The financial cost for health care and lost productivity due to chronic pain has been estimated at over $70 billion per year. Researchers have attempted to discover the psychosocial and personality factors that discriminate between people who learn to cope well with chronic pain and those who have difficulty adjusting. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of perceived locus of control and dispositional optimism on chronic pain treatment outcomes. Subjects reported significantly lower post-treatment pain levels as compared with pre-treatment levels (M = 0.66, SD = 1.58), t(45) = 2.85, p = .007 (two-tailed), but decreased pain was not associated with scores on the internality dimension of the Pain Locus of Control Scale (PLOC) or on the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) (a measure of dispositional optimism). Overall, participants' increased coping ability was associated with scores on the LOT-R, but not with scores on the internality dimension of the PLOC. Subjects with the lowest pre-treatment scores on the LOT-R demonstrated significantly greater increases in post-treatment coping ability than those with the highest scores (F(2,40) = 3.93, p < .03). Participants with the highest pre-treatment scores on both the PLOC internality dimension and the LOT-R demonstrated greater post-treatment coping ability (F(2,32) = 4.65, p < .02), but not less post-treatment pain than other subjects. Participants' post-treatment LOT-R scores were significantly higher than their pre-treatment scores (M = 2.09, SD = 3.96), t(46) = 3.61, p = .001 (two-tailed), but post-treatment PLOC internality scores were not significantly higher than pre-treatment scores. Implications of these results are discussed.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Psychological and marital adjustment are two important outcomes for patients with breast cancer. Personality traits, such as hope and optimism, may influence adjustment to adversity. It was hypothesized that patient and partner hope and optimism would differentially predict patient marital and psychological adjustment. Measured variable path analysis with 56 patient-partner dyads found that patient and partner hope equally predict patient marital adjustment, while there was a trend for patient optimism predicting patient psychological adjustment. These results suggest that hope and optimism differentially predict adjustment outcomes, and that the partner also has a role in the patients’ adjustment. Regression analyses were used to examine the hypothesis that discrepancies in patient and partner personality would result in maladjustment. No interaction effects were found predicting patient psychological adjustment. Three out of six interactions were found for patient marital adjustment. These analyses suggest that complementary personality styles among couples coping with breast cancer may result in optimal patient marital adjustment.

Principal Academic Optimism is an hypothesized latent construct that has strong theoretical foundations in both educational research and educational psychology. Academic Optimism derives from research on school academic optimism and teacher academic optimism, which originated via Hoys, Tarters, and Woolfolk Hoys (2006a; 2006b) merger of school climate research with research on learned optimism, stemming from Martin Seligmans (1998, 2006) research on positive psychology. Principal Academic Optimism expands upon discoveries of School Academic Optimism and Teacher Academic Optimism. The theoretical framework of Principal Academic Optimism is built upon a strong research foundation of the organizational health model, social capital theory, social cognitive theory and positive psychology. The purpose of this research is to revise Riegel's (2012) Principal Academic Optimism Scale, thereby creating and testing a comprehensive measure of Principal Academic Optimism. The questionnaire used to accomplish this goal was a revised version of Riegel's Principal Academic Optimism Scale and Tschannen-Moran's and Gareis's (2004) Principal Trust Scale. By incorporating a measure for principal trust in faculty with a measure of principal trust in clients (parents and students), a more comprehensive measure of Principal Academic Optimism was validated and found reliable (α = 0.908). Perhaps the most compelling finding of the study was the significant negative relationship between principals' perception of trust in clients whose schools have high percentages of students receiving free and reduced price lunches (r = -0.444; p < 0.05). Principals with high percentages of free and reduced price lunch rates explained 72.203% of the variance in principals' self-reported perception of trust in clients. Principals of schools with 61%-80% or 81%+ percentages of free and reduced price lunch rates reported lower levels of trust in clients (parents and students). / Ed. D.

