The effectiveness of a rational-emotive intervention on teachers' unconditional self-acceptance, perfectionism, and pupil control ideology

Introduction

The present research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) intervention on in-service teachers.

Methods

A quasi-experimental 2-group (intervention vs. control) × 3-time (pre, post-test, follow-up) design was applied to explore to what extent the REBT interventions help teachers increase their level of unconditional self-acceptance as the primary outcome and decrease their perfectionism tendencies and pupil control ideology as secondary outcomes. The sample consisted of 100 in-service teachers assigned to either the intervention group (n = 50) or the control group (n = 50). The experimental group received a 6-week intervention program. Every session was held weekly and lasted 90-120 min. The Unconditional Self-Acceptance Questionnaire (USAQ), Pupil Control Ideology Scale (PCI), and Perfectionism Inventory Scale (PI) were used to collect data. This study used a mixed model ANOVA 2 × 3 for data analysis.

Results

The results indicated that in the experimental group, there was a statistically significant increase in unconditional self-acceptance level from pre-test to post-test, which remains significant at the 6-month follow-up. Likewise, there were no statistically significant differences in unconditional self-acceptance levels between the post-test and 6-month follow-up in the intervention group.

Discussion

These findings prove that REBT interventions are effective in increasing teachers' unconditional self-acceptance.

The core self-evaluations, psychological capital, and academic engagement: a cross-national mediation model

Introduction

An academic environment with continuously more demanding tasks requires students to capitalize on their strengths to meet the challenges and engage in learning experiences. Engaged students are deeply involved in their work, are strongly connected with their studies, and are more successful in academic tasks. The present study aimed to test a model in that core self-evaluations (CSE) predicts academic engagement (AE) directly and indirectly by increasing personal resources (i.e., psychological capital; PsyCap) in the case of two different samples, Romanian and Serbian.

Methods

Data were collected through three online questionnaires from 672 undergraduate students (Romania - 458; Serbia - 214).

Results

The findings confirmed that CSE was positively related to PsyCap, which was positively associated with AE, and PsyCap mediates the relationship between the two variables in both samples. A positive evaluation of one's characteristics (high CSE) mainly affects the cognitive and emotional mechanism of appraising the academic-related tasks one encounters (high PsyCap), ultimately shaping their motivation and engagement.

Discussion

These results pointed out the importance of the CSE and PsyCap that support each other and increase students' AE, explaining the mediating mechanism of PsyCap. Also, they provide insight into the students' engagement from two different cultural and educational contexts, being helpful to universities in their effort to increase students' engagement.

Teachers' Personality, Perfectionism, and Self-Efficacy as Predictors for Coping Strategies Based on Personal Resources

Many psychological constructs as personality, perfectionism, and self-efficacy have been identified to have a strong contribution to teachers’ coping strategies, but how these variables collectively predict different types of coping has received little attention. The present study aimed to explore the personal resources (personality traits, perfectionistic strivings, and self-efficacy) which predict teachers’ proactive coping strategies. The sample study consisted of 284 pre-service teachers, with ages ranging from 18 to 34years old (M=19.9; SD=2.1). Four hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted separately for every proactive coping strategy based on personal resources as criterion variables. Results showed that conscientiousness and openness were predictors for all four coping strategies based on personal resources (proactive, reflective, strategic planning, and preventive coping), extraversion and neuroticism predicted only proactive coping strategies, and agreeableness did not predict any kind of these coping strategies. Planfulness was a predictor for reflective, strategic planning, and preventive coping strategies; striving for excellence predicted only proactive coping, and organization was a predictor only for reflective coping strategies. Self-efficacy predicted the first three proactive coping strategies but preventive coping. Because coping strategies can be learned, knowing what personal resources may help teachers to cope with stressful situations inside and outside the school, could be organized training programs to improve activity and well-being in the teaching profession.

Cognitive-behavioral correlates of pupil control ideology

Teacher’s pupil control ideology is a central feature for the quality of the teacher-student relationship, which, in turn, impacts the teacher’s level of well-being. The pupil control ideology refers to a teacher’s belief system along a continuum from humanistic to custodial views. Teachers with humanistic orientation view students as responsible and, therefore, they exert a lower degree of control to manage students’ classroom behaviors. Teachers with a custodial orientation view students as untrustworthy and, therefore, they exert a higher degree of control to manage students’ classroom behaviors. The relationship between pupil control ideology and dysfunctional beliefs originated from the cognitive-behavioral therapy framework has not been investigated, despite existing evidence suggesting that the pupil control ideology is linked to stress and burnout. One hundred fifty-five teachers completed a set of self-report questionnaires measuring: (i) teacher’s pupil-control ideology; (ii) perfectionistic and hostile automatic thoughts; (iii) irrational beliefs; (iv) unconditional self-acceptance; (v) early maladaptive schemas; and (vi) dimensions of perfectionism. The result suggests that teachers who adopt a custodial view on pupil control ideology endorse more dysfunctional beliefs than teachers who adopt a humanistic view. They tend to present a higher level of perfectionism, unrelenting standards, and problematic relational beliefs, including schemas of mistrust and entitlement. They also present more often other-directed demands and derogation of other thoughts. Such results picture a dysfunctional view on pupils who misbehave, as adversaries who threaten their rigid and/or perfectionistic expectations.

Not all Perfectionists Are as They Are Assessed: An Investigation of the Psychometric Properties of the Perfectionism Inventory in the Teaching Profession

Perfectionism has been studied for almost 30 years. In the present study, we investigated the internal validity of The Perfectionism Inventory (PI-Hill et al., 2004) in an occupation that encourages perfectionistic tendencies in own behavior or in students' behavior. We collected data from a large sample of schoolteachers (N = 633, 81.18% female, 63.02% from urban areas, 46.66% from secondary schools, mean age = 42.11 years) recruited using a snowball sampling approach, and we analyzed the factor structure of the PI using confirmatory factor analyses. We found that the 8-factor structure of PI provided a reasonable fit root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA = 0.055, 90% CI = (0.053-0.057); SRMR = 0.071]. However, additional analyses revealed problematic divergent validity only in the case of the scales associated with self-evaluative perfectionism, not in the case of the scales associated with conscientious perfectionism. We found that teachers displayed distinguishably different forms of perfectionism only when it referred to own person, not when it referred to perfectionism imposed to others. Based on these findings, we suggested that the PI could provide a useful framework for investigating the role of conscientious-related forms of perfectionism in the development of teacher beliefs regarding their school behavior.