Does a Teacher’s Attitude Affect a Student’s Psycho-academic Development?

Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez

Does a Teacher’s Attitude Affect a Student’s Psychoacademic Development?

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Abstract

2. Introduction

3. Does teacher feedback affect learning?

4. Cognitive explanation

5. Neurological explanation

6. Self efficiency

7. Psychodynamic explanation

8. Conclusion

9. Appendix

10. Bibliography

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez

ABSTRACT

This Dissertation argues that the teacher’s attitude has an effect on the pupil’s psycho-academic development. This dissertation is supported by the theory of emotional intelligence and the studies by Jacobson and Rosenthal, Nixon, Boyatzis, and many others.

Therefore, this firmly concludes that a positive attitude from the teacher will elicit a response of greater self-esteem of the pupil which will be the base for a personal and academic development; by contrast, a negative attitude of undervaluation from the teacher will act as a limiting factor of the student’s performance.

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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1st Chapter. INTRODUCTION

This paper will study how the teacher’s attitude towards the student, affects their psycho-academic development to conclude that a positive attitude from the teacher will acquire a response of greater self-esteem in the pupil which will be the basis for a personal and academic development. By contrast, a negative attitude of undervaluation from the teacher will act as a cause effect of the student’s performance. To understand the impact of this cause-effect relationship between teacher and pupil, this dissertation will be divided into five chapters.

Chapter One will explore whether the ways in which a teacher’s feedback or attitudes affects the learning of the pupil. This will be shown through previous research from different educational and non-educational psychologists and sociologists such as Nixon, Flanders, Rosenthal and Jacobson and many others.

Chapter Two will examine the cognitive explanation of the effect of the teacher on the pupil. This chapter will expose the theory of emotional intelligence and emotional contagion and relate it to the chosen argument. The chapter looks at how the negative and positive emotional attractors act and what happens when the pupil enters the

parasympathetic or the sympathetic nervous

systems. These concepts will be explained in this chapter.

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15 Chapter

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez Three

shows

a

neurological

explanation

for

this

cause

effect

relationship. This chapter will explain how different hormones and chemicals are activated and the effect they have, depending on what kind of stress the student is under. The information explained will be supported with many researchers, such as Leudox, Boyatzis and others.

Chapter Four will expose how the theory of self-efficacy explains this causeeffect relationship. During this chapter, self-efficacy is also linked to personality. Research by Kobasa, Friedman and Rosenman, Collins and others will be used to support the information.

Chapter Five presents the psychodynamic explanation. This chapter explains how humanist psychologists, such as Maslow and Freud, can understand the pupil’s

psychological

process

and

how

it

can

affect

their

academic

development. The summary and its consequent conclusion will be exposed in the final part of the Dissertation. As a result of what has been examined it might be said that teachers have a massive and determinant impact on the psycho-academic development of the pupil.

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez

2nd Chapter. DOES TEACHER FEEDBACK AFFECT LEARNING?

This chapter will give evidence that illustrates how the teacher’s attitude can affect the pupils’ behaviour. Research by Nixon, Brophy and Good and many others psychologists and sociologists will be discussed in this chapter.

Research by Masud Khawaja (in Boyatzis R. 2015) studied the degree of treatment adherence for Type 2 Diabetes. He found that the doctor-patient relationship does affect treatment adherence, but they are fully mediated through the patient’s experience of the degree of the positive emotional attractor to negative emotional attractor (see chapter three) in his or her relationship

to

physicians.

relationship

can

have

an

In

the

effect

same on

the

way

the

teacher’s

performance

and

and

pupil’s

psychological

development of the student.

Other research by Flanders (in Gross, R. 2005) aimed to confirm whether or not

students

are

aware of

teacher’s

behaviour

towards

them.

Flanders

reviewed eleven of his studies and found that pupils were able to know whether they were getting supportive accepting (approval) statements and directive- critical (disapproval) statements. He explained that the appearance and amount of intercommunications determine the student’s attitude towards the teacher, the learning activities and the self-as-learner. He concluded that, if these attitudes are negative, when they are combined they can make a student care less about the subject.

