Syftet med den här studien har varit att undersöka lagidrottare och idrottsutövare som utför sin idrott individuellt och deras attityder gentemot olika typer av mål, samt att undersöka om det fanns något samband mellan attityden till målen och optimism. Som avgränsning valdes friidrottare och fotbollsspelare på elitnivå, och sex olika typer av mål. Studien som gjordes var en enkätstudie som analyserades med hjälp av SPSS 15.0. Resultatet visade att det fanns skillnader mellan fotbollsspelarna och friidrottarnas attityder gentemot målen, men att det inte gick att urskilja några mönster som att fotbollspelarna skulle vara mer resultatinriktade. Studien visade även att friidrottarna var mer optimistiska än fotbollsspelarna i avseende på LOT, men att både grupperna hade ett högt medelvärde på testet. Det visade sig även att det inte fanns något samband mellan idrotterna, attityden till målen och optimism.

Data shows that many inventors continue to expend resources on their inventions even after they have received expert advice suggesting that they cease effort. Using a sample of inventors seeking outside advice from a Canadian evaluative agency, this paper examines how overconfidence, optimism, and illusion of control explain this fact. While overconfidence did not have a significant effect on inventor's decisions, illusion of control and optimism did have an effect. An additional interesting finding is that the more time people have spent working on inventions, the more likely they are to discount this expert advice.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka om det fanns något samband mellan optimism, personliga mål, personlighetsegenskaper och subjektivt välbefinnande. Totalt deltog 108 stycken högskolestudenter, (58 kvinnor och 50 män). Deltagarna besvarade fyra enkäter som mätte optimism, personliga mål, personlighetsegenskaper utifrån fem-faktor modellen samt subjektivt välbefinnande. En multipel regressionsanalys visade att optimism, neuroticism och samvetsgrannhet förklarar 43.1% av variansen i välbefinnande. Det förelåg ett indirekt samband mellan subjektivt välbefinnande och variablerna kognitiva närmande mål, extroversion och trevlighet, vilket tyder på att de medieras av variablerna i regressionsmodellen. Studien har för få deltagare och är en för homogen grupp för att man skall kunna generalisera resultatet. .

Fotboll är en av världens mest utövade idrotter och innefattar en miljardindustri där målet många gånger är att vinna, bli bäst och stå längst upp på pallen. Just eftersom det ställs så otroligt höga krav på idrottare anser jag den situationen är intressant att närmare undersöka. Den här studien belyser manliga idrottare inom fotbollen samt deras uppfattning angående krav respektive kontroll. Den utreder också om det finns ett positivt samband mellan optimism och uppfattningen angående krav och kontroll. Studien är genomförd med en kvantitativ metod baserad på 44 enkäter ifrån 3 lag. Då idrottsvetenskaplig forskning idag är ett stort fält finns det följaktligen mycket litteratur att läsa men jag har valt att fördjupa mig i teori angående stress, krav och kontroll. Utefter dessa teorier sker sedan en analys och diskussion av det empiriska materialet. Resultatet av studien pekar på att det finns ett positivt samband emellan kontroll och optimism vilket innebär att en optimist presterar bättre än en pessimist. / Soccer is one of the world’s most practiced sport and involve a billion dollar business where the vision, many times is to win, become the best and stand highest up on the winners’ stand. Because the demand is so high on a perpetrator I find this situation interesting to closer review. This study illustrates male perpetrator in soccer and theirs view regarding demand and control. The study also investigates if there is a positive relationship between optimism and the view regarding demand and control. The study is implemented with a quantitative method based on 44 surveys from 3 teams. When sport science today I a major field there is a lot literature to read but I have chosen to deepen my knowledge in theory concerning stress, demand and control. Along with these theories I will also analyze and discuss the empirical material. The result of the study indicates that there is a significant positive correlation between control and optimism witch means that an optimist performs better than a pessimist.

This correlational cross-sectional study investigated body image from a positive psychology viewpoint by examining variables that were predicted to contribute to positive body image in women and testing a model describing the relationships among the variables. Negative body image has been correlated with many psychological problems in the literature, but less research has examined positive body image. Some questions addressed include: Is there a relationship between secure attachment and positive body image? Do self-esteem and optimism act as intervening variables in the predicted relationship between secure attachment and positive body image? To address these questions, data from 97 women were used in a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Some of the hypotheses were supported, although the overall model was not. Secure attachment was found to be positively correlated with and predictive of self-esteem and optimism as hypothesized and in line with previous findings. Also as hypothesized, self-esteem and optimism were found to be moderately correlated. Self-esteem and optimism were not significantly related to body image in the SEM analysis and therefore the overall proposed model was not supported. In this sample, secure attachment was found to be the greatest predictor of positive body image. Attachment accounted for 40% of the variance in body image, 44% of the variance in optimism, and 25% of the variance in self-esteem.

