TITLE:
The Stability of Dispositional Optimism in Relation to Receiving or Not Receiving a Cancer Diagnosis
AUTHORS:
Inger Schou Bredal, Øivind Ekeberg
KEYWORDS:
Anxiety, Depression, Optimism, Personality
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.7 No.6,
June
8,
2016
ABSTRACT: We used the Life Orientation Test-Revised
(LOT-R) as a unidimensional scale to investigate the stability of dispositional
optimism and compared the results with the stability of anxiety and depression.
Five hundred and twelve women completed the LOT-R and the Hospital Anxiety and
Depression scale before follow-up mammography and 4 weeks after receiving the
result (breast cancer or not). This study shows that dispositional optimism is
relatively stable and is not influenced by receiving a cancer diagnosis.