Personal efficiency and subjective wellbeing in the academic environment

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Personal efficiency and subjective well-being in
the academic environment

• Cristescu Ioana Irina
• student
• Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
• University of Bucharest, Romania
• Contact data irinacristescu_at_yahoo.com

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• the sample and the methodology of this study
  belong to a research project named Research on
  student adaptation strategies to academic
  environment
• conducted by a team of professors from the
  Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences,
  University of Bucharest, with Prof. univ. dr.
  Mielu Zlate as the director of the project
• with the support of The Romanian Ministry of
  Education and Research and The National
  University Research Council
• goal the evaluation and improvement of students
  adaptation to college.

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Personal efficiency
Difficulties in defining efficiency

• Lack of terminological consensus

efficiency effectivness efficacy effectivity effec
tuality efectualness

• Widley variant meanings in different disciplines

economic efficiency algorithmic
efficiency textual efficiency electrical
efficiency thermodynamic efficiency mechanical
efficiency
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Personal efficiency

• Psychological point of view

Edgar Schein
the ability of a system of surviving,
adapting, maintaining and
developing (apud Zlate, 2004)
Campbell, Muchinsky
Evaluative dimension
an evaluation of performance results (apud
Zlate, 2004).
Performance dimension
Ollivier
a state of mind, that translates a different
manner of conceiving the events
an art of living
Axiological dimension
a philosophy of action,
a discipline of the spirit (apud Zlate, 2004).
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Personal efficiency

• Psycho organizational point of view

• organizational efficiency

• group efficiency

• interpersonal eficiency

• personal efficiency

Personal efficiency is centered on the individual
and his personal features

• goals
• beliefs
• motivations
• qualities
• abilities

Axiological dimension
Motivational dimension
Skill dimension
Mielu Zlate
personal efficiency is the manner in which the
individual controls his own resources, especially
the psychological ones, as well as the results he
obtains (Zlate, 2004).
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Personal efficiency
Jean Francois Decker the resources required for
obtaining efficiency
Motivational dimension

• desire, motivation to fulfill the specifies goals

• Confidence in succeeding and as well in personal
  abilities and qualities

Self-confidence dimension

• decision in achieving the goals, decision that
  allows mobilizing the resources and capacities.

Decisional dimension
Guy Missoum psychological potential (among other
factors like mental training and mental
strategies) to be an important factor of personal
efficiency.
Cognitive dimension

• information processing
• proper management of effort
• proper management ofenergy and emotions
• maintenance of optimal interpersonal
  relationships
• self-confidence.

Regulatory, energetic, emotional dimension
Psychosocial dimension
Self-confidence dimension
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Personal efficiency

• Psycho educational point of view

1977- Alfred Bandura Perceived self-efficacy
people's beliefs about their capabilities to
produce designated levels of performance that
exercise influence over events that affect their
lives (Bandura, 1994).
Self-evaluative dimension
Studies
college self-efficacy was significantly
associated with college satisfaction (DeWitz,
Walsh, 2002).
Self-efficacy beliefs provide the foundation for
human motivation, well-being, and personal
accomplishment (Pajares, 2002).
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Synthesis
Cognitive dimension
Decisional dimension
Skill dimension
Regulatory, energetic, emotional dimension
Performance dimension
Axiological dimension
Evaluative dimension
Self-confidence dimension
Psychosocial dimension
Motivational dimension
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Personal academic efficiency
1. Objective dimension - final grades -
results at the most difficult exam - the number
of failed exams 2. Axiological dimension -
the way that intellectualism, academic
achievement, status and independence are
valued 3. Self evaluative dimension -self
evaluation of academic performance, self
evaluation of social interactions in the academic
environment (with colleagues,
teachers), self evaluation of verbal interactions
(during the courses, seminaries) -self
confidence (These dimensions also involve the
interpersonal dimension). 4. Psychosocial
dimension - social avoidance in the academic
environment - social anxiety in the academic
environment - social difficulties in the
academic environment 5. Motivational dimension
- the type of motivation that orientated the
student in choosing the academic
specialization 6. Academic environment
integration dimension - the degree of
correspondence between academic specialization
and personal skills and abilities - the degree
that students believe that the college will help
them to fulfill their ideals - the degree that
students believe that the college will help them
to find a place in life - the degree that
students are willing to involve in the academic
study in order to achieve their goals - the
degree students believe that future success
depends on the results they achieve in college
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Well-being

