A person's (often unverbalized) overall evaluation of life, the universe, or the very essence of existence as being more or less positive or negative. A person with a positive worldview sees life as basically good, secure, friendly, happy, or unthreatening, or having some other positive valence. For a person with a negative worldview, on the other hand, life is seen as essentially bad, insecure, threatening, unpleasant, hostile, uncertain, and/or full of many dangers. Worldview, then, is a judgment that individuals make about the quality of existence. It is not to be confused with one's empirical knowledge of social, economic, political, or other events. (See
mental representation;
personality subtheory)
