This research aimed to identify whether improvement in working conditions, children's classroom behavior and work-life balance can lower teacher burnout ratio in Pakistan's special schools by using techniques such as emotions regulation. The researcher employed a quantitative research methodology to fulfill the research's purpose. The data for this research was collected using a questionnaire-based instrument. The confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling techniques were used to test the construct validity and underlying structural relationships. The findings demonstrated that the impacts of all three variables are significant in reducing job burnout in teachers. Emotional regulation helps decrease the impact of working conditions and the children's behavior. Nevertheless, it does not aid work-life balance as it requires other techniques of emotional regulation. The research is significant as it highlights the importance of overall working conditions' improvement for teachers working with special needs children. The improvements are essential because the teachers must take extra effort and emotions into their job compared to a typical teacher. The researcher has highlighted the key finding, implications and limitations of this research besides suggesting directions for future research to facilitate peer researchers.
Aiming to reduce the difficulty of managing and motivating knowledge workers (k-workers), and promote the psychological well-being of them in Chinese hospitals, this study examines how k-workers' leader-member exchange (LMX) influences their task performance and the mediation effect of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Through a self-administered survey, valid questionnaires were collected from 384 k-workers in Chinese hospitals, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed for data analysis. The findings show that LMX is positively related to OCB and task performance, and that OCB mediates the relationship between LMX and task performance. This research has theoretical implications and also provides practical suggestions on how to manage, motivate, and inspire k-workers, and promote the psychological well-being of them, and finally enhance the organizational performance in Chinese hospitals.
Existing studies mainly explore the antecedents and distal outcomes of voice behavior of employees. Less is known about what may occur after supervisors endorse ideas of employees. Based on the conservation of resources theory, we explored how and when voice endorsement affects job performance and voice behavior of employees. With the sample of 444 matched supervisor-subordinate pairs from a large organization, we found that voice endorsement of supervisors positively influences voice behavior and job performance of employees through the mediating effects of positive mood and work engagement. Additionally, we found that the voice commitment of employees strengthens the influence of voice endorsement of supervisors on positive mood of employees. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
The organizational justice terminology has had a long journey to become one of the significant contributors to organizational success. Recently, an intense global upsurge in the use of organizational justice terms in publications has forced us for this bibliometric analysis in order to look at the overall publications on organizational justice. The objective of the current research is to advance knowledge about organizational justice research trends using Scopus database and bibliometric analysis research. The analysis was performed to see the publication trends between the years 1941 and 2018; it used authors, journals, countries, academic discipline, research institutes/universities, and various keywords related to organizational justice as search words. After careful consideration and using multiple checkpoints for eliminating irrelevant studies, 5,650 research articles were analyzed. In the realm of organizational justice, procedural justice was the most frequently occurred among other dimensions. Moreover, variables such as organizational trust, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, citizenship behavior, ethics, and turnover are major concepts that occurred within organizational justice research. Some variables with infrequent occurrences, along with future recommendations and study limitations, are also discussed.
Various psychological feelings that commuters might experience due to the shortcomings of a public transport are a major concern for transport policy makers. Those shortcomings would be translated into various negative psychological feelings, which would consequently tarnish the perceived quality of the public transport system in terms of its characteristics, e.g., the perceived quality of the passengers' information system (PIS). A delay has often been defined as the difference between the real arrival of a transport and the scheduled arrival of based on the PIS. The main question this study seeks to answer is how passengers view the PIS while undergoing various psychological negative impacts due to delay? This is especially important when the PIS is not precise. Previous studies on the importance of real-time information mainly focus on the impact of PIS on the satisfaction of commuters, or the reliability of the public transport. However, they rarely consider the negative psychological impacts that delays might have on commuters, and how those negative feelings might be aggravated by providing inaccurate information for the commuters. The proposed study is based on completed questionnaires by 396 passengers waiting for a rail transport in Malaysia; the rail transport was experiencing frequent long delays due to various mechanical malfunctions. In addition, the PIS provided for the passengers were mainly imprecise, and was updated regularly. The relationship between various considered variables, and a related latent factor, were formed by means of factor analysis. The results of internal consistency and validity highlight acceptable factors to be considered for a structural equation modeling (SEM) model. Three latent factors were found to impact the latent factor of PIS. For instance, it was found that the relationship between motion sickness factor and the response of PIS is not by a direct relationship between those two factors, but through the mediation of a latent physiological factor. On the other hand, the impact of the psychological feelings of the commuter by PIS is higher than its physiological effects. The results of this study have an important managerial implication for policy makers that even if the delay is inevitable, an accurate PIS could be provided to reduce the associated negative feelings of delay. Extensive discussion has been had about identification of a best fit model and process of model's parameters' estimation.