• Lack of terminological consensus

• quality of life
• well-being
• happiness
• subjective well-being
• psychological well-being
• objective well-being, life satisfaction
• hedonic and eudaimonic well-being

 The difference depends on who and what you
read. Some researchers will state that many of
the terms are synonymous, whereas others insist
that there are fundamental differences (Hird,
2003).
Objective well-being

• refers to non-feelings (Gasper, 2004)
• health state, financial status, socio-economical
  and demographic variables
• objective well-being is about indicators of
  housing, income, job, education and
  health(Hird, 2003)

Subjective well-being

• refers to feelings (Gasper, 2004)
• peoples emotional responses, domain
  satisfactions, and global judgments of life
  satisfaction (Deiner, 1999)

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Diener, Suh and Oishi defined subjective
well-being (SWB) as a field of psychology that
attempts to understand people's evaluations of
their lives. A person's evaluation of his or her
life may be in the form of evaluative judgments
about the satisfaction with life as a whole or in
the form of pleasant or unpleasant affects.

• Subjective well-being can be divided into
• Cognitive component - satisfaction with the
  various domains of life
• Affective component - pleasant affect can be
  divided into specific emotions such as joy,
  affection, and pride
• - unpleasant affect can be separated into
  specific emotions and moods such as shame,
  guilt, sadness, anger, and anxiety (Diener,
  2004).

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Subjective well-being
Personal academic efficiency
Performance dimension
Satisfaction
Axiological dimension
Self evaluation dimension
Positive affect
Psychosocial dimension
Motivational dimension
Negative affect
Integration in the academic environment
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Objectives

• identifying and measuring several factors
  involved in the academic environment that are
  strongly related and have a great impact on
  students well-being, as well as the nature of
  this relation. At a more particular level, the
  study focuses on the dimensions of personal
  academic efficiency that exercise a significant
  influence on the well-being of students in the
  academic environment.

• establishing the amount of contribution brought
  by every particular variable in part on students
  well-being. A comparative analysis is conducted,
  regarding the degree in which school grades and
  performances contribute to students well-being
  (as an objective dimension), in comparison with
  the other dimensions of personal efficiency.

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Hypotheses
The first hypothesis sustains that the dimensions
of personal academic efficiency exercise a
significant influence on students well-being.
The second hypothesis sustains that school
performances exercise a low influence on
students well-being in comparison to the other
dimensions of personal academic efficiency.
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Participants

• 618 students
• in the second year of study
• from different faculties from the University of
  Bucharest
• Economical Sciences, Social Assistance, Physics,
  Geography, History, Foreign Languages,
  Linguistic, Mathematics, Psychology and
  Sociology.

