Regresar

Cognitive bias of optimism and perception of wellbeing in a sample of ecuadorian university students

Abstract:

The purpose of our research was to determine the relation between the cognitive bias of optimism and subjective and psychological wellbeing in a sample of Ecuadorian university students. To that effect, a cross-cutting, correlational, descriptive study was implemented. Questionnaires regarding life satisfaction, positive and negative affects, psychological wellbeing, life orientation, and vision for the future were applied in sample of 400 participants (67% women and 33% men), average age 21.3, studying in a public university (66.5%) and a co-financed university (37.5%) in the city of Ambato, Ecuador. According to the results, dispositional optimism is correlated with life satisfaction (r=.378), positive affects (r=.357) and negative affects (r=-.413), and psychological wellbeing (r=.616), while the illusory optimism (r=.221) and the illusion of invulnerability biases (r=-.235) are correlated only with psychological wellbeing. We conclude that there is evidence of bounded rationality as a result of biases that promote wellbeing.