Research of realistic optimism in preschool children

2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 17530494
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Educational psychology
• Research Institution: Mukogawa Women's University
• Principal Investigator: OBANAWA Wright Naoko Mukogawa Women's University, School of Letters, Associate Professor, 文学部, 助教授 (80249424)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KAWAI Masatoshi Mukogawa Women's University, Institute for Education, Professor, 教育研究所, 教授 (00144098) ; YAMAMOTO Hatsumi Mie Chuou Medical Center, Clinical Research Institute, Director, 臨床研究部, 部長 (90416199)
• Project Period (FY): 2005 – 2006
• Keywords: optimism of preschoolers / attributional style / salivary α-amylase

Research Abstract

According to Seligman(1991), the optimistic style is defined as a tendency to attribute negative events to external, unstable, and specific causes, whereas a pessimistic style entails the attribution of such events to internal, stable, and global causes. Although prior research had demonstrated that the optimistic attributional style was linked with physical and psychological health, it has been pointed out that optimistic bias without accepting negative feedback causes unrealistic optimism. Young children are supposed to be more optimistic and resilient than adolescents and adults, but often unrealistic. The purpose of this study was to illustrate preschool-age children's realistic optimism through interviews with children, assay of salivary a-amylase, and questionnaires to their parents. In the interviews, 171 fouryear-olds and five-year-olds were asked about their attributional style to their successes and failures in the past. Salivary a-amylase was collected with Salivette and als o measured by a portable monitor (α-Amy). For each child, a parent completed 3 items (external-internal, unstable-stable, specific-global) by 6 ratings for 5 successful situations and 5 failed situations for their children. The results showed that preschool children attributed not only successes but also their failures to internal causes, although most children showed an optimistic attributional style in the aspects of unstable- stable and specific-global. In the highly optimistic attributional group, there were a certain number of children who chose positive emotional response at both success and failure, and their salivary a-amylase increased significantly compared to that of children who chose positive emotional responses at success and negative at failure. Also, in parents' ratings of children who chose positive emotional responses at both success and failure the low optimistic attributional group showed higher ratings than the highly optimistic attributional group. From these results, realistic optimism of preschool children is discussed.