Unable to keep pace with the expectations of employers and societies that are constantly changing around the world, higher education policy and talent training have given rise to a gap between university education and employment. However, the higher education and industrial needs derived from technological progress have changed the development in country. This study aims to verify the learning method of Taiwanese vs. Malaysian university students and examines the relationship between teacher knowledge transfer and student employability from the perspective of a social cognitive career theory. In this study, 619 copies of questionnaires from the Taiwanese sample group and 443 copies of questionnaires from the Malaysian sample group were collected in total to compare the two sample groups in the development of student employability. The results indicate that teacher knowledge transfer has significant positive correlations with self-efficacy and a deep approach to learning and student employability, and the self-efficacy and a deep approach to learning have significant positive correlations with student employability in the Taiwanese sample. In Malaysia, except for the path between teacher knowledge transfer and student employability, all paths were significant and positively related. Finally, according to our results and findings, this study proposes several insights with practical and theoretical implications for future study.
The present study aims to examine whether self-efficacy mediates the relationship between optimism, dimensions of psychological well-being, and resilience among Iranian students. The participants in this study included 251 Iranian students from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Structural equation modeling using AMOS 20.0 was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that there were significant relationships between optimism, dimensions of psychological well-being, and resilience among Iranian students of UPM. The study findings presented that self-efficacy mediated the relationship between dimensions of psychological well-being (environmental mastery, autonomy, self-acceptance, positive relations with others, personal growth, and purpose in life) and resilience among Iranian students of UPM. Furthermore, self-efficacy was not observed to mediate the influence of optimism on resilience among Iranian students of UPM. The study's findings help to understand the interrelationship between self-efficacy, various dimensions of psychological well-being, and resilience. Consequently, counselors, psychologists, and instructors can develop and plan valuable strategies to enhance students' psychological factors.
This study investigated the effects of a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) called mindfulness-based peak performance (MBPP) on athletic performance and cognitive functions in archers, as well as the role of psychological status and the dose-response relationship of MBPP in archery performance. Twenty-three archers completed a simulated archery competition and the Stroop task prior to and after MBPP training, which consisted of eight sessions over four weeks, while the mindfulness and rumination levels of the archers were assessed at three time points, namely, before, at the mid-point of, and after the MBPP program. The results revealed that the MBPP program significantly improved the shooting performance (p = 0.002, d = 0.27), multiple cognitive functions (ps < 0.001, d = 0.51~0.71), and mindfulness levels of the archers on the post-test, compared to the pre-test (p = 0.032, η p 2 = 0.15 for general; p = 0.004, η p 2 = 0.22 for athletic). Additionally, negative ruminations level was decreased from the pre-test to the middle-test and post-test (ps < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.43). These findings provide preliminary evidence to support the view that MBPP could serve as a promising form of training for fine motor sport performance, cognitive functions, and specific psychological status, such that it warrants further study.
