Dispositional Optimism in Chinese People: What Does the Life Orientation Test Measure?

The Life Orientation Test was back‐translated to Chinese and administered to a sample of college students ( N = 314) and a sample of normal adults ( N = 306) along with measures of personality and symptoms. When subject to factor analysis, the positive items (representing optimism) and the negative items (representing pessimism) emerged as two separate factors. Empirically, optimism and pessimism were moderately correlated and had unique contributions to the explanation of personality and symptom measures, so that the total score of C‐LOT was a better predictor of criterion measures than either optimism or pessimism alone. However, C‐LOT's relationship with symptoms was eliminated after negative affectivity was controlled in the student sample, but not in the adult sample, thus suggesting some confounding with negative affectivity. Further research is required to improve the measurement of optimism in Chinese people and to clarify the relationship between optimism and pessimism.