Optimism, pessimism and “fighting spirit”: a new approach to assessing expectancy and adaptation

The present study describes the construction and validation of a new scale for measuring optimism, pessimism and “fighting spirit”, entitled the Positive And Negative Expectancy Questionnaire (PANEQ). Principal axis factor analysis of an initial pool of items generated by a scenario study yielded three factors, labelled negative affect/pessimism, fighting spirit and positive affect/optimism, all of which showed high internal (coefficient alpha) and re-test reliability. The original factor analysis was subsequently replicated in a separate sample using confirmatory factor analysis, and a structural equation model for the relationship between PANEQ and three measures of health and well-being provided evidence for discriminate validity of the three scales.