Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
College freshmen--Psychology; College students--Attitudes; Optimism;
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the usefulness of the Optimism about College Life Scale (OCLS: Prola, 1984) as it related to conceptually similar (Life Orientation Test: Scheier & Carver, 1985; Generalized Expectancy for Success Scale: Fibel & Hale, 1978) and dissimilar (Beck Hopelessness Scale: Beck, Weissman, Lester, & Trexler, 1974; Self-rating Depression Scale: Zung, 1965; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory: Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970) scales. A second focus of the study was to determine the relation of the OCLS to actual college life as measured by grade point average and an adjustment to college measure adapted from Aspinwall and Taylor (1992). Freshmen college students were participants in this study. Pearson correlations, structural equation models, and stepwise regression equations were used to support the ability of the OCLS to measure optimism and relate to college life. The OCLS correlated significantly in the predicted direction with the conceptually similar scales (Life Orientation Test, r =.46; Generalized Expectancy for Success Scale, r =.63; p .001) and dissimilar scales (Beck Hopelessness Scale, r = -.41; Self-rating Depression Scale, r = -.51; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, r =-.56; p .001). A two-factor oblique structural equation model supported the ability of the OCLS to load on a distinct factor of optimism x2 (4, N = 199) = 4.25, p .001; BNFI = .99, BNNFI = 1.00, CFI = 1.00. The results of the stepwise regression equation indicated that the OCLS contributed significantly to the prediction of grade point average and explained 12% of the variance in the data. Additional exploratory factor analyses, Pearson correlations, and structural equation models were conducted and their results reported. The implications of these findings, in the light of previous research, along with the limitations of the study and directions for further research were discussed.
Year of Submission
1996
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Beverly Kopper
Second Advisor
Augustine Osman
Third Advisor
Frank Barrios
Date Original
1996
Object Description
1 PDF file (96 leaves)
Copyright
©1996 Patrick John Barlow
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Barlow, Patrick John, "The Study of Optimism in a Freshman College Student Population: An Analysis of the Optimism about College Life Scale" (1996). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2054.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2054
Comments
If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.