Optimism and psychological well-being in Indian adults: Exploring gender and age differences

Pages: 141-150
Irene Khosla (Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, IGNOU, Delhi)

The changing trends of the 21st century have greatly impacted the life quality, as well as individual’s way of perceiving the challenges in life. It was hence considered worthwhile to examine how males and females, belonging to diverse age groups, understand and evaluate their life and emotions. Optimism and psychological well-being were the main variables studied. A sample of 120 participants was taken, with an equal number of males and females, divided equally into two groups on the basis of age- the young (18-24yrs) and the elderly (60-65 yrs). The variables were assessed using quantitative scales, namely Life Orientation Test LOT (Scheier et al., 1994) along with Ryff’s Psychological Well-being Scale (Ryff, 1989). The results were seen in terms of age and gender differences through ANOVAand correlations. Males were found to be more optimistic than the females; however no age and gender differences were seen with respect to psychological well-being. A positive correlation was found, between optimism and psychological well-being among, males, females, young adults, elderly and total sample. The study has implications for health and well-being