Adaptability and psychological flexibility: Overlapping constructs?

Relationship between psychological adaptability and work engagement of college teachers within smart teaching environments: the mediating role of digital information literacy self-efficacy

Introduction

Integrating the Internet and traditional teaching has enriched teaching resources and methods and introduced many advanced digital media. The smart teaching process is influenced by teachers' psychological adaptability, which can be affected by teachers' work engagement. However, the relationship between the two has not received sufficient attention in the literature. This study aims to analyze the relationship between college teachers' psychological adaptability and work engagement in a smart teaching environment.

Methods

Applying structural equation modeling (SEM) to a sample of 373 front-line teachers, this study focuses on the mediating effect of digital information literacy self-efficacy on the relationship between teachers' psychological adaptability and work engagement.

Results

The results show that the four dimensions of college teachers' psychological adaptability strongly influence work engagement and digital information literacy self-efficacy. In particular, teachers' psychological adaptability and work engagement are positively correlated; teachers' self-efficacy can positively affect the three dimensions of their work engagement, and teachers' psychological adaptability can positively affect their digital information literacy self-efficacy.

Conclusion

The above results can serve as a basis for the development and improvement of the training of college teachers and the implementation of smart teaching. The study findings highlight the importance of training teachers on information technology teaching and implementing measures to enhance teachers' digital information literacy self-efficacy. Training should focus on the knowledge and skills of teachers using information technology teaching and increase the practical links of teachers using information technology teaching.

The direct and indirect predictors of career commitment

This study investigated concern, control, curiosity, and confidence serially mediated the associations between psychological flexibility (PF) at work and career commitment, based on the career construction model of adaptation and gender, age, education level, and tenure differences in career commitment. The white-collar employees ( N  =  353, 55% female) completed the Career Commitment Scale, Work-Related Acceptance and Action Questionnaire and Career Adaptabilities Scale-Short Form, and a Demographic Information Form. A multiple serial mediation model indicated that PF at work was related to concern, control, curiosity, and confidence, which in turn, contributed to career commitment, serially. The results of one-way ANOVA showed that career commitment differs according to education level, only. These findings suggested implications for theory, research, and practice, responding to the cultural context.

Effect of a group-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) intervention on self-esteem and psychological flexibility in patients with schizophrenia in remission

The present study explored whether acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a cognitive behavioral therapy approach, could improve the symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum disorders among patients with schizophrenia in remission. A pre- and post-treatment design with two evaluation time points was employed. Sixty outpatients with schizophrenia in remission were randomly divided into two groups: the ACT plus treatment as usual (ACT+TAU) and treatment as usual (TAU) groups. The ACT+TAU group participated in 10 group-based ACT interventions and TAU in the hospital, and the TAU group only received TAU interventions. General psycho-pathological symptoms, self-esteem, and psychological flexibility were assessed before intervention (baseline; pre-test) and after intervention (five weeks; post-test). Results indicated that, compared to the TAU group, the ACT+TAU group exhibited a more significant improvement in general psychopathological symptoms, self-esteem, cognitive fusion, and acceptance and action at post-test. ACT intervention could effectively decrease the general psycho-pathological symptoms and increase self-esteem level and psychological flexibility in people with schizophrenia in remission.

Analysis of influencing factors of subjective career unsuccessfulness of vocational college graduates from the Department of Navigation in China