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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Another theory that explains the ability of students to understand their teacher’s behaviour is the teacher expectancy effect by Brophy and Good (in Gross, R. 2005). They described the effect six steps. The teacher forms different assumptions obtained for student performance; then, the teacher begins to behave in a different manner with every pupil in accordance with his/her expectations; the pupils respond abnormally to the teacher because they are being treated differently by him/her. In response to the teacher, each pupil tends to exhibit behaviour which compliments and reinforces the teacher’s particular

expectation

of

him/her;

as

a

result,

the

general

academic

performance of some pupils will be meritorious while the behaviour of others will be depressed, with changes being in the direction of the teacher’s predictions. The effects will show up in the academic achievemt tests which will support the self fulfilling prophecy.

Another way in which students’ psychological achievement can be affected was shown in an experiment by Nixon C. (in Zooey Girl 2007), which aimed to understand how learned helplessness happens and how it feels. Nixon gave three acronyms to her classroom in a piece of paper. Then, she told the participants that they were easy. The first half of the room had two easy words, “Bat” that was “Tab” and “Lemon” which was “Melon”. In contrast the other half had insolvable acronyms. The third word was the same for both parts, “Cinerama” which was “American”. She told the participants to do one at the time and that when they finished putting their hands up. She found that

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez

those participants doing the hardest acronyms gave up when they got to the third word because their self-esteem was lowered by seeing the others being able to do the same task easily when they couldn’t. They said they felt frustrated and stupid because they couldn’t do it. With this experiment she concluded learned helplessness was induced when the teacher told them the acronyms where easy as it lowered their self-esteem. This experiment shows the teacher can easily affect the students by inducing learned helplessness or lowering self-esteem.

The psycho-academic development of the pupils can also be affected by the teacher’s assumptions. The theory of self-fulfilling prophecy believes that when a teacher has certain expectations from the pupil, the pupil will fulfil them. This is proven in the experiment by Rosenthal and Jacobson (in Legge, K. 201415). They told teachers at a primary school that they were trying out a new test designed to predict academic blooming (future intellectual improvements). Although it was a standard IQ test, five children were chosen at random from each class and their teachers were told that they had scored high on the test and were therefore going to improve academically during the becoming year. Over the next year, the children were given the same IQ test three more times. The teachers were also asked to describe the classroom behaviour of all their students. Rosenthal and Jacobson found the IQ test scores of pupils indentified as ‘bloomers’ improved significantly more than those of other children. This was particularly strong for the younger children. Those identified as ‘bloomers’ were described by their teachers as more curious, more

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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interesting and happier than other children. Out of pupils not identified as ‘bloomers’, those who showed the most improvement in IQ were actually rated least favourably by their teachers.

Another way in which self-fulfilling prophecy can occur in schools is through streaming. Becker (in Legge, K. 2014-5) believes that once students are set is very difficult for them to move between streams. Those in lower streams realise very quickly that they have less potential and are less able than others, therefore they stand less chance of success. These children will believe so and stop bothering as they have accepted they are not going to do well.

The following chapters can explain the pupils’ development in different ways, starting by the cognitive approach.

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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3rdChapter. COGNITIVE APPROACH

This chapter will explain the concepts of parasympathetic and sympathetic

nervous systems; it also looks at how the negative and positive emotional attractors act.

When teachers act based on their emotional intelligence, the students do better. According to the theory of emotional intelligence, great leaders need to inspire through hope, vision, compassion and mindfulness (Richard Boyatzis 2005). Teachers, as leaders, need to do this as well. The vision can be inspired if it involves a meaning and an aspiration for something bigger than us, which stimulates hope. The compassion is inspired through trust and care; which

means,

opening

someone’s

self

out

and

caring

for

the

future

development of others, which, in this case, are the pupils. Teachers need empathy and caring for their students, with this combination, students may feel part of the team that the classroom may represent; therefore, students work harder for themselves and the rest of the group. Also, when someone feels someone cares about them they respond by not wanting to let them down and caring for the subject and what the teacher means to them. Mindfulness can be inspired by someone who is genuine or acts with genuine behaviour. All of these things conspire to make someone who is a resonant leader more inspiring.

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez

For teachers to be effective leaders, it is needed to have a serial of threshold and performance distinguishing competencies (Boyatzis 2001). A competency is a set of related and

different behaviours, which are organized around

underlying construct called the intent, which distinguishes effective performance. The threshold competencies involve the ones needed to be an average teacher, which include expertise and experience; knowledge and cognitive

competencies such as memory and deductive reasoning. The performance distinguishing competencies involve cognitive competencies such as system thinking and pattern recognition; emotional intelligence competencies such as emotional-self awareness, adaptability, emotional self control, positive outlook and achievement orientation; social intelligence competencies such as social awareness and relationship management competencies such as empathy and team work. This was shown in a study by Boyatzis’ and James Burris (in Boyatzis, R. 2005), they found that the key for effective coaching competencies of coaches were emotional self awareness of emotional intelligence, empathy of social intelligence and pattern recognition of cognitive intelligence.