This study explores how the scholarly accomplishments of students might increment due to specific fundamental causes. The academic performance of the student was prioritized as a dependent variable, and the independent indicators chosen were "information seeking, IT ability, reading/writing capacity, and resilience." At the same time, age, gender, marital status, and family income were included in the control variables. The research subject samples were limited to (N = 288) postgraduate students from three mega universities in Islamabad, Pakistan. Forward regression analysis was performed in this research to decide the impact of the indicators. The results indicate that information seeking affects academic performance positively and significantly. Essentially, the study revealed that information technology (IT) skills make a fundamentally positive and significant impact on academic performance. Reading and writing influenced academic performance considerably. In addition, resilience affected academic performance emphatically and essentially. Further, this research also noted the relationships between information-seeking behaviors, IT ability, reading/writing capacities, and resilience capabilities and the academic performance of students. These variables have a positive impact on the academic performance of students.
The over usage and over dependency on digital devices, like smartphones, has been considered as a growing international epidemic. The increased dependency on gadgets, especially smartphones for personal and official uses, has also brought many detrimental effects on individual users. Hence it is vital to understand the negative effects of smartphone usage on human. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effects of bedtime smartphone usage on work performances, interpersonal conflicts, and work engagement, via the mediating role of sleep quality among employees. Using a cross-sectional study design, a questionnaire-based field survey was conducted on 315 employees who participated as respondents. The results confirmed the negative effects of bedtime smartphone usage on sleep quality. Along with it, the effects of sleep quality on work performances, work engagements and interpersonal conflicts were also proven to be statistically significant. Regarding the mediating role of sleep quality, it was empirically evident that sleep quality mediates the relationship between bedtime smartphone usage with work performances and interpersonal conflicts. The findings revealed that bedtime smartphone usage reduces sleep quality among the employees, resulting in lower work performances and engagements while contributing to higher interpersonal conflicts. The findings concluded that smartphone usage before sleep increases the prospects of employees to be less productive, less engaged, and have more workplace conflicts. The findings warrant the continued managerial as well as academic research attention, as the smartphones are now used by many organisations to run businesses as well.
Introduction: Although the translation and the validation of the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD) are performed in various languages and samples, no study has established the validity and reliability of the Urdu version of MSI-BPD in individuals with cardiac problems. Materials and Methods: The Urdu version of the MSI-BPD was prepared through the standard back-translation method. The translation and adaption were completed in four steps: forward translation, adaption and translation, back translation and committee approach, and cross-language validation. The sample, selected through the purposive sampling method, comprised of 150 adults with cardiac problems (men = 75 and women = 75), with an age range of 23-78 years (M = 55, SD = 10.6). The Cronbach alpha reliability and factorial validity of the MSI-BPD were assessed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Pearson correlation analyses. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability (at 2 weeks' interval) were used to evaluate the reliability. Statistical analyses were performed, using SPSS (version 22) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) software. Results: Preliminary analysis revealed that the overall instrument had good internal consistency (Urdu MSI-BPD α = 0.79; English MSI-BPD α = 0.77) as well as test-retest correlation coefficients for 15 days (r = 0.94). Conclusions: Findings suggested that the MSI-BPD, with important limitations, can be used as an effective preliminary screening tool to measure BPD in Urdu-speaking adults with cardiac problems. Further validations should be conducted to make the translated version of the MSI-BPD an appropriate tool to screen BPD in hospitals and mental health care settings.
Many university students experience high levels of study-related fatigue, hence, necessitating opportunities for restoration. They could potentially benefit from campus-based physical activities that provide them with effective restoration breaks and allow them to return to their studies cognitively refreshed. Thus, a cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the association between perceived restorativeness among postgraduates and their psychological well-being by using the four constructs of Kaplan's attention restoration theory (ART): fascination, being away, extent, and compatibility. In this study, nature view windows were also used as a moderator. Malaysian postgraduate students [n = 192; 94 females; age in years (M = 30.64, SD = 2.73)] completed the Ryff's scale of psychological wellbeing (PWB) and perceived restorativeness scale for activity (PRAS). This study used the partial least squares-structural equation model (PLS-SEM) to examine these relationships. The results demonstrate that three ART constructs, namely, being away, fascination, and compatibility, are significant predictors of psychological well-being across the sample size. Furthermore, for participants who reside in university dormitories, windows that overlook nature can enhance the relationship of being away, compatibility, and fascination to psychological well-being, compared with those with less natural views. Thus, this study confirmed the moderating effect of nature view windows and provided insight into the ART constructs that facilitate and enhance restorative experiences. By strengthening ART with additional factors, this study has also contributed toward the improvement of the psychological well-being of university students.