The marine talent cultivation and output in higher vocational colleges is an important support to build a strong maritime country and ensure the steady development of the shipping business industry. Vocational colleges should ensure effective career preparation and career guidance education for their students, and train them to acquire the professional abilities to work and adapt effectively and quickly in the future. Some studies show that many crew members experience a decline in job satisfaction, a low sense of achievement, and a series of negative subjective career feelings. Even more, some crew members have poor work performance or unsuccessful career development behaviors such as career change or resignation. This study examined the causes and influencing factors of these circumstances and might be a reference for schools to strengthen the quality of their training programs in the future. In-depth interviews with 12 vocational marine navigation college graduates were conducted, and grounded theory was used to code and analyze the collected interview information. Four types of influencing factors were identified: adaptation preparation, career adaptability, adaptation action, and the situational factor. The adaptation preparation factor could be categorized into psychology, determination, lack of certificates, and simple work; the career adaptability factor could be categorized into boring work, busyness, a big gap between expectations and reality, danger, promotion difficulty, poor interpersonal relationships, high pressure, and maladaptation to the surroundings; the adaptation action factor could be categorized into passive fatigue, lack of training, competition, confidence, and planning; while the situational factor could be categorized into the impact of the epidemic, low social status, lack of support from family, and advantages of living on land. To help the marine navigation students better adapt to their jobs and avoid subjective career unsuccessfulness, higher vocational colleges need to strengthen students' mental health education, consolidate knowledge and skills training, encourage students to obtain more vocational competency certificates, enhance their interpersonal communication skills, do effective career planning, pay attention to physical exercise and safety awareness training, and adopt other career management and counseling suggestions.

Collaboration Between Humans and Robots in Organizations: A Macroergonomic, Emotional, and Spiritual Approach

The new managerial challenges are related to finding solutions for complex problems, inside some more and more complex management systems, in a continuously changing organizational context. Competitivity and progress imply a continuous positive change and the need to accept, respond, and adapt to the organization’s internal and external environments changes. This brief research report aims to point out the organizational ergonomics’ contribution to employees’ wellbeing through a systemic, emotional, and spiritual approach to man’s interaction with technology, systems, and organizational environment. The research methods used were the multidisciplinary bibliographic study and the interview. Three semi-structured interviews were taken to explore today’s challenges and new 4.0 technologies’ impact, especially robots, on the company and on employees’ wellbeing and spiritual fulfillment. The novelty comes from the analysis of new technologies’ impact on the human factor from the spiritual point of view. Our main results have to do with the shaping of a model for human capital’s valorization and with suggesting a list for monitoring human capital valorization in the company. This article’s main conclusion shows that the organizations’ management must be prepared to manage future challenges by improving the employee’s abilities, adaptability to change, and collaboration with robots.

The Group Nurturance Inventory - initial psychometric evaluation using Rasch and factor analysis

BACKGROUND

This paper describes the development and psychometric evaluation of a behavioral assessment instrument primarily intended for use with workgroups in any type of organization. The instrument was developed based on the Nurturing Environments framework which describes four domains important for health, well-being, and productivity; minimizing toxic social interactions, teaching and reinforcing prosocial behaviors, limiting opportunities for problem behaviors, and promoting psychological flexibility. The instrument is freely available to use and adapt under a CC-BY license and intended as a tool that is easy for any group to use and interpret to identify key behaviors to improve their psychosocial work environment.

METHODS

Questionnaire data of perceived frequency of behaviors relevant to nurturance were collected from nine different organizations in Sweden. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, Rasch analysis, and correlations to investigate relationships with relevant workplace measures.

RESULTS

The results indicate that the 23-item instrument is usefully divided in two factors, which can be described as risk and protective factors. Toxic social behaviors make up the risk factor, while the protective factor includes prosocial behavior, behaviors that limit problems, and psychological flexibility. Rasch analysis showed that the response categories work as intended for all items, item fit is satisfactory, and there was no significant differential item functioning across age or gender. Targeting indicates that measurement precision is skewed towards lower levels of both factors, while item thresholds are distributed over the range of participant abilities, particularly for the protective factor. A Rasch score table is available for ordinal to interval data transformation.

CONCLUSIONS

This initial analysis shows promising results, while more data is needed to investigate group-level measurement properties and validation against concrete longitudinal outcomes. We provide recommendations for how to work in practice with a group based on their assessment data, and how to optimize the measurement precision further. By using a two-dimensional assessment with ratings of both frequency and perceived importance of behaviors the instrument can help facilitate a participatory group development process. The Group Nurturance Inventory is freely available to use and adapt for both commercial and non-commercial use and could help promote transparent assessment practices in organizational and group development.