In contrast, even when students have resonant leaders as teachers, it doesn’t always bring out the best in them, sometimes because of the stress or other things going on outside their sixth form. To help in bringing out the best of them the parasympathetic system, or renewal cycle, needs to be equal to the

sacrifice syndrome or the sympathetic system. Gervais (2005) did a study on daily hassles, which create stress in a day-to-day basis. They found that daily hassles decreased performance at work, they also found that uplifts counteract

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

daily hassles improving performance.

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez

Uplifts are experiences that can evoke

the parasympathetic system such as mindfulness (such as praying, meditating, martial arts or yoga), hope (feeling hopeful about the future), compassion (volunteering or giving care for someone) and playfulness (laugh and joy). In contrast, chronic and acute stress will attract the sympathetic system through

daily hassles. For example, a teacher could try to get the students thinking about what would happen if they get an A before starting to work, to create

mindfulness.

Coaching with compassion can invoke the Positive Emotional Attractor. What makes students change according to Boyatzis (2011) are tipping points in the

Positive Emotional Attractor. The Positive Emotional Attractor is a state which is the opposite of the Negative Emotional Attractor. The Positive Emotional

Attractor often happens when someone opens up a possibility. Boyatzis predicted 80%-100% of the stories people remembered had to do with somebody who invoked this part of aspiration, ideal self, personal vision, or somebody who believed in the student and give them a possibility. The combination of evoking the possible of your part vision and your strength is what he calls activating the Positive Emotional Attractor. When students are able to remember a lesson or a particular moment is because it evoked their

Positive Emotional Attractor. This helps the student associate the topic with a happy memory and it is easier to remember when revising for the exam.

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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Boyatzis believes we need both, the Negative Emotional Attractor to help us survive and the positive to help us change and get better at something. In the

Negative Emotional Attractor the individual goes into defence and blocks out any knew possibilities. The Negative emotions are stronger than Positive; therefore we remember them for a longer period of time. According to Boyatzis (in Boyatzis, R. 2015) for every one daily hassle or negative emotional

Attractor we need three uplifts or Positive Emotions Attractor, which goes against the belief of Gervais.

The theory of emotional intelligence also outlines two types of coaching.

Coaching

with

compassion

and

coaching

for

compliance.

Coaching

for

compliance is what people often do, specially teachers, they try to help somebody ascertain what they are supposed to do to change to fit into the teacher’s view of what they should be or how they should act. When this happens, the person tries to defend themselves, they go into the Negative

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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Emotional Attractor, sympathetic nervous system and they start to close down. The Case Western University in America, through multiple research, has found that as soon as people are given data feedback they go into the sympathetic

nervous system and they try to protect themselves. In contrast, coaching with compassion involves mindfulness and hope, which open up new possibilities that may involve changing and working hard. Coaching with compassion involves focusing on the person rather than on the problem.

New research by Durlak and Weissberg (in Boyatzis R. 2015) found the importance of emotional intelligence, even for pupils. They did a meta-analysis to see the impact of the emotional intelligence programme which was included in some schools in North America; they studied 649 schools with children from 5 to 18 years old. They found that when a school had an emotional

intelligence programme it had a huge effect on the peer respect of children and the pupil’s grade among all subjects, increased a 28% in grades and 39% in child performance on standardised performance. They concluded that by helping the students know how to deal with their emotions and the emotions of others they can pay more attention in other subjects.

Another important side of emotional intelligence is emotional contagion. In a classroom environment, the teacher has a leader role, as a result the student will pay very detailed attention to the teacher and therefore they can be very influenced by him/her. When the teacher enters the classroom, the students can very easily notice his/her mood, not through a smile or an angry face but

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez

through body language. This also means that if the teacher tries to show a happy state through a smile but their body language shows the opposite, the student can be confused. These emotions are able to be noticed and transmitted

into the students

very

easily.

Likewise,

the

aspirations

and

expectations of something are also contagious. This is why the teacher needs to have dreams and aspirations for the students but without giving them false expectations. This means the teacher needs to transfer certain optimism to students but it needs to be kept within reality.

