Optimism–pessimism and adjustment in college students: Is there support for the utility of a domain-specific approach to studying outcome expectancies?

Over the past 30 years, researchers have increasingly focused on the study of general optimism–pessimism. In this research, we examined the validity and usefulness of a domain-specific model of optimism–pessimism. We examined whether the addition of domain-specific measures of optimism–pessimism would add to the prediction of self-reported GPA, health status, family life satisfaction, financial satisfaction, and general life satisfaction. Results of regression analyses indicated that domain-specific optimism–pessimism added significantly, beyond general optimism–pessimism, in predicting each of these outcomes. Some implications for research and practice are discussed.