Abstract

TORRES-SALAZAR, CRISTINA; MORETA-HERRERA, RODRIGO; RAMOS-RAMIREZ, MARTHA  and  LOPEZ-CASTRO, JAVIER. Cognitive Bias of Optimism and Perception of Wellbeing in a Sample of Ecuadorian University Students. Rev. colomb. psicol. [online]. 2020, vol.29, n.1, pp.61-72. ISSN 0121-5469.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcp.v29n1.75853.

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.

Keywords : affects; biases; optimism; satisfaction; wellbeing.

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