Optimism, perceived control, and sense of coherence and their relationship to quality of life

The present study examines the relationship among optimism, perceived control, and sense of coherence and subjective quality of life assessments. Subjects were 111 undergraduate students at a large Canadian university. They completed measures of optimism, perceived control, sense of coherence, present quality of life, and future 'best over' and 'worst ever' to be expected quality of life. Results revealed that a substantial portion of the variance in self-report quality of life assessments were accounted for by the combination of optimism, perceived control, and sense of coherence. It was found that high levels of optimism, perceived control, and sense of coherence were related to high levels of quality of life. A model was proposed which suggests the existence of a direct pathway to quality of life only through sense of coherence. It follows room this that it is not necessary to have high levels of optimism and perceived control to have a high level of quality of life, provided that sense of coherence is high. Empirical evidence was also advanced suggesting that the quality of life construct may be more parsimonious than had previously been thought.