Browsing by Subject "optimism"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Can Hope and Optimism Interventions Be Delivered Online? A Pilot Study in College Students
    (2024-08) Ahamadeen, Naheeda; Rand, Kevin L.; Hirsh, Adam; Salyers, Michelle
    Hope and optimism are associated with many positive life outcomes, including better physical functioning (Cherry et al., 2017), less psychological dysfunction (Shanahan et al., 2021), and general well-being and better academic achievement in college students (Rand et al., 2020). College students in particular are known to struggle with a variety of issues and could benefit from increased hope and optimism. Interventions have been developed to increase hope and optimism, but these have largely been delivered in person. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of delivering hope and optimism interventions in an online format to college students. There was mixed evidence of feasibility, but results did suggest online hope and optimism interventions are acceptable to college students. Although 94.3% of participants were retained, only 23% of participants met the active engagement word count requirement across conditions, and only 52.2% of participants adhered to intervention instructions in the hope condition. Acceptability was met across conditions with most participants reporting engagement (89.6%), vividly imagining their scenario (94.3%), thinking carefully about the prompt (95.4%), and putting effort into the task (93.1%). Examining the preliminary efficacy of these interventions showed no differential changes in state measures across conditions, although there were overall changes for hope and optimism across all conditions. Thus, it may be useful to examine these findings further in a fully powered study to determine the efficacy of these interventions.
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    Hope and Optimism as Predictors of Academic Performance and Subjective Well-Being in College Students
    (Elsevier, 2020-07) Rand, Kevin L.; Shanahan, Mackenzie L.; Fischer, Ian C.; Fortney, Sarah K.; Psychology, School of Science
    Objective Snyder's (1994) hope and Scheier and Carver's (1985) optimism have been shown to independently predict academic performance and changes in subjective well-being. This study seeks to clarify their unique associations. Method An undergraduate class (N = 334, 59.6% female, 75.7% Caucasian, M = 19.89 years) was studied at two time points in a semester. Students predicted their expected grade in the course and completed measures of hope, optimism, and subjective well-being (i.e., positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) the first week of classes. The final week of classes, students completed subjective well-being measures and final grades were obtained from the instructor. Results Path analysis showed that hope, but not optimism, predicted grade expectancy. Grade expectancy, in turn, predicted final grades, even after controlling for previous academic achievement. Hope did not directly predict final course grade, but had a significant indirect effect through grade expectancy. Path analysis showed that hope significantly predicted increases in positive affect and life satisfaction over the semester; whereas, optimism predicted decreases in negative affect. Conclusion These findings extend previous research demonstrating that hope and optimism, while conceptually similar, have differential longitudinal associations with academic performance and subjective well-being among college students. Implications for screening for at-risk college students and employing targeted interventions are discussed.
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    Hope, Optimism, and Affect as Predictors and Consequences of Expectancies: The Potential Moderating Roles of Perceived Control and Success
    (Elsevier, 2020) Shanahan, Mackenzie L.; Fischer, Ian C.; Rand, Kevin L.; Psychology, School of Science
    Hope and optimism may be differentially influential depending on the situational context. This study sought to (1) experimentally test whether hope and optimism differentially predict specific expectancies in controllable versus uncontrollable situations and (2) examine the relative impact of specific expectancies on affect when desired outcomes are (or are not) achieved. A 2 × 2 independent samples design was used to experimentally manipulate perceived control and situational outcome (i.e., success or failure). Online participants (N = 571) completed self-report measures of hope and optimism before being randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions. Results showed that hope, but not optimism, predicted specific expectancies in the perceived control condition. Conversely, optimism, but not hope, predicted specific expectancies in the no perceived control condition. More optimistic specific expectancies of success predicted greater positive affect regardless of success or failure outcome.
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    Optimism and Step 1
    (2020-03-06) Schleinkofer, Nathan; Kochhar, Komal; Walvoord, Emily C.
