Relationship between Resilience, Optimism and Psychological Well-Being in Students of Medicine

The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationships between resilience, optimism and psychological well-being. Four hundred fourteen students of medicine (213 male and 191 female) were selected using cluster sampling and were required to fill up the Ryff Scale of Psychological Well-Being (RSPWB), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and Scheier and Carver's Life Orientation Test (LOT). The results revealed that resilience is able to predict psychological well-being, and optimism played a minor mediation role in the relationship between resilience and psychological well-being. The results indicated that psychological well-being is influenced by personal characteristics such as resilience, and the individual's optimism regardless of his/her degree of resilience can to some extent provide for psychological well-being. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the 2nd World Conference on Psychology, Counselling and Guidance.