جامعه شناسی کاربردی (Feb 2013)
A Study of Hope in the Future among Students and its Affecting Factors
Abstract
Introduction Hopefulness and hopelessness towards future is one of the important and considerable issues in social science which has been studied scientifically since 1960s. This issue was studied in different forms in relation with negative feelings, compatibility. Being hopeful is considered as the most important motivation in one’s life, because hope is root of creativity and development in human life. It prepares bed for goal achievement and also helps people to get it. Snyder and his coworkers (1994) believe that hope is a positive motivation state and acts as activity factor (energy and goal achievement and planning to achieve the goal). Studies show that hopefulness is hopefulness is a considerable variance for optimism and can predict the different variables in the best way. Hopefulness is a request for future. Hopefulness shows people’s perception in relation with capability of expanding the solutions for achieving the goals and protecting motivation till getting the goals. Hope includes person’s perceptions and attention towards the future. Assuming that it will lead to positive results, it leafs to much more activities. Any conceptualization from hope reflects its multidimensional, dynamic, prospectiveness and process- based view of person. Based on findings in some studies, hopeful and happy people have strong relationships with their friends, wives, neighbors and relations. Hope has a considerable place in Islamic Texts. In the way that in Quran, God says that when you lose your hope, be hopeful and never lose yourself”. Prophet Mohammad says that hope and desire are mercy to my nation, if there was no hope, no mother give milk to baby and no gardener planed a tree”. One effect of hope in people (especially the youth) is that it motivates people to be active and try to achieve their goals. In a Hadith by Prophet Mohammad, he says: Person who is hopeful, he/she goes to paradise. Person who fears from the hell, he/she will be away from it”. Abol Ghasem Ferdousi says:“A wise person is hopeful forever and only lives happily” In other hand, depression is the most common psychological disease which roots in hopelessness and pessimism. One characteristic of depressed people is that they are deeply hopeless. Hopelessness means that no desirable event will happen and finally there will be painful and unchangeable events. It can be a strong reason for depression. Especially, in depressed people with high rate of hopelessness, we can see some symbols such as sadness, tendency towards committing suicide, being indifference, slow motions, disorder in sleep, low concentration etc. Methodology This study is a practical one. That is, it leads the people’s activities towards practical way and there is a goal and aim. This kind of knowledge Can help us to do academic works. These kinds of works are limited to time and place. The method of study is survey and cross sectional one (1389-1390). Statistical population of this study includes all students of Tabriz University in different education levels. In school year 1389-1390 they were 24000 students (13000 males and 11000 females). Sampling method is stratified sampling method. We categorize them based on their major, education level and then choose the samples from these categories. In other words, we divided Tabriz University to 13 faculties and then choose our statistical population. Results of this study show that rate of hopefulness among these students was higher (67 out of 100). Among the influential variables in student’s hopefulness towards future, social coherence of social capital has the most effect with 0.29 Beta coefficient and social trust has the least effect on their hopefulness with 0.14 Beta coefficient. It shows that two dimensions out of three ones in social capital (social coherence and social trust) affect the people’s hopefulness. These results verify the findings of Fredrikson (2009) and Crestinker (2008). They found that hopeful people have strong relation with their relations, family and friends. Among different indexes of social capital (participation, social trust social coherence) social cohesion and social trust have respectively the most effect on students’ hopefulness towards future. Based on findings of regression variables in this study, we can say that they adopt with findings of Amjadyan (1384), Hezarjaribi and Safari (1388) and finally Baljani and his coworkers (1390). Results of this study also show that there is not any difference between girls and boys on rate of hopefulness towards future. On the other hand, age has weak significant correlation with hopefulness variable. Findings of this study show that the least rate oh hopefulness refers to undergraduate and graduate students and the highest rate of hopefulness belongs to PhD and associate students. While there is positive and significant correlation between the student’s average and their hopefulness, we can infer that these findings are in harmony with Schneider’s results. That is, high rate of student’s average affect their academic achievement and improvement to higher levels and vice versa. In other words, low rate of hopefulness towards future among post graduate students roots in this fact that when they come across with social problems in society, they lose their hope. Results show that being hopeful towards future is different among different education levels. The other fact is that although future affects the student’s education performance, we can say that among demographic variables only age has weak correlation with student’s hopefulness. Results of regression analysis show that students’ hopefulness towards future is affected by their religiosity, social trust and social coherence and also cultural capital. These variables could explain 28% of changes of dependent variable. Finally we can say that students’ hopefulness is mainly affected by structural factors not individual ones. Conclusion Hopefulness towards future is one of basic issues in people’s social life and main /key factor and also motivation in improving the human sources in a society. This research aimed to study the hopefulness towards future among Tabriz University students and some influential factors. Results of this study show that rate of hopefulness among students are more than average (67 out of 100). Sheerer, Wintrop and Cruor (1986) found that when optimist and hopeful people come across with some problems, they try to use problem based defense and look for social support. In the other hand, from Vanlion and his coworkers, when people feel more social support and coherence, they will be much more hopeful. Among influential factors in student’s hopefulness, social coherence has the highest effect with 0.29 Beta Coefficient and social trust has the least effect on student’s hopefulness. It shows that two dimensions of social support (social trust and social coherence) have been influential in student’s hopefulness. These findings verify the results and findings of Frederickson (2009), Fuller and Cresticks (2008).Finally, we can say that investing on this issue (social capital) can increase the student’s hopefulness towards future and motivate them to be much more active than before. Therefore it should be focused by the authorities more than before. Improving and increasing the rate of religious believes among the youth will definitely lead to higher hopefulness of them and much more activities towards development. 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