| Summary: | There are four important topics of so called Positive Psychology studied in this article. After a brief theoretical introduction aimed at locating each one within the existent bibliography, an empirical study is here presented comprising three groups of participants: juveniles (162), adults (150) and elderly (115) making up a total of 427 individuals. The psychometric characteristics of the scales having been verified, the results of an analysis of the variance by age and sex, and the correlations between the four constructs are presented. Concerning age, the juveniles and adults show themselves happier , more optimistic and more hopeful than the elderly, while the latter show more capacity for forgiveness. Results also show that happiness, optimism and hope are inter- correlated, but show in turn no correlation with forgiveness.
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