Subjective Well-being and Religiosity: A study of Optimists and Pessimists

Abstract

Pessimist Individuals see difficulty in every opportunity where as Optimists see opportunity in every difficulty. Taking into consideration these characteristics of Optimism and Pessimism, this study was designed to conduct on the samples of the Optimist and Pessimist subjects in order to ascertain the influence of Religiosity on Subjective Well-being. Using Purposive Sampling technique, 50 Optimist and 50 Pessimist Post Graduate students were selected with the help of Life Orientation Test–Revised (LOT-R) developed by Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, (1994). Religiosity and Subjective Well-being among Optimists and Pessimists were assessed on the basis of scores on Religiosity Scale developed by Deka and Broota, (1985) and Subjective Well-being Inventory (SUBI) developed by Sell and Nagpal (1992). Data was analyzed with the help of Simple Linear Regression. The first finding revealed that Religiosity appeared as a significant predictor of Subjective well-being among Optimists. It means that there is a significant positive correlation „R‟= .774 between Religiosity and Subjective Well-being among Optimists whereas, the second finding also revealed that Religiosity appeared as a significant predictor of Subjective Well-being among Pessimists. This indicates that there is also a significant positive correlation „R‟= .497 between Religiosity and Subjective Well-being among Pessimists. Since, the Optimists and Pessimists were found in maintaining good Subjective Well-being but the value of „R‟ in case of Optimists was found to be much higher. So as on the basis of the obtained results , it is discussed that the Optimists look into more favorable side in the face of events and anticipate best possible outcomes in their favor as compared to the Pessimist counterpart. It is suggested that one has to make efforts to be Optimist rather than Pessimist to conquer challenges in their life.