Untangling the role of optimism, pessimism and coping influences on student mood, motivation and satisfaction

The study tested the associations between stress and coping on mood, course satisfaction and learning motivation. Undergraduate students (N = 175) were surveyed on student stressors, personality, support and control against mood, course satisfaction and motivation. Defensive pessimism, context control and agreeableness lowered anxiety. Neuroticism, extraversion and hassle ratings towards tutor support, increased it. Control and neuroticism mediated between stress ratings given to support from family and friends and anxiety. Optimism and defensive pessimism lowered depression scores. Those high in Defensive pessimism, compared to those high in optimism, scored lower on anxiety, higher on learning motivation and course satisfaction and this is despite the optimism group being higher in self-efficacy, control and conscientiousness. Both groups scored higher than the cohort average on GPA. The results suggest that context control, defensive pessimism and optimism all offer effective coping, with individual differences an important caveat – for those capable and high in anxiety, defensive pessimism was effective.