion
The importance dispositional optimism as a facilitator of well-being, positive health, flourishing, and quality of life has been documented in the positive psychology literature. Dispositional optimism evaluated by the LOT-R is a positive personality trait characterized by favorable personal future expectation (Scheier et al., 1994). It has been emphasized that optimism is a malleable personality trait and that pessimists can become optimists by utilizing techniques such as positive psychology interventions (Carver et al., 2009; Seligman, 2011). In contrast to traditional psychological interventions, positive psychology interventions have a strong focus on cultivating positive personality traits including dispositional optimism. …show more content…

Discrimination and threshold indices revealed that each item of the LOT-R was able to distinguish satisfactorily among student veterans with different levels of dispositional optimism and satisfactorily covered the spectrum of the latent trait. The IRT analysis identified that Optimism 1 (i.e., “In certain times, I usually expect the best.”) is slightly less effective in distinguishing among student veterans with different levels of dispositional optimism. This finding confirms the factor analysis finding that Optimism 1 (i.e., “In certain times, I usually expect the best.”) has less factor loading compared to other five items in the …show more content…

The results showed a pattern of correlations between the LOT-R and positive psychology constructs (i.e., hope, resilience, coping flexibility, secure attachment, life satisfaction, and flourishing) in the expected direction, supporting convergent validity. The negative relationship between the LOT-R and the constructs related to psychopathology (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress, and self-stigma) further supports its divergent validity. These findings are consistent with previous research findings that dispositional optimism was found to be positively correlated with well-being, quality of life, life satisfaction, and positive health outcomes, and negatively correlated with depression, anxiety, stress, and social estrangement (Chiesi et al., 2013; Geers et al., 2009; Peterson,

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