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Hope and Optimism: Latent Structures and Influences on Grade Expectancy and Academic Performance
Author(s) -
Rand Kevin L.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00544.x
Subject(s) - optimism , psychology , expectancy theory , trait , structural equation modeling , social psychology , facet (psychology) , test (biology) , scale (ratio) , academic achievement , confirmatory factor analysis , big five personality traits , personality , developmental psychology , statistics , paleontology , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , biology , computer science , programming language
A synthesized model of trait hope (Snyder 1994, 2002) and trait optimism (Scheier & Carver, 1985) is proposed. In this model hope and optimism are conceptualized as facets of an overarching trait called goal attitude. Structural equation modeling is used to test the plausibility of the proposed model in a sample of 345 students in a university psychology course who completed the Adult Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991) and the Life Orientation Test–Revised (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994). The proposed model shows acceptable fit to the observed data. The synthesized model is used to examine the unique and common influences of hope and optimism on grade expectancy and academic performance in 312 students who completed the course. The results show that hope uniquely influenced students' grade expectancies, whereas optimism did not. In turn, grade expectancies influenced academic performance. Neither hope nor optimism had a unique, direct influence on academic performance. In contrast, the shared aspect of hope and optimism (i.e., goal attitude) had a direct influence on academic performance.