Achievement Motivation and Optimism Among Adolescents: A Comparative Study

The purpose of education is the harmonious growth of individuals and achieving excellence is one of the important milestones in this process. This journey of achievement becomes more satisfied when factors like hope and motivation to achieve are associated with it. Young ones are the important source to a nation. They have to be optimistic in their lives and achievement motivation has to be high as both these factors will contribute in creating something extraordinary. Present research takes into account the assessment of achievement motivation and optimism among adolescents. A sample of 100 adolescents (50 boys and 50 girls) with a mean age of 14.6 years have been taken from private school of district Fatheabad, Haryana. Result of the study shows that optimism is highly positively correlated with compensatory effort, eagerness to learn, flexibility, independence, preference for difficult task, pride in productivity, status orientation and overall achievement motivation of the adolescents. Significant mean difference is found in overall achievement motivation and its different dimensions viz. confidence in success, dominance, flow, Independence and pride in productivity between boys and girls. Highly significant mean difference is also found in optimism level of boys and girls. Present study calls for the role of positive psychology in educational sector. Programs by educational institutions to enhance the optimism among students will surely help them to achieve great heights in their lives.