The French version of the Positivity Scale: Assessing the common factor between self-esteem, optimism and life satisfaction

The purpose of this article is to present the adaptation and the validation of the Positivity Scale (Caprara, Alessandri, Eisenberg, Kupfer, Steca, Caprara, &Abela, 2012) through three studies of 840 adults. Positivity, which is a common latent factor between selfesteem, optimism and life satisfaction (Alessandri, Caprara, &Tisak, 2012; Caprara, Steca, Alessandri, Abela, &McWhinnie, 2010), is "the tendency to view life and experiences with a positive outlook" (Caprara et al., 2012, p. 701). Confirmatory factor analysis supports the unidimensionality of factor G Positivity, coexisting with two specific factors, optimism and self-esteem. The instrument attest very good reliability and the high level of temporal stability indicate a very good fidelity. The validity was demonstrated by a good convergence with self-esteem, optimism, life satisfaction as well as positive affect and good divergence with negative affect. The study of the discriminant validity establishes that it differs from scales measuring self-esteem, optimism and life satisfaction. The study of incremental validity shows that it can contribute significantly, through the effect of three constructs in a single dimension, to the prediction of psychological phenomena. This research provides a valid 7-item scale to measure positivity in French. (C) 2021 Societe Franc, aise de Psychologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.