Differential Effects of Optimism on Wellbeing among Adolescents

Optimism is a cognitive construct and it is defined as a generalized expectancy that good things will happen in life. This type of belief is assumed to have several implications for emotional benefits. In view of the above, the study under report was conducted to ascertain the differential effects of optimism, if any, on well-being among adolescents. The Life orientation test (LOT-R (Scheier & Carver, 1994) and Subjective wellbeing inventory (Thakur & Singh, 2005) were administered on 365 (males=190; females= 165) randomly selected adolescents (age range: 14–19 years) enrolled in some of the Intermediate colleges of Jaunpur and Varanasi districts of Uttar Pradesh. The participants were divided into three groups (high, moderate & low groups) on the basis of their scores on the LOT-R scale. The descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data and compare the three optimism based groups from the point of view of their wellbeing. The findings showed that higher the level of optimism, higher the level of wellbeing and vice-versa. The results are thoroughly discussed and interpreted in the light of related studies. Besides, the limitations of the present study and suggestions for future researches are also underlined.