The purpose of this study was to investigate college students' psychological well-being influenced by optimism and orientations to happiness. Participants were 412 college students aged from 20 to 28. They were recruited from 5 colleges in Seoul. The ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate college students' psychological well-being influenced by optimism and orientations to happiness. Participants were 412 college students aged from 20 to 28. They were recruited from 5 colleges in Seoul. The Reevaluation of Life Orientation Test (LOT-R: Scheier, Carver & Bridges, 1994) was used to assess optimism. The Orientations to Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ: Peterson, Park & Seligman, 2005) was used to examine the endorsement of three different ways to be happy: through pleasure, meaning and engagement. The Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS: Ryff, 1989) was used to measure psychological well-being.
Data were analyzed using Cronbach's alpha, frequencies, percentiles, means, standard deviations, two-way ANOVAs, Pearson's correlations and hierarchical regression analyses.
The major findings were as follow:
1. In optimism, there were no significant differences by gender and the year of study in college. In orientations to happiness, there were significant differences by gender and the year of study in college. Male students pursued engagement more than female students did. Also seniors reported significantly higher in the pursuit of engagement than freshmen did. In psychological well-being, there were significant differences by the year that college students were in at the time of the study. Seniors scored significantly higher psychological well-being than freshmen did.
2. Optimism and orientations to happiness were related to psychological well-being of college students. Optimism was positively associated with psychological well-being. Each of three orientations to happiness was positively related to psychological well-being.
3. Optimism and orientations to happiness were significant predictors of psychological well-being of college students. With circumstances and optimism controlled, orientations to happiness still explained 13% of variance in psychological well-being.