Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-0487
ISSN: 2161-0487
Aakriti Agarwal
Indira Gandhi National Open University, Organisational Psychologist, India
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Psychol Psychother
The aim of this study is to examine optimism and self-esteem among software employees. Optimism is a positive psychological construct which was popularized by Dr. Martin Seligman. According to him, an optimist person has positive expectations and follows a positive attribution style. Because of this, an individual possessing the psychological resource of optimism tends to face life with a positive view. But on the other hand, those persons who are pessimistic in nature view life events negatively. The other varaible, self esteem can be defined as the overall evaluation of oneself in either a positive or negative way. It indicates the extent to which an individual believes in himself or herself to be competent and worthy of living. This study is intended to observe how these crucial factors of optimism and self-esteem operate in a software employee. This research study is conducted on a sample of atleast 100 employees working in a mid-size organisation which operates in multiple locations across the world. Correlation and ANOVA techniques were used to test the hypotheses. Inroduction Optimism is one of the most mainstream concepts of positive psychology. However, unlike other concepts, it is more complex. It has been defined differentlly over years from a character strength to a positive emotion. In common, it is known to be a positive orientation towards the future which in turn determines our thoughts, beliefs, actions and behaviour. According to Sonja Lyubomirsky, there are three types of optimism. Big optimism – a broad feeling that things are going well and it is a good time to be alive. Little optimism – Being optimistic about day to day circumstances and very small optimism – a less positive belief but a comforting belief that one will get through. As per Elaine Fox, ‘optimism is about more than feeling good; it’s about being engaged with a meaningful life, developing resilience, and feeling in control. This dovetails nicely with psychological research showing that the benefits of optimism come from the ability to accept the good along with the bad, and being prepared to work creatively and persistently to get what you want out of life. Optimistic realists, whom I consider to be the true optimists, don’t believe that good things will come if they simply think happy thoughts. Instead, they believe at a very deep level that they have some control over their own destinies’.
Indira Gandhi National Open University, Organisational Psychologist, India