Psychometric properties of the Life Orientation Test-Revised in samples of Japanese students

The Life Orientation Test-Revised (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994) is a widely used self-report measure of optimism. The present study examined the test's psychometric properties in a Japanese cultural context. 448 Japanese university students completed a Japanese version of the Life Orientation Test-Revised along with measures of neuroticism, extraversion, and depression. Exploratory factor analysis yielded the same two factors, positively phrased optimistic items and negatively phrased pessimistic items, as Scheier and Carver reported. Internal consistency of optimism and pessimism was acceptable. Confirmatory factor analysis of the Life Orientation Test-Revised with another group of 205 Japanese university students showed the superiority of a two-factor model of optimism-pessimism. The bidimensionality was partly due to the difference in responses between positively and negatively worded items. The Japanese data provide additional psychometric support for the Life Orientation Test-Revised and enhance the generalization of prior findings on U.S. samples to Japanese samples.