<p> </p><p>Fotboll är en av världens mest utövade idrotter och innefattar en miljardindustri där målet många gånger är att vinna, bli bäst och stå längst upp på pallen. Just eftersom det ställs så otroligt höga krav på idrottare anser jag den situationen är intressant att närmare undersöka.</p><p>Den här studien belyser manliga idrottare inom fotbollen samt deras uppfattning angående krav respektive kontroll. Den utreder också om det finns ett positivt samband mellan optimism och uppfattningen angående krav och kontroll.</p><p>Studien är genomförd med en kvantitativ metod baserad på 44 enkäter ifrån 3 lag. Då idrottsvetenskaplig forskning idag är ett stort fält finns det följaktligen mycket litteratur att läsa men jag har valt att fördjupa mig i teori angående stress, krav och kontroll. Utefter dessa teorier sker sedan en analys och diskussion av det empiriska materialet.</p><p>Resultatet av studien pekar på att det finns ett positivt samband emellan kontroll och optimism vilket innebär att en optimist presterar bättre än en pessimist.</p><p> </p> / <p> </p><p>Soccer is one of the world’s most practiced sport and involve a billion dollar business where the vision, many times is to win, become the best and stand highest up on the winners’ stand. Because the demand is so high on a perpetrator I find this situation interesting to closer review.</p><p>This study illustrates male perpetrator in soccer and theirs view regarding demand and control. The study also investigates if there is a positive relationship between optimism and the view regarding demand and control.</p><p>The study is implemented with a quantitative method based on 44 surveys from 3 teams. When sport science today I a major field there is a lot literature to read but I have chosen to deepen my knowledge in theory concerning stress, demand and control. Along with these theories I will also analyze and discuss the empirical material.</p><p>The result of the study indicates that there is a significant positive correlation between control and optimism witch means that an optimist performs better than a pessimist.</p><p> </p>

Research has documented the age of first onset of depression is commonly in adolescence and young adulthood and that prepubertal onsets are occurring at an increasing rate. Thus, targeting interventions prior to this period of increased risk would maximize the opportunity to reduce the incidence of depression. To date, however, the limited research that has been done on protective factors has lacked some consensus and generalizability. This study focused on investigating potential individual and family protective factors and their roles in the development of depressive symptoms in early adolescent girls. More specifically, optimism was investigated as a possible mediator of the relationship between attributional style and depression. Furthermore, attributional style and family environment were hypothesized to moderate the effect of stress on depressive symptomatology. The participants of this study were 120 girls that were part of a school based cognitive behavioral group treatment study for girls with depression aged 9-14. Based on the ratings of symptoms by the girls and their caregivers, on a semi-structured diagnostic interview, two groups were identified: 1) girls that met the diagnostic criteria for a depressive disorder (n= 81), and 2) those that did not (control group; n= 39). Both samples also completed self-report measures of attributional style and family environment (i.e., cohesion, communication, and sociability), in addition to a projective measure which was coded for dispositional optimism. The results of this study suggested higher levels of optimism and more positive attributional styles independently predicted lower levels of depressive symptom severity; however, optimism did not impact the relationship between attributional style and depression. The results also demonstrated that girls who reported their families engage in more social/recreational activities had lower levels of depressive symptoms. Finally, increased life stress was not associated with increased levels of depression. The study's limitations, implications of the results, and recommendations for future research were discussed. / text

published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Alcohol use, because of its many negative consequences, is the number one health problem facing college students. Because of this, researchers have looked for factors associated with reduced drinking. Religiousness is one such factor. Religiousness is a complex, multidimensional construct, and while it tends to be negatively associated with alcohol use, research progress has been slow due to the tendency of researchers to poorly operationalize this construct and to design studies that fail to go beyond the bivariate relationship of religiousness and alcohol use. In order to address these shortcomings, this study will assess two dimensions of religiousness, religious commitment/motivation and religious consequences, and will test a model, presented by Koenig et al., (2001), that postulates religiousness works through mental health in order to reduce alcohol use. More specifically, this study will test optimism as a possible mediator and moderator of the relationship between religiousness and alcohol use. This study used archival data from 260 (202 female and 58 male) Caucasian, Christian, undergraduate college students who completed a battery of surveys that included measures of religiousness, optimism, and alcohol use. A factor analysis was conducted on one measure of religiousness, the short form of the Faith Maturity Scale. Also, optimism was tested as both a mediator and a moderator for both dimensions of religiousness in predicting alcohol use. Findings indicated optimism is not a significant mediator of the religiousness-alcohol use relationship because optimism did not meet the preconditions for a mediator as it was not associated with alcohol use in this sample. Also, optimism was not a significant moderator of religious commitment/motivation, but it did moderate the relationship of religious consequences and alcohol use. Finally, the two dimensions of religiousness interacted in predicting alcohol use. While both dimensions of religiousness were negatively associated with alcohol use throughout the findings, gender was a significant moderator in all significant interactions. Several implications follow from this study. First, greater specificity is needed regarding Koenig et al.s (2001) model specifically in regards to which third variables are associated with which health outcomes and to whom the model applies. Second, this study highlights the importance of a multidimensional assessment of religiousness. Finally, this study indicates specificity is needed regarding what religious interventions will be helpful for which genders.

Resilience is among the increasingly popular topics of interest in the literature. Although rooted in the developmental and clinical literature, there has been an expansion of conceptualisations for this construct from various research streams, including the occupational literature. However, due to the lack of a behaviour-oriented measure of employee-centric resilience, the conceptualisation adapted in the present study refers to employee resilience as developable capacities that can be facilitated by the organisation to positively cope, adapt and thrive in response to continuously changing work environments. Using a recently developed measure of resilience, this study investigated the effects of the two leadership behaviours of empowerment and contingent reward, as well as the moderating roles of dispositional proactivity and optimism as individual differences. Regression analysis on a sample of 369 professionals supported the hypotheses that employee resilience is contingent on the leader’s operational empowerment and on contingent reward behaviours. Results also confirmed the effect of proactivity and optimism in enhancing resilience, and the moderating role of proactive personality in enhancing relation between empowering leadership and follower’s resilience. Outcomes of the study were also discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications, and recommendations were made for future research into the topic.