Psychometric evaluations of the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), based on nine samples

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study was to examine psychometric properties of the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R).

Design and main outcome measures

The LOT-R was administered in five clinical samples, three samples of the adult general population, and one sample of adolescents. Seven of the studies were performed in Germany and two in Colombia. All of the sample sizes were above 300.

Results

Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were between .57 and .75 for the eight adult samples, the correlations between the scales optimism and pessimism ranged from −.05 to −.37, and the coefficients of temporal stability (test-retest correlations) of the scales ranged from .43 to .69. There were no systematic age and gender effects observed in the nine studies. While the one-factor model of confirmatory factor analyses showed clearly insufficient fit indices among all of the samples, the two-factor model fit was markedly better.

Conclusions

The LOT-R proved to be a suitable instrument for measuring dispositional optimism in patients and in the general population, though the sum score should be viewed with caution. Studies comparing the LOT-R mean scores of different samples need not take age and gender distributions into account.

Keywords:

• Optimism
• pessimism
• psychometrics
• factor structure
• descriptive survey study

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Data availability statement

Data obtained for the study cannot be made available for others.

Additional information

Funding

This article was funded by Deutsche Krebshilfe, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, European Regional Development Fund, European Union, ‘Fondo de Promoción para Profesores Asistentes’ (FAPA – Fund to promote research of Assistant Professors) by the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Free State of Saxony.