RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OPTIMISM AND STRESS TOLERANCE AMONG FLOOD VICTIMS

Disasters like flood can result in creating phobia, depression, anxiety etc. in victims, the psychological distress may also affect their optimism, stress tolerance, resilience etc. and thereby their overall psychological wellbeing. Optimism enables an individual to set goals, make commitments, tolerate with adversity and pain and recover from trauma and stress (Schneider &Leitenberg, 1989).Stress tolerance refers to a person's ability to withstand stress without becoming seriously impaired (Carson, Butcher &Mineka, 1996). Objectives of the study: to find out whether there is any difference among flood victims on the basis of age on optimism and stress tolerance, whether there is any gender difference on optimism and stress tolerance among three groups (primary, secondary and both) of flood victims, whether there is any difference between the three groups of victims on optimism and stress tolerance, and also to explore the relationship between optimism and stress tolerance among flood victims. Method: (a).participants- the study was conducted on 115 flood victims, from Ernakulam district in Kerala; in the age range 18-50 years. (b).materials-Life Orientation Test – Revised (Scheier&Carver ,1994), Stress Tolerance Scale (Reshmy&Sanandaraj,1999). Results and conclusion: the results reveal that there is any difference among flood victims on the basis of age on optimism, gender difference among primary victims on optimism among primary victims who engaged in volunteering and/recue activities on stress tolerance and a significant positive correlation between optimism and stress tolerance among flood victims. It is implied that inculcating optimistic view at home and at school, providing optimism based training sessions at school from very early years of age can result in generations that will be able to tolerate stressful events in life, whether it is personal issues, manmade or natural disasters.