All participants were full time students
attending an optional psycho-pedagogical course.
The data collection took place during the first
semester of the second year of study and the
participants completed written questioners
regarding their experiences in the first year of
study, a period of great transition in the life
of every student.
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Instruments
The instruments are the ones of the research
project named Research on student adaptation
strategies to academic environment, conducted by
a team of professors from the Faculty of
Psychology and Educational Sciences, University
of Bucharest formed by Prof. univ. dr. Mielu
Zlate (director of the project), Prof. univ. dr.
Tinca Cretu, Conf. univ. dr. Valeria Negovan,
Lect. univ. Romeo Cretu and Prep. univ. Eugen
Avram. The inventories used contain different
scales and were validated by the members of the
project team named above. The Inventory of
Personal Values (PVS Scott) with the scales of
Intellectualism, Academic Accomplishment, Status
and Independence. The Inventory of Affective
Balance (Bradburn) with the scales of Positive
Affect and Negative Affect. The Inventory of
Personal Evaluation (PVI Shrauger) with the
scales of Academic Performance, Social
Interaction and Verbal Interaction. The Inventory
of Anxiety and Social Avoidance (SAD Watson,
Friend) with the scales of Anxiety and Social
Avoidance. The Inventory of Satisfaction (LSIA
Neugarten) with the scales of Mood Tone, Zest for
Life, Congruence between Goal and
Accomplishment. The Inventory of Occupational
Values (V. Negovan) with the scales of Centred on
Being, Centred on Having, Centred on Doing. The
Inventory of Integration in the Academic
Environment (T. Cretu). The Inventory of
Anticipations regarding Profession (M. Zlate, E.
Avram). Except for the Inventory of Personal
Values, the Inventory of Occupational Values, the
Inventory of Personal Evaluation, the Inventory
of Integration in the Academic Environment and
the Inventory of Anticipations regarding
Profession, all others regard the experiences
students had in the first year of study.
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Results and discussions
The statistical analysis successfully confirmed
the first hypothesis that sustained that
students well-being is significantly influenced
by the dimensions of personal academic
efficiancy. A multiple regression analisys
revealed the following results
- 52.9 of students satisfaction in the
academic environment can be explained on the
basys of the dimensions of personal academic
efficiency - 41.3 of students positive affect
experienced in the academic environment can be
explained on the basys of the dimensions of
personal academic efficiency - 53.1 of
students negative affect experienced in the
academic environment can be explained on the
basys of the dimensions of personal academic
efficiency
Satisfaction
Performance dimension
52.9
Axiological dimension
Self evaluation dimension
41.3
Positive affect
Personal academic efficiency
Psychosocial dimension
Motivational dimension
Integration in the academic environment
53.1
Negative affect
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Of all the particular dimensions of personal
academic efficiency, the self-evaluative one has
been proven to have the greatest impact,
explaining approximately 30 of the total
variance of well-being.
We can talk about the determinants of well-being
in terms of perception, in terms of self-image,
of perceived self-efficacy as Bandura stated.
subjective assessments are more influential in
determining well-being and life satisfaction than
objective circumstances(Hutchinson,2004).
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T-test comparison revealed that
intrinsic-motivated students are significantly
more satisfied, and are experiencing more
positive affects in the first year of study then
the extrinsic-motivated ones. (The questionnaire
belongs to Prof. Univ. Dr. Tinca Cretu)
The T-test comparison showed that the students
who were motivated in their decision by teachers
are shown to be significantly more satisfied, as
well as efficient in the academic environment in
comparison with the students influenced by
parents or colleagues, friends. (The
questionnaire belongs to Prof. Univ. Dr. Tinca
Cretu)
The interpersonal and psychosocial dimension of
personal efficiency was found to explain 27,5 of
the total satisfaction experienced by the student
in the academic environment.
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All these dimensions are minimized or neglected
when referring to academic efficiency. Students
academic achievement is often judged only by the
academic performance academic achievement may
be high, medium or low in accordance to the
correlation between academic acquirements and
obtained performances (Golu, 2003, p. 339).
But the same author points that, even though
it is expressed by performances, the academic
success does not reduce to them. It is a much
more complex construct that engages, beyond the
final, resulting expression of performance,
numerous psychological and extra psychological
variables, cognitive and non-cognitive, personal
and interpersonal, individual and social
variables (Golu, 2003, p339). As we can see,
the role of academic performances is
overemphasized and limits the theoretical
conceptions regarding improving personal academic
efficiency, as well as the practical
possibilities and solutions for increasing
well-being.
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The statistical analysis also confirmed the
second hypoyhesis that sustained that school
performances exercise less influence on students
well-being than the other dimensions of personal
academic efficiency.
A linear regression analisys revealed the
following results - only 6,2 of the total
variance of satisfaction can be explained on the
basys of school performances - only 6,1 of the
total variance of positive affect can be
explained on the basys of school performances -
only 4,4 of the total variance of negative
affect can be explained on the basys of school
performances
6,2
Satisfaction
Performance dimension
6,1
4,9
Axiological dimension
Positive affect
Self evaluation dimension
Psychosocial dimension
49.6
Motivational dimension
36,2
Negative affect
Integration in the academic environment
52,6
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• students with high grades are found to be more
  satisfied in the academic environment (t3,056,
  plt0,01), experiencing significantly more intense
  positive affects (t3,665, plt0,01) than the ones
  with low grades.
• students with failed exams appeared to be
  significantly less satisfied (t2.663, plt001) and
  to experience less intense positive affects
  (t-3,549, plt0,01).
• the statistical analysis shows a Pearson
  correlation coefficient r 0,239, plt0,01 between
  final grades and satisfaction and r0,325, plt0,01
  between final grades and positive affects. There
  has also been found a negative correlation
  between the number of failed exam and
  satisfaction on one hand (r-0,221, p,0,01), and
  positive affect on the other hand (r-0,237,
  plt0,01).

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The issues discussed below should not be
neglected because they exercise a major
contribution to students well-being in the
academic environment.
An appropriate management and control of these
factors could lead to an improvement of the
efficiency and quality of the academic
environment, and all these should be taken into
account when developing strategies for promoting
well-being
Thank you
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