The only constant thing in today's world is change. Change is everywhere, even in the education sector. The education system has undergone tremendous changes in the past 10 years. This includes several curriculum changes. Change always contributes to stress, which individuals in the education department are experiencing quite intensively, judging by the popular media. Stressful events may lead to ill-health and might negatively impact the workforce and the overall well-being of these educators. The emergence of positive psychology has contributed to the increased research of well-being, rather than the negative antipode of illness, in relation to occupational stress. One of these positive aspects of wellbeing is work engagement, which is considered to be the opposite of burnout. Thus, describing burnout, engagement and stress is a first step in facilitating the work-related wellness of educators. Furthermore, individual dispositions that may act as resources or buffers in the handling of stress and burnout, facilitate engagement and protect educators7 health are also of interest. To measure burnout, engagement, stress and health, it is important to use reliable and valid instruments. Various studies are available on the reliability and validity of the burnout and engagement scales, but it is rather limited for educators in the South African environment. Furthermore, little information exists regarding the causes and effects of work stress, health, burnout and engagement of educators in South Africa. The first objective of this research was to standardise the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) for educators in the Goldfield region of the Northern Free State province. The second objective was to determine if biographical variables can be used to describe educators' burnout and engagement. The third objective of this research was to determine causes of stress among educators, and again to investigate the role of biographical differences. Lastly, the focus in this research fell on the determination of the role of optimism in predicting the health of educators in the Goldfield region of the Northern Free State province. A cross-sectional survey design, in which a sample is drawn from a population at one point in time, was used to attain the research objectives. Participants were randomly selected from the total population of educators in the Goldfield region of the Northern Free State province. A sample of 469 educators was used from the total population of 1014 (i.e. 46,25% of the total population). Schools in the Goldfields region of the Northern Free State province were randomly selected to participate in this research. The MBI-GS, the UWES, the Educator Stress Questionnaire (which was developed by the author for the purpose of this research), the Health Subscales of the Asset, the LOT-R and a biographical questionnaire was administered. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha coefficients, inter-item correlations, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, Pearson correlations, multivariate analysis of variance, one-way analysis of variance, t-tests, dummy coding and multiple-regression analyses with interaction terms were used to analyse the data. Structural-equation modelling confirmed a three-factor model of burnout consisting of Exhaustion, Depersonalization and Professional Efficacy. All three factors showed acceptable internal consistencies for three main language groups. A three-factor model of engagement was also confirmed, consisting of Vigour, Dedication and Absorption. These scales also indicated acceptable reliability. Results of a second order factor analysis indicated that the work wellness of educators can be described as consisting of two dimensions. The Burnout dimensions of Exhaustion and Depersonalisation can be grouped together on one factor, while the Burnout dimension of Professional Efficacy can be grouped with the Engagement variables of Vigour, Dedication and Absorption. Results showed that biographical variables that consist of the gender, marital status, home language, age and years work experience of educators could be used to describe educator burnout and engagement. It was found that Exhaustion could be predicted by gender. Educators who speak an African language scored lower than Afrikaans-speaking educators in terms of Exhaustion. Marital status could also be used to predict exhaustion. Educators between the ages of 37 and 46 measure lower on depersonalisation than educators between the ages of 22 and 30 years. Educators who have between 13 and 20 years of experience, have higher levels of depersonalisation than participants with 6 or less years of experience. Both English and African-language-speaking educators measure lower on Professional Efficacy than the Afrikaans language group. Language remains a significant predictor of Professional Efficacy. Educators who are older than 31 years of age measure higher on Professional Efficacy than those younger than 31 years of age. Professional Efficacy could be predicted among educators who are English speaking and/ or older than 31 years of age. Additionally, being married or divorced measure lower on Professional Efficacy when compared to their single counterparts. The eldest educators measure higher on Professional Efficacy. Female educators measure lower on Vigour than their male counterparts. Educators between the ages of 47 and 64 measure higher on dedication than educators between the age of 22 and 30 years. Married educators measured lower on dedication, when compared to single educators. The ESQ, a measure of educators' occupational stress that consists of 48 items, was developed and administered. During analysis, 4 items were discarded due to non-loading, and a further 8 items were discarded due to significant secondary loadings. Five factors were extracted and were labelled Rewards and Participation, Support and Communication, Job Insecurity, Role Overload and Task Characteristics. Furthermore, the biographical variables that were used to describe burnout and engagement among educators (language, age, gender, work experience and marital status), could also be used to describe educator stress. The various stress factors that were identified through the ESQ, could also be used to determine well-being among educators. This includes Support and Communication, Rewards and Participation, Role Overload, Job Insecurity and Task Characteristics. In terms of predicting the physical and psychological health of educators, separate analyses were carried out for the burnout and engagement components. It was shown that that educators' home language, their experience of optimism, role overload and task characteristics predicts physical health, and home language, participants' levels of optimism, experiences of rewards and participation, support and communication, job insecurity, role overload and task characteristics predicts psychological health. Additionally, the interaction terms Professional Efficacy and Optimism, as well as the interaction between Vigour and Optimism, proved to be significant predictors of physical health. The interaction term of Depersonalisation and Optimism, as well as the interaction term of Support and Communication and Optimism, proved to be significant predictors of psychological health. Language was also shown to be a constant predictor of physical and psychological health, where educators speaking an African language experienced significantly better overall well-being than Afrikaans and English-speaking educators. By way of conclusion, recommendations for future research and the education department are made. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

