I feel good : the measurement and prediction of positive well-being

Abstract

Building upon Luthans' (2002) call on the need for a more positive approach in organizational psychology, the purpose of this study was to develop a scale measuring positive well-being. In Study 1, positive, high-arousal, emotion-related items adapted from the Job-related Affective Well-being Scale (JAWS - Van Katwyk et al., 2000) were used to measure affective well-being of 217 undergraduate students. Results indicated that the Positive Affective Well-being Scale was a reliable, valid, and unidimensional measure. A second study was conducted to determine if transformational leadership is predictive of positive affective well-being after accounting for demographic and work stress variables. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted using data from a sample of nurses taking part in a larger Health Climate survey. Results showed that transformational leadership did significantly predict positive affective well-being but not psychological well-being, when controlling for demographic and work stress variables.