Positive Psychological Capital Questionnaire – Chinese Version

Description

In the late 20th century, a movement for positive psychology research emerged in the field of psychology, spearheaded by Martin E.P. Seligman, who was the president of the American Psychological Association at the time. The movement advocated that psychological research should focus on individual positive factors. In 2002, he defined “psychological capital” as a variety of psychological factors that contribute to positive behavior in individuals (Seligman, 2000 & 2002). In 2004, Luthans and Youssef introduced the concept of positive psychological capital (PsyCap) within the framework of positive psychology and positive organizational behavior. Luthans et al. defined psychological capital as “a positive psychological state that individuals demonstrate during their growth and development,” comprising four core components: self-efficacy, optimism, resilience, and hope.

Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s confidence in their ability to accomplish tasks and confront challenges successfully; optimism pertains to an individual’s positive attribution style and attitude towards the present and future; resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from adversity, setbacks, and failures, or even to transform and grow positively; hope is an active motivational state involving the effort to achieve predetermined goals through various means. Although other psychological qualities, such as well-being and humor, also exhibit positive tendencies, Luthans et al. assert that self-efficacy, optimism, resilience, and hope have solid research foundations and effective measurement tools in the field of psychology, making them the most consistent with the standards of positive organizational behavior and psychological capital.

Moreover, to emphasize the variability and developability of the components of psychological capital, Luthans posits that the four subcomponents (self-efficacy, optimism, resilience, and hope) are situated on a continuum between traits and states, leaning towards the state end—referred to as “quasi-states.” Regarding the research orientation of the concept of psychological capital, scholars hold differing views. Letcher and Niehoff (2004) and Cole (2007) support trait theories, positing that psychological capital represents personality traits that are relatively stable and enduring. Goldsmith et al. (1997) and Avolio et al. (2004) advocate for state theories, suggesting that psychological capital is a psychological state. Luthans and Avolio support the state theory, arguing that psychological capital is mutable and developable, and later introduced another perspective. Luthans et al. (2007) believe that self-efficacy, optimism, resilience, and hope are “quasi-states” situated between traits and states. Some scholars refer to “quasi-states” as an integrated theory. Currently, in the three prevailing perspectives—trait theory, state theory, and quasi-state (integrated theory)—the state theory holds the predominant position.

Research findings by Sui Yang and Luthans et al. (2012) show that subordinates’ psychological capital positively predicts their work performance and satisfaction and also indicates that subordinates’ psychological capital partially mediates the positive relationship between transformational leadership behavior and subordinates’ work performance and satisfaction. Ren Hao et al. (2013) found that leadership psychological capital positively influences team members’ organizational citizenship behavior, with team members’ psychological capital mediating between leadership psychological capital and team members’ organizational citizenship behavior. Zhao Jian et al. (2013) discovered that psychological capital fully mediates the relationship between work resources and work-family relationships.

Huma Sarwar et al. (2017) studied how employees in 45 construction companies in Pakistan leveraged their psychological strengths to achieve their career goals, revealing that emotional intelligence mediated the relationship between the three dimensions of psychological capital (self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism) and project success, while no mediation was found between hope and project success. Korean scholar Chung et al. (2017) showed that hope, optimism, and creativity positively predicted nursing students’ professional satisfaction. Haluk Erdem et al. (2017) found that psychological capital plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and problem-focused stress coping (PFSC). The research also found significant correlations between positive psychological capital and its subcomponents with indicators of psychological health such as self-esteem, internal control, emotional balance, as well as anxiety, depression, paranoia, and interpersonal sensitivity. Regression analysis also indicated that psychological capital has a positive promoting effect on psychological health.

Authors and Contact Email

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Purpose

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Test Year

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Administration Method and Scoring

The Positive Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PPQ) developed by Zhang Kuo comprises self-efficacy (自我效能), resilience (韧性), hope (希望), and optimism (乐观). This questionnaire consists of 26 items, with each item rated on a 7-point Likert scale, resulting in a total score ranging from 26 to 182. A higher score indicates better and more positive psychological capital. The total Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the questionnaire is 0.90, with the Cronbach’s coefficients for the four subscales being 0.86, 0.83, 0.80, and 0.76, respectively. The exploratory factor analysis results indicate that the questionnaire has good structural validity, and confirmatory factor analysis results also show good fit.

Reliability and Validity

The total Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is 0.90; the Cronbach’s coefficients for the four subscales are 0.86 (自我效能), 0.83 (韧性), 0.80 (希望), and 0.76 (乐观).

Factors and Subscales

1. 自我效能 (Self-efficacy)
2. 韧性 (Resilience)
3. 希望 (Hope)
4. 乐观 (Optimism)

Keywords

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Items in Chinese

1. 很多人欣赏我的才干。
2. 我不爱生气。
3. 我的见解和能力超过一般人。
4. 遇到挫折时，我能很快地恢复过来。
5. 我对自己的能力很有信心。
6. 生活中的不愉快，我很少在意。
7. 我总是能出色地完成任务。
8. 糟糕的经历会让我郁闷很久。
9. 面对困难时，我会很冷静地寻求解决的方法。
10. 我觉得自己活得很累。
11. 我乐于承担困难和有挑战性的工作。
12. 不顺心的时候，我容易垂头丧气。
13. 身处逆境时，我会积极尝试不同的策略。
14. 压力大的时候，我会吃不好、睡不香。
15. 我积极地学习或工作，以实现自己的理想。
16. 情况不确定时，我总是预期会有很好的结果。
17. 我正在为实现自己的目标而努力。
18. 我总是看到事物好的一面。
19. 我充满信心地追求自己的目标。
20. 我觉得社会上好人还是占绝大多数。
21. 对自己的学习和生活，我有一定的规划。
22. 大多数的时候，我都是意气风发的。
23. 我很清楚自己想要什么样的生活。
24. 我觉得生活是美好的。
25. 我也不知道自己的生活目标是什么。
26. 我觉得前途充满希望。

Items in English

1. Many people appreciate my talents.
2. I don’t easily get angry.
3. My insights and abilities exceed those of the average person.
4. I can recover quickly from setbacks.
5. I am confident in my abilities.
6. I rarely dwell on unpleasant experiences in life.
7. I always excel at completing tasks.
8. Bad experiences can make me feel down for a long time.
9. I calmly seek solutions when facing difficulties.
10. I feel like life is very tiring.
11. I am happy to take on difficult and challenging work.
12. I easily feel discouraged when things don’t go well.
13. In adversity, I actively try different strategies.
14. When under a lot of stress, I find it hard to eat well or sleep well.
15. I actively learn or work to achieve my ideals.
16. When situations are uncertain, I always expect good outcomes.
17. I am working hard to achieve my goals.
18. I always see the good side of things.
19. I pursue my goals with confidence.
20. I believe that there are still a majority of good people in society.
21. I have certain plans for my learning and life.
22. Most of the time, I feel spirited.
23. I know exactly what kind of life I want.
24. I think life is beautiful.
25. I also do not know what my life goals are.
26. I feel hopeful about the future.

References

张阔,张赛,董颖红.积极心理资本:测量及其与心理健康的关系[J].心理与行为研究,2010,8(01):58-64.
黄健芳. 高中生问题性手机使用、积极心理资本与自我和谐的关系[D].深圳大学,2018.
许敏. 大学生社会支持、心理资本与职业成熟度的关系研究[D].四川师范大学,2014.