DIFFERENTIAL PREDICTIVE POWER OF THE POSITIVELY VERSUS THE NEGATIVELYWORDED ITEMS OF THE LIFE ORIENTATION TEST

A self-report measure of dispositional optimism, the Life Orientation Test, was administered to a group of 202 Hong Kong undergraduates. Con sistent with prior findings, factor analysis yielded a two-factor solu tion with all positively worded items loaded on the first factor and a ll the negatively worded items loaded on the second. Prediction of phy sical symptom reports from scores on the two subscales was then tested with 85 subjects randomly selected from the original sample. Only the complete test and the subscale defined by the positively phrased item s predicted symptom levels concurrently as well as prospectively over 3 wk. The negative subscale suggested by previous research as tapping pessimism rather than dispositional optimism showed no significant cor relation with symptom levels. Moreover, when scores of the positive ra ther than the negative subscale were controlled, the significant corre lation between scores on the Life Orientation Test and symptom reports was eliminated. These findings suggested a multidimensional view of t he test and that the positive subscale may be sufficient to measure op timism validly. Implications of these for the personality dimensions o f positive versus negative affectivity are also discussed.