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Scale on Positive Thinking (Positive Life Orientation) Scale and Manual

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 SCALE OF
The complete kit of Scale of Positive Life Orientation (16-0349-KT)
contains:
16-0349-M 1 Manual
POSITIVE LIFE
16-0349-CB 100 Consumable Booklets ORIENTATION

SPLO

Manju Agrawal
&
Ajit K. Dalal

, India

www.prasadpsycho.com
 Manual
of

SCALE OF
POSITIVE LIFE
ORIENTATION

SPLO

Manju Agrawal
&
Ajit K. Dalal

16-0349-M

10 A, Veer Savarkar Block,

Shakarpur, New Delhi - 110092, India
www.prasadpsycho.com
Published by: INTRODUCTION
PRASAD PSYCHO CORPORATION
10 A, Veer Savarkar Block, Shakarpur, Positive thinking and positive orientation towards crises has wide implications in
New Delhi-110092 [INDIA] recovery from stressful events. The desired positive effect works through perceived
www.prasadpsycho.com positive appraisal of the given situation. The positivity bias creates a desired state of
mind necessary to deal with life in general positively. This tendency yields positive
results aimed at life enhancement in all circumstances.
The authors studied the positivity bias and introduced the concept of positive life
orientation (PLO), which they had initially studied in relation to recovery from
myocardial infarction (Agrawal, Dalal, Agarwal, & Agarwal, 1995). PLO is a positive
mindset , in which reality is construed in a manner so as to derive a positive meaning
out of any given situation. This positivity bias is a predisposition to selectively focus
one's attention on the brighter side of any given situation one experiences in life. The
operational definition of PLO describes it as the ability of the individual to emphasize
Intellectual Property and Copyright© 2011. All rights reserved. May not be
the positive aspects of a crisis, to make positive comparisons, and maintain a positive
reproduced in whole or part in any form or by any means without permission
attitude towards life in general.
of the Author and Prasad Psycho Corporation.
In some current researches, positive orientation, towards life events, has been
understood to consist of life satisfaction and optimism (Caprera and Steca, 2005). In
the present conceptualization, however, PLO is not only a much broader term than
optimism; it is, in fact, different from optimism, and it is important to note and
understand this difference. Optimism is understood as a generalized expectancy and
an anticipated positive evaluation of future events. PLO can be differentiated from
optimism on both these accounts. In the current conceptualization, PLO refers to a
general tendency of positive construction of reality in the present. it is said that every
situation has two sides, a positive and a negative; positive orientation is the tendency
to focus on the positive side of the situation more than the negative side. It does not
Printed in India: mean denial but focusing on the positive reality. Hence it is not abut future events,
CREATIVE MEDIA GROUP though such a person is likely to be optimistic as well. An expectancy of successful
www.cmg-india.com outcomes is considered an outcome of PLO and not its component. It may be further
elaborated for clarity that PLO is a positive evaluation of present events, whereas
optimism is an anticipation of positive outcome of events expected to occur in the
future. Inference and interpretation of present events is extremely important in
maintaining a positive state of mind, which, in turn, has a significant effect on various
aspects of the individual's behavioral and reactive functioning. In optimism, the
tendency towards favorable expectation of outcomes is based on a hope of expected

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outcomes that may or may not occur in the future. In PLO, on the other hand, the
individual positively focuses on those aspects of life experience that are currently
being experienced. Positive appraisal of current experiences leads toacquired
learning that can be constructively converted into positive behavioral outcomes in the
future, and thereby increase optimism for future events. For example, a 35-year old
first Myocardial Infarction patient assessed his illness as a warning to him to regulate
his erratic life routine of work and food. He decided to lead a healthier lifestyle in
order to avoid any future health mishaps. The positive orientation of this particular
patient led to a change in lifestyle that may be instrumental to better health in future.
This change in behavior also increased his optimism of lesser chances of next heart
attack in future. Experiences of PLO are thus much more important than simply being
optimistic. Very high optimism with negative outcomes and without positive
orientation can be disastrous and difficult to deal with. Studies may be carried out to
see a relationship between PLO and optimism and their relative efficacy in coping.
Every one, in current age, is talking about necessity of positive thinking but the
concept has neither been clearly defined nor any test or scale exists to measure it. PLO
is an effort in this direction.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCALE
Twenty statements were constructed on the basis of the operational definition of
the construct, interview responses of patients suffering from their first myocardial
infarction and previous researches on similar concepts. , . These statements also
reflected the culture-specific explanations of events as well as the belief structure of
Indians. After initial screening and piloting on a small sample, 11 items were finally
retained. These items emphasized the positive aspects of the crisis (e.g. suffering
brings one nearer to God, this disease is less painful than other diseases), positive
comparison (e.g. I am much better off than others), and orientation towards life in
general (e.g. life is futile). Later on, to make the PLO scale applicable to the general
population, the wordings of only 1 item required a change which was specific to the
suffering of a disease(for e.g. the word “disease” was replaced with “suffering”).
Three of the 11 items are negatively worded (nos. 2, 4, and 5), whose scores are
obtained by reversing the rating of the item.
Later on, the PLO scale was also administered on a sample of youth, and was found to
have high reliability.
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PROCEDURE
The scale consists of 11 items about the tendency among people to interpret life
situations in a positive or negative manner. Rated on a four-point rating scale, the
definitions of the scale points is 1 = not at all; 2 = somewhat; 3 = much; and, 4 = very
much. The respondents are required to provide an answer to each item on the scale, by
selecting the appropriate option on the rating scale.
SCORING AND INTERPRETATION
The scoring for each individual is done by adding up the ratings given on each
experience of PLO as indicated in the 11 items of the scale. 3 items on the scale, item
nos. 2, 4, and 5, are reverse-coded items. The total score ranges from 11 (in case of
complete lack of positive orientation experience) to 44 (in case of a constant positive
orientation towards life experiences).
The PLO scores in the study were found to have normal distribution curve. The
interpretation of the scores is as follows:
Table 1: PLO scores and their interpretation
Scores Interpretation
11-22 Low positive life orientation
23-33 Average or normal positive life orientation
34-44 High positive life orientation
Psychometric Properties of the Scale
RELIABILITY
The reliability of a scale indicates the accuracy of the measurement of the scale. It is
the proportion of variance that can be attributed to the true score of the underlying
variable. The two main reliability concerns are internal consistency, which measures
the consistency of items within the scale, and test-retest reliability, which is the
stability of the scale over time and across contexts.
Internal Consistency: Internal consistency is concerned with the homogeneity of
items within the scale. A scale is internally consistent if the items are internally
correlated. The most widely used measure of internal consistency is Cronbach's alpha
coefficient, which for this particular scale was 0.86. In addition to high inter-item PLO also had a high correlation with expected recovery, amounting to 0.50, which
correlations, all item-total correlations were also statistically significant, falling in the indicated that individuals with an elevated PLO quotient also held high expectations
range of 0.23 to 0.77( refer table 2). of a successful recovery in the futurei.e, were more optimistic about future as well.