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.

In the landscape of the 21st century, where competition in the financial sector is growing even more intense, the future will belong to those organisations that harness the power and potential of their human capital. It is the one huge reservoir left largely untapped, and those organisations which do this the best will be the business winners of this century. It makes sense then that different ways on how best to utilise and develop human capital for use as leverage in the competitive arena of the workplace should be investigated. Consequently, as an alternative to getting hindered by the swirling negativity and challenges, it was proposed that a positive approach is needed. It is believed that building positive psychological capacities within organisational contexts will be a powerful means of assisting South African organisations and employees to meet their new paradigm challenges. This will aid he successful transformation and augmentation and contribute to a truly ideal "Rainbow Nation" for South Africa. The researcher believes that this can be done by drawing from the positive psychology movement, where specifically selecting and developing certain positive psychological capacities may lead to desirable performance outcomes. The objective of the research was to determine if there was a relationship between positive psychological capacities (hope, optimism, resilience, self-efficacy), psychological empowerment and job performance of employees in a financial organisation. A correlational survey design was used. The study population (n = 155) consisted of call centre employees in a financial environment in Gauteng. The State Hope Scale, Life Orientation Inventory -Revised, Resilience Scale, Self-Efficacy Scale, Measuring Empowerment Questionnaire and a biographical questionnaire were used as measuring instruments. Cronbach alpha coefficients, factor analysis, Pearson product moment correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used to evaluate the data. It was found that the research group was experiencing above average levels of hope and average/moderate levels of optimism. The study also revealed that high levels of resilience and self-efficacy, as well as above average levels of psychological empowerment were being experienced by the respondents. Correlation analyses reveal a statistical and practically significant positive relationship between hope and job performance. A statistically significant relationship was found between optimism and job performance and self-efficacy and job performance. However, no statistical or practically significant relationship was found to exist between resilience and job performance and between psychological empowerment and job performance. With regards to the relationships between the constructs, correlation analyses yielded a statistical and practically significant relationship between hope and optimism, hope and resilience, hope and self-efficacy, and hope and psychological empowerment. There is also a practical and statistically significant relationship between optimism and resilience; self-efficacy and resilience and between optimism and self-efficacy. However, no practically significant relationship was found between resilience and psychological empowerment and between self-efficacy and psychological empowerment. This study also investigated if the positive psychological capacities of hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy and psychological empowerment, could be used to predict job performance. It was found that hope, optimism and self-efficacy can be used to predict job performance. Resilience however was found not to be a predictor of job performance. Finally this study investigated if psychological empowerment could be used to predict job performance and it was found that psychological empowerment was unfortunately found not to be predictor of job performance. Finally, recommendations were made for the organisation under study, as well as for future research purposes. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008

