Many faces of optimism. Proposal of five profiles of optimistic attitudes in research on Polish sample.

Optimism is one human characteristic which for many years has been of central interest to psychology. This variable is usually treated as a one-dimensional human trait. This text presents a different view of optimism. It includes a discussion of a multidimensional questionnaire for the measurement of optimism: the Optimistic Attitude Questionnaire (OAQ). The OAQ measures four dimensions of optimism: achievement orientation, incaution, positive thinking, and openness. The results of a k-means clustering procedure that was conducted on a group of 766 adults are presented as well. The results of the analysis reveal five different profiles: global optimists, pessimists, cautious optimists, moderate optimists, and risk-takers. The obtained profiles are significantly different from each other - for example, with respect to the age of the participants and their evaluations of life satisfaction.