Split-half reliability: Another type of internal consistency reliability is split-half Significant correlations were also found between PLO and patients' cognitive and
reliability. In this type of reliability, two sets of forms are obtained by splitting into affective states of helplessness (-0.32), personal control (0.37), and mood state (0.52).
half the total number of items of the scale to form two different sets. Both these sets Patients scoring high on PLO perceived themselves and/or their support groups as
belong to the same scale and measure the same concept. The two sets of PLO scale less helpless in changing the current illness situation; they were high on perceived
were administered to a group of individuals, the total score for each set is computed, sense of control over different life domains; and, they maintained a positive mood
and split-half reliability was obtained by correlating the two sets of total scores. The despite the recency of the medical crisis.
split-half reliability for the PLO scale was found to be 0.62. On the sample of youth, PLO was significantly correlated with happiness (0.21).
Test-retest reliability: Test-retest reliability indexes the scale's stability over time. The higher the PLO of young people, the more happiness they experienced in their
It is obtained by drawing correlations between the test-scores obtained at two current lives.
different occasions of measurement. The test-retest reliability coefficient obtained
was 0.79. This reliability coefficient can be considered quite high since it is a measure
Table 2: Mean, SD and Item-Total correlation of each item of the PLO scale
of the respondent's current life orientation and not a personality trait.
All three reliability scores are high and suggest that the PLO scale is a highly Item Mean SD Item-Total Correlation
reliable scale. Whatever happens, happens for the good 3.21 0.83 0.44**
Life is meaningless/worthless 3.50 0.88 0.23*
CORRELATIONS OF PLO WITH DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES Compared to others, I am in a better position 2.51 0.83 0.77**
Correlations of PLO were computed with respondents' age, income, and These days, my days aren't going well 2.60 0.97 0.53**
education, which came out to be 0.10, 0.18, and 0.22, respectively. All of these Grief and worry do not come alone, they 2.26 0.85 0.27**
correlations were statistically not significant. It can therefore be deducted that an come one after the other
individual's positive orientation towards life in not influenced or determined by these Grief and suffering make a person strong 3.23 0.78 0.44**
demographic characteristics. One always gets happiness after grief 2.74 0.74 0.41**
Compared to others, my problems are less 1.70 0.91 0.36**
painful
RELATION OF PLO WITH MEDICAL AND PERCEIVED RECOVERY
God gives us problems only to test us 2.81 0.77 0.51**
Correlations between PLO and medical and perceived recovery were computed
Seeing others, I feel my sufferings/problems 2.59 0.79 0.45**
for patients who had survived their first myocardial infarction. Both correlations, are much less
with medical recovery were found to be 0.23 and with perceived recovery 0.39. Both
Suffering takes a person closer to God 3.39 0.71 0.52**
were statistically significant. From these results, it can be concluded that patients high
on PLO not only perceived themselves to have successfully recovered from their * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01
illness, but their medical assessment also indicated a good recovery. Furthermore,

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 Table 3 : Inter-correlations between PLO and measures of recovery, helplessness,
personal control, and mood

PLO
Medical Recovery 0.23*
Perceived Recovery 0.39**
Expected Recovery 0.50**
Helplessness -0.32**
Personal Control 0.37**
Mood State 0.52**

* P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01

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