L'introduction de la dimension comportementale dans l'explication des phénomènes de fusions-acquisitions a permis de remplacer les suppositions traditionnelles de rationalité des acteurs par des suppositions comportementales potentiellement plus réalistes. La finance d'entreprise comportementale permet de traiter le phénomène de fusion-acquisition dans un cadre élargi en intégrant dans l'analyse l'hypothèse de l' irrationalité des acteurs notamment les dirigeants des acquéreurs. Le présent travail porte sur l'étude de la relation qui existe entre les biais comportementaux des dirigeants des acquéreurs tels que le biais d'excès de confiance, et les opérations d'acquisitions. Nous développons, dans un premier temps, plusieurs mesures d'excès de confiance des dirigeants. Dans un second temps, les différentes mesures développées seront mobilisées pour étudier l'effet de l'excès de confiance sur les politiques d'acquisition. Sur un échantillon d'entreprises françaises engagées dans des opérations d'acquisition durant la période 1999-2007, nous montrons que les dirigeants surconfiants des acquéreurs ont tendance à réaliser plus d'acquisition et à les effectuer avec une prime d'offre plus élevée. Cependant, ces acquisitions ne sont pas rentables pour les actionnaires des acquéreurs étant donné que les rentabilités réalisées sont négatives autour de la date d'annonce. / The introduction of the behavioral dimension in the explanation of the phenomena of mergers and acquisitions has allowed to replace the traditional assumptions of rationality of the participants by potentially more realistic behavioral assumptions. Behavioral corporate finance allows to treat the phenomenon of mergers and acquisitions in a framework widened, incorporating into the analysis the hypothesis of the irrationality of participants in particular the managers of bidders. The present work focuses on studying the relationship between the behavioural bias of managers of bidders such as overconfidence bias, and the operations of acquisition. Firstly, we develop several measures of CEO overconfidence. Secondly, these measures are used to study the effect of overconfidence on acquisitions policies. From a sample of French firms involved in operations of acquisitions during the period 1999-2007, we show that the overconfident CEO tend to make more acquisitions and to make them with a higher acquisition premium. However, these acquisitions are unprofitable for the shareholders of the bidders since the returns realized are negative around the date of announcement.

In William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha novels, a group of characters exists who possess three common characteristics--a closeness to mankind, a realization of the tragedy in life, and a positive response to this tragedy. The term beneficent is used to describe the twenty individuals who possess these traits. The characters are divided into two broad categories. The first includes the white and black primitives who innately possess beneficent qualities. The term primitive describes the individual who exhibits three additional traits--simplicity, nonintellectualism, and closeness to nature. The second group includes characters who must learn the attributes of beneficence in the course of the novel. All the beneficent characters serve as embodiments of the optimism found in Faulkner's fiction.

This study examined the influences of attachment style and level of optimism on career self-efficacy. It was hypothesized that level of optimism moderates the relationship between attachment style and career self-efficacy. Participants were 173 college students who completed the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR; K.A. Brennan, C.L. Clark, & P.R. Shaver, 1998), the Life Orientation Test - Revised (LOT-R; M. Sheier, C. Carver, & M. Bridges, 1994), and the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy - Short Form (CDMSE-SF; N. Betz, K. Klein, & K. Taylor, 1996). The moderator model was not supported, but hierarchical regression revealed a positive relationship between optimism and career self-efficacy. Analyses also revealed a negative correlation between avoidant attachment style and career self-efficacy.

Thesis advisor: David L. Blustein / Globalization has had many implications on the world’s economy, culture, mobility, and experience of work. Of these, global human migration, or international mobility, is often used as the prime indicator of globalization (United Nations Population Fund [UNPFA]; 2013). Evidence suggests that multiple international relocations, with the accompanying loss of familiar spatial environments, social relationships, and social institutions, are deleterious to human well-being. However, literature has yet to elucidate the mechanisms that contribute to the difficulties associated with high rates of international mobility. Using a multinational dataset of responses gathered from 255 internationally mobile employees at 24 worksites in 11 different countries (i.e. Botswana, Japan, Brazil, Spain, China, United Kingdom, India, United States, Mexico, South Africa), this exploratory study tested a structural model delineating the relationships among the rate of international mobility, dispositional optimism, social engagement and well-being, as defined by life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and functional health. Structural equation modeling and follow-up multiple regression analyses found optimism to have the greatest in impact on predicting the levels of job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and functional health, above all other demographic and observed predictors in the study. The rate of international mobility had a significant negative impact on job satisfaction, but not on functional health or life satisfaction. In addition, the frequency of an individual’s in-person interactions with family, friends, and neighbors did not have a significant role in predicting the outcomes. Contrary to the study’s hypotheses, social engagement did not function as a mediator between optimism and well-being. These important findings highlight human resilience in international migration, and offer research, practice, and organizational policy implications for understanding and supporting internationally mobile individuals. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.