The tremendous development of the Internet enables people to present themselves freely. Some people may reconstruct their identity on the Internet to build an online identity that is partly or even completely different from their real identity in the offline world. Given that research on online identity reconstruction is fragmented, it is important to evaluate the current state of the literature. In this paper, a review of literature related to online identity reconstruction was conducted. This study summarized the theoretical and methodological preferences of relevant research. In addition, it elaborated why and how people engage in online identity reconstruction. The predictors and effects of online identity reconstruction were also discussed. The results of this study provided an overview of the thematic patterns of existing research. This review also identified current research gaps and recommended possible directions for future studies.
Studies on metacognitive skills have started in the past 30 years and cover various fields, including education. In general, metacognitive skills refer to awareness and monitoring cognitive processes and their ability to sharpen the mind enhancement process. However, much attention has been given to metacognition alone and less focusing on its manifestation in behaviors. Thus, this study aims to conceptualize how metacognitive concepts can be adapted in the context of behaviors. In achieving this, an in-depth analysis of relevant behavioral theories and metacognitive models was conducted. The proposed conceptual framework, named the meta-behavior framework, underscores the importance of the thinking process before an individual engages in action. Undoubtfully, this skill is vital in influencing an individual to plan, monitor and evaluate his/her actions in daily life. In short, the proposed framework is essential in expanding the current knowledge terrain on psychology, which specifically provides a new perspective in understanding how the thinking process determines behavior.
To further promote the development of new ventures, sufficient research and analysis have been conducted on the managers (especially, new venture entrepreneurs) and employees of new ventures. In this study, the case investigation is adopted to study the psychological stress of new venture entrepreneurs, the psychological capital of college athletes and the cultivation of employability. The research results show that there is no significant difference in career guidance curriculum and employability among students with different academic performances (p > 0.05), but there is a significant difference in psychological capital among students with different academic performances (p < 0.05). The career guidance curriculum, employability, and psychological capital have different correlation degrees. The career guidance curriculum has a significantly positive impact on the employability of students, and psychological capital plays a mediating role in the impact of the career guidance curriculum on employability. The analysis of the psychological stress of new venture entrepreneurs indicates that the stress of the dimension of resource requirements is the least. Meanwhile, the psychological stress of new entrepreneurs has a positive impact on new venture performance. The research content is fully considered, which can provide a scientific and effective reference for the follow-up research.
The swift growth and progress of colleges and universities across China noticed a request for teaching and learning English as Foreign Language (EFL), and regarding the quality of higher education, student engagement has been at the center of attention which has a remarkable role due to the arrival of positive psychology in language learning recently. To this end, on the one hand, nurturing student engagement in EFL classes corresponds to requests from the recent national university English curriculum selected in 2015 in China. On the other hand, a bulk of studies has acknowledged difficulties that hinder the construction of a learner-centric learning situation. Moreover, there is a dearth of inquires which have focused on teachers' role in general and affective aspects namely enthusiasm, in particular. According to the literature review, the definition of these constructs, namely teacher enthusiasm and students' success and engagement are presented. In a nutshell, the implications for teachers, university administrators, teacher-trainers, and future researchers are presented, and new directions for future research are allocated.
