Abstract
The focus of the present study lies on optimism and its relationships to the components of subjective well-being, i.e. global life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect. We investigated the direct and indirect (via affectivity) effects of optimism on global life satisfaction in the Swedish middleaged women at two time points (age 43 and 49), and in the Lithuanian middle-aged women. For this purpose, structural equation modelling was used and the fit indices were compared between two cognitive-affective models. The best fitting model suggests that the direct effect of optimism on global life satisfaction is stronger than that via affectivity. The result was found both in the Swedish sample at two time points and in the Lithuanian sample where the indirect effect was very low and insignificant. The indirect effect via negative affectivity was significant in the Swedish samples at both time points while the indirect effect via positive affectivity was low but significant only in the Swedish sample at age 43. In further analyses we studied the stability of optimism and the components of general SWB in the Swedish sample over a six-year period and a mean difference in optimism in two samples of women, Swedish and Lithuanian. Data analyses showed varying stability of the studied concepts with the highest stability coefficient being for negative affect and the lowest being for global life satisfaction. Cross-cultural analysis of mean difference in optimism showed that the Swedish women at age 43 reported significantly higher optimism as compared to their Lithuanian counterparts.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akaike, H. (1987). Factor analysis and AIC. Psychometrika, 52, 317–332.
Bentler, P. M., & Bonett, D. G. (1980). Significance test and goodness-of–fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88, 588–606.
Bergman, L. R. (2000). Women’s health, work, and education in a life-span perspective. Technical report 1: Theoretical background and overview of the data collection. Reports from the project individual development and adaptation, No. 70. Stockholm: Department of Psychology, Stockholm University.
Brooke, P. P., Russell, D. W., & Price, J. L. (1988). Discriminant validation of measures of job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2, 139–145.
Browne, M. W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In K. A. Bollen & J. S. Long (Eds.), Testing structural equation models (pp. 136–162). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2002a). Optimism. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 231–243). Oxford: University Press.
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2002b). Optimism, pessimism, and self-regulation. In E. C. Chang (Ed.), Optimism & pessimism. Implications for theory, research, and practice (pp. 31–52). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Chang, E. C. (1996). Cultural differences in optimism, pessimism and coping: Predictors of subsequent adjustment in Asian American and Caucasian American college students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43(1), 113–123.
Chang, E. C. (2002). Cultural differences in psychological distress in Asian and Caucasian American college students: Examining the role of cognitive and affective concomitants. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49(1), 47–59.
Chang, E. C., & Sanna, L. J. (2001). Optimism, pessimism, and positive and negative affectivity in middle aged adults: A test of a cognitive-affective model of psychological adjustment. Psychology and Aging, 16(3), 524–531.
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1980). Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being: Happy and unhappy people. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 668–678.
Daukantaitė, D., & Bergman, L. R. (2005). Childhood roots of women’s subjective well-being: The role of optimism. European Psychologist, 10, 287–297.
Daukantaitė, D., & Zukauskiene, R. (2006). Swedish and Lithuanian employed women’s subjective well-being. International Journal of Social Welfare, 15, S23–S30.
Delhey, J. (2004). Life satisfaction in the enlarged Europe. Office for Official Publications of the European: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well–being. Psychological Bulletin, 95(3), 542–575.
Diener, E., & Suh, E. M. (1998). Subjective well–being and age: An international analysis. In K. W. Schaie & M. p. Lawton (Eds.), Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics (Vol. 17, pp. 304–324). New York: Springer.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75.
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well–being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276–302.
Enker, M. S. (1987). Attitudinal and normative variables as predictors of cheating behavior. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 18, 315–330.
EuroBarometer 69. Public Opinion in the European Union. Spring 2008. http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb69/eb69_lt_exe.pdf. Accessed 16 Feb 2010.
Fischer, R., & Chalmers, A. (2008). Is optimism universal? A meta-analytical investigation of optimism levels across 22 nations. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 378–382.
Inglehart, R., & Klingemann, H. D. (2000). Genes, culture, and happiness. In E. Diener & E. Suh (Eds.), Subjective well-being across cultures (pp. 165–184). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jöreskog, K., & Sörbom, D. (1996). Lisrel 8: User’s reference guide. Chicago, IL: Scientific Software International, Inc.
Koivumaa-Honkanen, H., Kaprio, J., Honkanen, R. J., Viinamäki, H., and Koskenvuo, M. (2005). The stability of life satisfaction in a 15-year follow-up of adult Finns healthy at baselineBMC Psychiatry, 5 (4).
