Optimism and Grade Expectancies

Abstract

Researchers have speculated that people's optimism should be associated with their expectations of how they will perform in academic classes. The present study focused on the relationship between college students' optimism and their expectations of how they would perform in an hypothetical university course. Participants were 44 students in introductory psychology. Optimism was measured using the 1994 Revised Life Orientation Test of Carver, Scheier, and Bridges. Students were asked to complete the test, give their cumulative grade-point averages, and predict grades they thought they would receive based on hypothetical course outlines. Planned hierarchical regression, controlling for grade-point average, indicated no relationship between optimism scores and expected grades. There was, however, a correlation between grade expectancies and cumulative grade-point average, suggesting that, in this context, the Revised Life Orientation Test seemed to be measuring students' expectations of how they would perform in the hypothetical course based on their performance in previous courses.