Self-report measure

Optimism

Optimism uses 10 International Personality Item Pool statements to assess Optimism.

You learn how hopeful your expectations about the future are.

For anyone curious about how hopeful they tend to feel about the future.

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Pay $4 before you start. The full report and PDF are included.

Your answers stay private.

It comes from health psychology research on expecting good outcomes.

Sample result, example data. Illustrative chart with invented scores; it does not describe any real respondent.

What this test is

Welcome. Optimism uses 10 International Personality Item Pool statements to assess Optimism.

The measure

It has 10 items, each answered on a 5-point (Very Inaccurate … Very Accurate) scale.

International Personality Item Pool (ipip.ori.org). Source scale: Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994.

At a glance

Items

Response scale

5-point (Very Inaccurate … Very Accurate)

Est. time

~1 min

Access

Pay before you start · $4, or $2 to repeat · full report and PDF included

What it measures

Ten statements describe a general expectation about the future: usually expecting the best in uncertain times, believing that good things will happen to oneself, and looking on the bright side, along with statements worded the other way, such as rarely counting on things going one's way. The scale concerns a broad outlook rather than expectations about any particular event.

Scheier and Carver described dispositional optimism as a generalized expectation of good outcomes, which influences whether people persist toward goals or disengage when difficulties arise. Scheier, Carver and Bridges (1994) revised their Life Orientation Test, the standard measure. The statements here come from the public-domain International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) and were keyed to parallel it.

The ratings are combined into a single score. Higher scores describe a more hopeful, positive expectation about the future; lower scores describe a more guarded or pessimistic one. Research has associated optimism with active coping and well-being, though a measure of realism is also valuable.

The scale is used in health psychology, positive psychology and counseling. On this site, the Depression scale describes a pessimistic, low-mood disposition, the IPIP-VIA-R includes Hope among the character strengths, and the WHO-5 Well-Being Index measures recent well-being.

Validity evidence

Optimism shows robust convergent validity with well-being, coping, and physical health outcomes across longitudinal studies (Scheier & Carver, 1985; Rasmussen et al., 2009).

Example item

“Just know that I will be a success.”

Very InaccurateModerately InaccurateNeither Accurate nor InaccurateModerately AccurateVery Accurate

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Scoring & interpretation

Your report explains each of your scale scores in plain language.

References

Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1985). Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies. Health Psychology, 4(3), 219-247.
Goldberg, L. R. (1999). A broad-bandwidth, public domain, personality inventory. Personality Psychology in Europe, 7, 7-28.

Sample report preview

The report shows your total score and where it falls across the range of possible scores, followed by a plain-language explanation of what scores in that region describe. Where the instrument has published interpretive bands, the report names the band and what it means. It closes with notes on how to read the result and on when a conversation with a qualified professional may be useful.

Report contents
Section	What it shows
Score	Your scale score, computed with the published scoring key.
Comparisons	How your scores compare with a published comparison group.

The test and full report with a downloadable copy are $4.

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