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Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1026/0012-1924/a000089

Das Konstrukt Optimismus-Pessimismus ist aufgrund seiner vielfältigen Beziehungen zu gesellschaftlich relevanten Prozessen und Phänomen nicht nur für Psychologen, sondern auch für Forscher anderer Disziplinen von Interesse, zum Beispiel für Sozialwissenschaftler, Ökonomen und Gesundheitsforscher. In deren Untersuchungen sind aufgrund starker monetärer Restriktionen insbesondere ökonomische Operationalisierungen gefragt. Auf der Grundlage der weit verbreiteten Konstruktdefintion von Scheier und Carver (1985), Optimismus-Pessimismus als generalisierte Erwartungen zukünftiger Ereignisse, wurde eine ökonomische Skala mit zwei Items entwickelt (Skala Optimismus-Pessimismus-2, SOP2). Die Formulierungen wurden in einem kognitiven Prestest für die anvisierte Zielgruppe, die deutschsprachige Bevölkerung, optimiert und anschließend in zwei umfangreichen heterogenen Stichproben validiert: einer Quotenstichprobe (N = 539) und einer Zufallsstichprobe (N = 1 134). Verschiedene Aspekte der psychometrischen Güte wurden geprüft. Die berichteten Befunde sprechen für die Reliabilität und Konstruktvalidität der SOP2. Auch mit der entwickelten ultrakurzen Operationalisierung ist es möglich die aus der Literatur bekannten Beziehungen im nomologischen Netzwerk des Konstrukts Optimismus-Pessimismus adäquat abzubilden.


Development and validation of an ultrashort measure for the construct of optimism-pessimism–The Scale Optimism-Pessimism-2 (SOP2)

Besides psychologists, researchers of different disciplines, e. g., social scientists, economists, or public health experts, are interested in the construct of optimism-pessimism because it explains or predicts many socially relevant processes and phenomena. Research designs require economic and efficient measures of the construct. Using the widely accepted definition of Scheier und Carver (1985)–optimism-pessimism as generalized expectancies concerning future events–we constructed a scale containing only two items (Scale Optimism-Pessimism-2, SOP2). In a cognitive pretest, we optimized items for the targeted population, German speaking respondents from the total population. Two large and heterogeneous samples were used to validate the SOP2, a quota sample (N = 539) and a random sample (N = 1 134). Different aspects of the construct validity were tested. Results corroborate the construct validity of the SOP2. Correlations known from the literature can be adequately replicated with the newly developed ultrashort scale.

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