Coping, Optimism and Patience in Psychology and Non-Psychology Students

Abstract

Coping refers to the strategies, efforts and initiatives taken up by the individual to deal with their environment and the stress response. Optimism is considered to be a tendency toward two aspects: hope and the belief that what will occur and is occurring is the best possible of the alternatives. Patience can be defined as the inclination of an individual to maintain calm while waiting when faced with frustrating stimuli. The aim of this study is to establish the relationship between coping, optimism and patience and to explore the difference in these three on the basis of chosen subject. The sample consisted of 100 students ranging from the age of 18-25 years. Pearson correlation and t-test were used. The results of the study show that coping, optimism and patience are significantly correlated to one another. It was also found that psychology students were significantly higher on coping and patience for daily hassles than non-psychology students. There is a large scope for studies to be conducted on psychology students to identify how certain traits can be related to the subject and vice versa.