Browsing by Subject "optimismi"
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(2015)Objectives: Optimism is usually defined as a stable outcome expectancy. Optimism is known to be positively connected to well-being and health but there are few studies to examine the development of optimism. Traumatic experiences are known to have various negative effects on well-being and mental health. There are also studies that show an association between traumas and personality development and change. Because optimism and pessimism are thought to be concepts similar to personality traits, it is justifiable to study if traumas are also related to optimism and/or pessimism. There are no studies to investigate this earlier. The aim of this study is to examine whether lifetime trauma experiences are associated with optimism-pessimism in early adulthood and whether different traumas or the age of trauma experience have differential effects. Methods: This study is part of the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study (AYLS). All newborns born between 1985 and 1986 in the county of Uusimaa, Finland, who needed hospital care during ten days after birth were invited to participate. Also controls not admitted to the hospital wards were recruited. The current 25-year-old follow-up study consisted of 902 participants who completed a self-report questionnaire for optimism (LOT-R) and a retrospective self-report for traumatic experiences (TEC). The associations between lifetime traumas and optimism-pessimism in early adulthood were analyzed statistically using linear regression and analysis of variance and t tests when examining different groups for the amount of traumas and for different age groups. Results and conclusions: Reporting of any traumatic experience was associated to lower optimism and higher pessimism. The more traumatic experiences one had the lower was optimism and the higher was pessimism. By contrast, the age of traumatic experiences was not statistically significantly associated with the trait of optimism-pessimism. These results remained after controlling demographic variables. However, after controlling neuroticism, only the connection between emotional traumas and optimism-pessimism remained statistically significant. Because optimism and pessimism are known to have an impact on well-being and coping in future adversities, the association between traumas and optimism-pessimism can be considered noteworthy. The results of this study give ground for discussion about whether optimism interventions could be targeted to people who have experienced traumatic events to reduce the negative effects of trauma.
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(2015)Previous studies show that personality can affect success at work. However, there have been relatively few prior studies on the relationship between success at work and certain personality traits, such as optimism and self-directedness. Current study examined the relationship between optimism, self-directedness and success at work in 3 to 10 years follow-up. Success at work was measured by unemployment status, income and occupational status. Women and men were analyzed separately as previous studies have reported gender differences in personality-success at work relationship. Furthermore, the results were examined after controlling the level of education. The hypothesis was that optimism and self-directedness would predict lower unemployment, higher income and higher occupational status. Participants were from the Young Finns study that began in 1980. There were in total 3596 participants aged 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 at the study baseline in 1980. In this current study 1576 participants (993 women, 583 men) were followed from 1997 to 2011 when they all were adults. Self-directedness was measured in 1997 and optimism in 2001. Unemployment and occupational status were reported in 2001, 2007 and 2011. Income was reported in 2007 and 2011. Results showed that optimism and self-directedness were associated with success at work. Low optimism predicted unemployment, especially in women. High optimism and high self-directedness predicted higher income and higher occupational status. However, the associations between self-directedness with income and occupational status weakened after the level of education was controlled. High optimism also predicted changes in income. When analyzing changes in income separately in women and men, the result was significant only in men. Thus it seems that optimism affects the career of an individual positively as optimists continuously find new opportunities to advance in their career and earn more money. In practice the results suggest to reflect that objective success at work might be improved by interventions that lead to improving skills in goal making and mindfulness.
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(2015)The aim of this study was to examine how the students' commitment and assessments of occupational and educational plans changed during a course in folk high school and how optimism was related to the possible change. Plans related to future occupation and education are part of personal goals that people set for the future. Previous experiences and knowledge, own interests and plans affect goal setting. Also personality influence the goals, and optimists and pessimists differ in the way of setting goals. Optimists usually expect things to go well and as wanted, and pessimists usually expect things to go badly and not as wanted. The data were collected with a questionnaire in Finnish folk high schools in two phases. The first phase was implemented in the autumn of 2000 and the second phase in the spring of 2001. In this study, the sample was limited to the students of general education (N = 2793), and consists mostly of adolescents and young adults. The data was analysed using SPSS 21 and the change was examined with paired samples t-test, and also with hierarchical regression analysis. In this study, the change of commitment and assessments was examined between the first measurement, which was conducted at the beginning of the course, and the second measurement, which was conducted at the end of the course. Also, how optimism at the first measurement was related to the change, was examined. The results showed that students reported to commit themselves more to educational plans, to explore more options of occupation and education, and to know more about different options after attending the course but they did not report more commitment to occupational plans than before. Optimism was only related to the increased commitment to educational plans; the more optimistic students were at the beginning, the more committed to educational plans they were at the end. The study shows that general studies in folk high school gets students to commit more to their future educational plans, increases knowledge of different occupational and educational options and also, gets students to explore more options. The study also shows that optimism contributes positively to students' commitment to their plans concerning education.
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