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory MCMI-III is a multidimensional measure of psychopathology with excellent construct validity, test-retest reliability as well as internal consistency. Factor analysis of the MCMI-III has produced mixed results, extracting parsimonious three-factor solutions, or replicating the original four-factor solution in psychiatric samples from Western countries. However, little work has been done on the psychometric properties of the MCMI-III, using non-Western psychiatric samples. Outpatients (N = 212) completed the MCMI-III during a semi-structured interview. Eight exploratory factor analysis (EFA) methods were used to explore the underlying structure of MCMI-III. Skewness, kurtosis, and descriptive statistics confirmed that scales of MCMI-III were normally distributed. High-internal consistency was found. The eight EFA methods applied to the 24 clinical scales identified a consensual three-factor solution: factor I (internalizing psychopathology; 18 scales), factor II (externalizing psychopathology; 4 scales) and factor III (psychological disturbance; 2 scales), accounting for a total of 72% of the common variance. Regarding the cross-cultural equivalence of the MCMI-III structure, Tucker's congruence coefficient (Φ) was used and confirmed that internalizing (F1) and externalizing psychopathology (F2) factors obtained in this study are similar to high vs. low psychopathology and emotional constraint factors provided by American study of Haddy et al. (2005) (Φ was 0.86 and 0.97). These two factors are also similar to the general adjustment and antisocial acting out factors provided by the American study of Craig and Bivens (1998) (Φ was 0.82 and 0.96). The first two factors in this study also reflect high similarity with the factor solutions obtained with the Italian and Dutch versions of MCMI-III (Rossi et al., 2007; Pignolo et al., 2017). Despite using a psychiatric sample from a non-Western culture, the two factors identified for this MCMI-III Arabic version were similar to those reported on studies with MCMI-III, using primarily Western samples (Craig and Bivens, 1998; Rossi et al., 2007).
Given the centrality of students' engagement in their academic success, considerable attention has been paid to this construct and its potential predictors. Notwithstanding, a limited number of studies have focused on the role of teacher self- and collective efficacy as antecedents of student engagement. Further, no review study has been carried out to illustrate the impact of EFL teacher' efficacy on learning engagement. Hence, the current study intends to review the previous studies conducted on this topic to probe into the beneficial effects of EFL teachers' sense of efficacy on students' academic engagement. The predictability power of EFL teachers' self- and collective efficacy was confirmed through empirical and theoretical evidence. The conclusion and pedagogical implications of the finding are also discussed.
Positive teacher-student interaction can exert a positive influence on student engagement and math performance. As an important part of teacher-student interaction, emotional support of a teacher plays an indispensable role in the math performance of junior middle school and elementary school students. This study aimed to explore the effects of teacher's emotional support on math performance, and examine the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and math behavioral engagement. A total of 1,294 students in grades 3-5 and 7-8 from 14 junior middle and primary schools in China took part in the web-based survey. Results showed the following: (1) academic self-efficacy mediated the relationship between teacher's emotional support and math performance of Chinese primary and middle school boys and girls; math behavioral engagement mediated the relationship between teacher's emotional support and math performance of Chinese primary and middle school boys and girls; (2) The relationship between teacher's emotional support and math performance of Chinese junior middle school boys and girls was mediated by the chain of academic self-efficacy and math behavioral engagement.
The senior market signifies an enormous, rapidly expanding segment, and this research aimed to investigate this segment by proposing a theoretical model incorporating the antecedents of consumer flow experience, flow theory, and technology acceptance model (TAM) devised for determining social media purchase intention. This study focuses on the senior citizens engaged in shopping using social media located in Pakistan. A total of 300 senior citizens were selected. An online survey was conducted with the help of a marketing research agency located in Pakistan. The data were analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) method. According to the results, the antecedents, such as feedback, enjoyment, and time distortion were found to be in a positive relationship with flow experience, however, the concentration did not have a significant effect on the flow. Furthermore, the flow was found to be in a significant relationship with social media purchase intention and TAM. Finally, TAM was also found to be in a positive significant relationship with social media purchase intention. This research contributes to the constantly expanding volume of the utilization of social media by the senior market segment population for buying and producing the highly valuable knowledge for manufacturers, wholesalers, vendors, and a huge number of senior customers.