Dimensionality and content of optimism-pessimism analyzed in terms of the pad temperament model

Optimism-pessimism (assessed with the Revised Life Orientation Test, LOTR) was analyzed using the Pleasure-Arousability-Dominance (PAD) Temperament Model. Correlation between opposite (optimism vs. pessimism) poles, when corrected for attenuation, was −0.82. Factor analysis of the LOTR yielded a single factor. Also, opposing poles of the LOTR yielded nearly identical, but opposite, that is, mirror-image sets of PAD components: Optimism consisted primarily of pleasantness and, secondarily, of dominance; pessimism included unpleasantness and submissiveness. The high negative inter-pole correlation and mirror-image contents of the two poles showed the LOTR to be unidimensional and bi-polar. The entire LOTR, when scored negatively (for “pessimism”) differed from measures of Trait Anxiety, Neuroticism, and Depression. The anxious were more arousable and less dominant than pessimists; neurotics were more arousable than pessimists; the depressed were less dominant than pessimists. When scored positively (for “optimism”) the LOTR differed from Extraversion: extraverts were more dominant and more arousable than optimists. Overall, findings illustrated uses of the PAD Temperament Model for comparing and contrasting personality scales and indicated its possible uses for studies of individual reactions to stress or illness.