Krueger, J., & Heckhausen, J. (1993). Personality development across the adult life span: Subjective conceptions vs cross-sectioinal contrasts. Journal of Gerontology, 48(3), P100–P108.
Lai, J. C. L., & Yue, X. (2000). Measuring optimism in Hong Kong and mainland Chinese with the revised life orientation test. Personality and Individual Differences, 28(4), 781–796.
Lucas, R. E., Diener, E., & Suh, E. (1996). Discriminant validity of well-being measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(3), 616–628.
Magnus, K., Diener, E., Fujita, F., & Pavot, W. (1993). Extraversion and neuroticism as predictors of objective life events: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1046–1053.
Magnusson, D. (1988). Individual development from an interactional perspective. A longitudinal study, Vol. 1. In D. Magnusson (Ed.), Paths through life. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Mäkikangas, A., Kinnunen, U., & Feldt, T. (2004). Self-esteem, dispositional optimism, and health: Evidence from cross-lagged data on employees. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 556–575.
Marshall, G. N., Wortman, C. B., Kusulas, J. W., Hervig, L. K., & Vickers, R. R., Jr. (1992). Distinguishing optimism from pessimism: Relations to fundamental dimensions of mood and personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62(6), 1067–1074.
McCrae, R. R. (1983). Extraversion is not a filter, neuroticism is not an outcome: A reply to Lawton. Experimental Aging Research, 9, 73–76.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Rusting, C. (1999). Gender differences in well-being. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Foundations of hedonic psychology: Scientific perspectives on enjoyment and suffering (pp. 330–350). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Olàh, A. (2002). Positive traits: Flow and psychological immunity. Washington: Paper presented at the First International Positive Conference. DC.
Podsakoff, P. M., & Organ, D. W. (1986). Self-reports in organizational research: Problems and prospects. Journal of Management, 12, 531–544.
Räikkönen, K., Matthews, K. A., Flory, J. D., Owens, J. F., & Gump, B. B. (1999). Does optimism influence mood and ambulatory blood pressure during everyday life?: A study of middle-aged men and women using experiential sampling method. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 104–113.
Robinson-Whelen, S., Kim, C., MacCallum, R., & Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (1997). Distinguishing optimism from pessimism in older adults: Is it more important to be optimistic or to not be pessimistic? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1345–1353.
Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1985). Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies. Health Psychology, 4, 219–247.
Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1993). On the power of positive thinking: The benefits of being optimistic. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2, 26–30.
Scheier, M. F., Weintraub, J. K., & Carver, C. S. (1986). Coping with stress: Divergent strategies of optimists and pessimists. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1257–1264.
Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994). Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): A reevaluation of the life orientation test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1063–1078.
Schimmack, U., Diener, E., & Oishi, S. (2002). Life-satisfaction is a momentary judgment and a stable personality characteristic: The use of chronically accessible and stable sources. Journal of Personality, 70, 345–385.
Schoon, I., Hansson, L., & Salmela-Aro, K. (2005). Combining work and family life: Life satisfaction among married and divorced men and women in Estonia, Finland, and the UK. European Psychologist, 10, 309–319.
Spector, P. E. (2006). Method variance in organizational research: Truth or urban legend? Organizational Research Methods, 9, 221–232.
Suh, E., Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Triandis, H. C. (1998). The shifting basis of life satisfaction judgments across cultures: Emotions versus norms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 482–493.
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1984). Negative Affectivity: The disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 465–490.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070.
Wood, W., Rhodes, N., & Whelan, M. (1989). Sex differences in positive well-being: A consideration of emotional style and marital status. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 249–264.
You, J., Fung, H. H. L., & Isaacowitz, D. M. (2009). Age differences in dispositional optimism: A cross-cultural study. European Journal of Ageing, 6, 247–252.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Prof. Lars R. Bergman for the possibility to use data from the longitudinal research program—Individual Development and Adaptation (IDA). Daiva Daukantaitė thanks Vilmante Pakalniskiene for her helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. The authors thank also two reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Daukantaitė, D., Zukauskiene, R. Optimism and Subjective Well-Being: Affectivity Plays a Secondary Role in the Relationship Between Optimism and Global Life Satisfaction in the Middle-Aged Women. Longitudinal and Cross-Cultural Findings. J Happiness Stud 13, 1–16 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-010-9246-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-010-9246-2