Optimism ? Pessimism among Adolescents ? A Gender Based Study

"ABSTRACT ? Life of a person is a beautiful gift awarded to him by the almighty God. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of growth, development and learning. Although variation in pace may be encountered at different stages, this process continues to influence human being at every stage of life, right from conception till birth, infancy, childhood and extending throughout adulthood till old age. However, adolescence is a period when this growth, development as well as learning are believed to be at pinnacle due to transition from childhood to adulthood. During adolescent phase, there are rapid physiological, psychological, emotional, social changes as well as demands for new social roles take place. Thus the period of adolescence is a period of dramatic challenge, during which an individual is in the process of establishing attitudes for effective participation in a society. Humans are constantly thinking, feeling or doing something or the other. These three main components are what humans are occupied with all the time. People create their own lives with their ideas and actions, which can lead to great success and achievement or to frustration and disappointment. We all want success in our lives and we can have it with the right attitude. This gender based study has been done with an objective to compare the attitude toward life among adolescents across gender. 140 girls &80 boys from (three purposively selected schools) Lucknow city were selected randomly by using random number table and Optimistic- Pessimistic Attitude Scale (D. S. Parashar, 1998) was employed to elicit their optimistic ? pessimistic attitude. The study concluded that at 5% level of significance, there was no significant difference of optimism & pessimism among adolescents across gender. Similar study can be replicated to explore the impact of socio demographic and socio-economic variables on the attitude of adolescents. The findings would also facilitate psychologists and counselors develop individualized programme for those, who are in a dire need of it. "