La balance optimisme/pessimisme : détermination des styles d’expectations envers le futur en se basant sur la bidimensionnalité du Life Orientation Test–Revised

Abstract

IntroductionSince the 1980s, two major conceptions of the representation of optimism and pessimism have been disputed: a unidimensional structure and a bidimensional structure. ObjectiveThe bidimensional properties of the LOT-R in French are further explored in order to determine the styles of expectations towards the future according to the levels of optimism and pessimism. MethodA study carried out on a sample of 913 adults from France (72.7% women, M=41.14years) proposes (1) to analyze the factorial structure of the instrument, the relationship between the two constructs as well as their separability, (2) to explore the styles of expectations according to the levels of positive and negative expectations by latent profile analysis, (3) to study the influence of socio-demographic factors (age, sex, socio-professional category) on cognitive expectations about the future. ResultsThe confirmatory factor analyzes establish the replicability of the bidimensional latent structure of the instrument across age and gender groups, with the separability between the two constructs increasing with advancing age. The latent profile analysis supports the existence of three styles of expectations towards the future within the sample: the optimistic style, the mixed style and the pessimistic style. The MIMIC model demonstrates that increasing age and socio-professional category are determinants of levels of optimism and pessimism as well as of expectation styles. ConclusionThis research makes it possible to use the styles of expectations towards the future which empirically models the balance between the levels of optimism and pessimism.