    Optimism is a personality trait that correlates with improved coping skills, physical health, and emotional wellbeing. Various interventions have been shown to increase optimistic thinking. To date, there have been few investigations into the effect of optimism on academic performance. For medical students, the USMLE Step 1 exam is a significant stressor that has a large impact on future career options. Beginning on February 27th 2019, one week after completing their foundational sciences curriculum, 2nd year medical students (n=112) at the Indiana University School of Medicine completed the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), which assesses dispositional optimism. The LOT-R includes six questions scored on a 5-point Likert Scale from “I disagree a lot” to “I agree a lot”. Higher scores indicate a higher level of optimism. Students were instructed to complete the LOT-R before sitting for the Step 1 exam between February 23rd and April 6th. The correlation between Optimism scores and Step 1 exam scores were examined. The study received approval from Indiana University’s Institutional Review Board. The Optimism scores ranged from 6 to 30, mean = 22. The mean for adults ages 18-30 is 22.1. Step 1 exam scores ranged from 189 to 268, mean = 236.4. There was a small positive correlation (Pearson 0.257) between Optimism scores and Step 1 exam scores (p=0.006). There were no gender differences in Optimism or Step 1 exam scores. These results indicate that optimism may be a potentially significant factor associated with medical student performance, specifically on the USMLE Step 1 exam. Further research should investigate if a causal relationship exists between the two factors. If such a relationship is found, interventions specifically targeted to increase optimism may prove useful for improving student academic performance and possibly their overall wellbeing.
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    Trait Expectancies and Pain-Related Outcomes in Older Adults
    (2022-08) Shanahan, Mackenzie; Rand, Kevin L.; Hirsh, Adam T.; Stewart, Jesse C.; Matthias, Marianne S.
    Older adults with persistent pain experience reduced physical functioning, increased disability, and higher rates of depression. Previous research suggests that different types of positive and negative expectancies (e.g., optimism and hopelessness) may be associated with the severity of these pain-related outcomes. Moreover, different types of expectancies may interact with perceived control to predict these outcomes. However, it is unclear whether different types of expectancies are uniquely predictive of changes in pain-related outcomes over time in older adults and whether perceived control moderates these relationships. The primary aims of the current study were to 1) examine how the shared and unique aspects of optimism and hopelessness differentially predict changes in pain-related outcomes (i.e., pain severity, pain interference, disability, and depressive symptoms) in older adults experiencing persistent pain over a 10-year and 2-year timeframe and 2) examine whether perceptions of control over one’s health moderate these relationships. The present study sampled older adults with persistent pain who participated in a nationally representative, longitudinal study (i.e., The Health and Retirement Study) at three timepoints across a 10-year period. First, confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted to determine appropriate modeling of expectancy variables. Second, mixed latent and measured variable path analyses were created to examine the unique relationships between expectancy variables and changes in pain-related outcomes over both a 10- year and 2-year period. Finally, mixed latent and measured variable path analyses and PROCESS were used to test perceived control as moderator of the relationships between expectancy variables and changes in pain-related outcomes over time. CFA results suggested that measures of optimism and hopelessness were best understood in terms of their valence, as positive (i.e., optimism) or negative (i.e., pessimism and hopelessness) expectations. Results from path analyses suggested that only negative, not positive, expectancies were significantly associated with worsening pain severity, pain interference, disability, and depressive symptoms across both 10-year and 2-year periods. Moderation analyses demonstrated inconsistent results and difficulties with replication. However, post-hoc path analyses found that perceptions of control over one’s health independently predicted some changes in pain-related outcomes over time, even when controlling for expectancies. Altogether, the current findings expand our knowledge of the associations between expectancies and pain by suggesting that negative expectancies are predictive of changes in mental and physical pain-related outcomes across years of time. The current study also suggests that positive and negative expectancies may be related, but distinct factors in older adults with persistent pain and that health-related perceived control may be predictive of changes in pain over time. The current discussion reviews these extensions of our current knowledge in greater detail, discusses the potential mechanisms driving these relationships through a theoretical lens, and identifies the implications of this work.