Optimism, Adjustment and Appraisals among Adolescents

The aim of the present study was to find out the gender differences on optimism, adjustment (physical and psychology) and appraisals (primary and secondary) in a specific stressful situation (examination) among the school students. For this purpose a sample of 200 students appearing for 12th pre-board examination were selected on the basis of availability. Out of which there were 100 males and 100 females. The data were collected from different states of India i.e. Haryana, Chandigarh and Mumbai. Life orientation test-revised (LOT-R) was used to measure optimism, Satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) for measuring psychological adjustment and Pennebaker Inventory of limbic languidness (PILL) was used to measure physical adjustment. Whereas appraisals were measured using six separate items those used by Ptacek, Smith and Dodge (1994) in his study. Data were analysed using Mean, SD, t-test and correlation. Results revealed that there were significant gender differences except satisfaction with life scale and secondary appraisal. Results also revealed positive correlation between optimism and adjustment.