In conclusion, this theory outlines that teachers can help students’ development through cognitive skills of emotional intelligence and emotional contagion. The teacher can make a task be uplifting instead of a daily hassles, making the student to have a more pleasant experience. Another way of explaining the psychological

effect

of

students’

development

approach.

15

can

be

the

neurological

Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez

4thChapter. NEUROLOGICAL EXPLANATION

This chapter will explain the relationship between neuroscience and leadership and, as result of this, the psychological development of students linked to neuroscience.

According to the theory of emotion by Cannon (1927), perception of emotions arousing stimulus consists on the hypothalamus sending impulses to cortex for a conscious experience, it also sends impulses to the hypothalamus for psychological changes from visceral. The hypothalamus manages the majority of our responses, through the amygdala.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, there are two types of relationships,

resonant and dissonant relationships. Previous research has shown that with resonant relationship there is an improvement in the person’s performance, in this case the student.

Boyatzis, Koening, Lowe, Mathew, Passarelli, Stoller

and Phillips (in Boyatzis, R. 2015) did a study of 9 year old executives of neuron activation of the response to resonant versus dissonant leaders in their lives. They were recalling their experiences with resonant and dissonant

experiences, 6 experiences for each person, a type of relationship was extracted and narrated back to them, asking them to response to those experiences, their responses were studied a number of weeks later with an F.R.I. scanner. When the resonant experience was recalled they found a great activation of mirror neuron networks where as they were deactivated when

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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they heard the narration of the dissonant relationships. The mirror neuron network are parts of the brain that allow us to mimic others actions (Lacoboni and Rizzolatti in Boyatzis, R. 2015). Some of those neurons are Hymodynamic

sympathetic networks which allow us to deactivate our brain to other emotions and block them (Desetti and Bateson in Boyatzis, R. 2015). They showed that recalling with resonant leaders activated the social network. However, when they reacted to the dissonant relationship, about a third of the time, they were activating these social network neurons, but two thirds of the time they were suppressing them. In the same way, when teachers and pupils have dissonant relationships, it suppress the social network, therefore students are closed to new possibilities and go into the sympathetic nervous system.

Other research by professor Jack in Neurolage (In Boyatzis, R. 2015) showed that when students are given an analytic task (something that requires analysis)

it activates the task positive network, a part of the brain which is

part of our executive functioning and which enables us to focus and solve the problem, but it blocks out other positives. In the article he wrote, in which he explained how when we are given social situations to deal with, a different network is activated, the social network. He showed that these two networks are completely independent to each and suppressed each other. We need both, the task positive to solve things and the social to deal with emotions and be open to different possibilities. In other words, when students are doing tasks such as essays in which they have analyse a topic they go into the task

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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positive network, this means while doing this they will not be open to the characteristics of a resonant relationship, such as mindfulness.

The research by Joseph Ledoux (In Boyatzis, R. 2015) into chronic and acute stress has shown that when we start to get some basic data from our five senses into our brain, it hits the hypothalamus and within eight milliseconds it hits the Amygdala. The Amygdala goes into alarm, it takes about forty milliseconds to get to the other parts of the Neocortex, to frame actual what might later become a conscious thought. During that process the body activates the Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Axis or Sympathetic nervous

system. This is the body’s fight or flight response. The body starts to secrete three

endocrines,

in

particular

Epinephrine, Norepinephrine and

Cortisol.

Norepinephrine and Epinephrine are both hormones and neurotransmitters, one of their jobs is to be vasoconstrictors, this makes the blood pressure go up and breathing starts getting more shallow, Epinephrine pulls blood from the capillaries, fingerprints, nose, ears, and extremities to go to the large muscle groups in the arms so you could fight, the Norepinephrine to go to your large muscle groups in your legs so you can run. In the process, it also pulls blood from capillaries in the brain. The net effect is that when the body is under this process of chronic stress the person doesn’t have access to all of their neural networks. The cortisol steroids are going into the blood stream, which is used as anti inflammatory and to convert glucose, but cortisol has two down effects, it turns off the immune system and it inhibits to the point of almost stopping

neurogenesis . Neurogenesis is the growth of new neural tissue. When people

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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are under this chronic deluge of stress they are also under a degree of cognitive, perceptual and emotional impediment.

When a student is under

chronic or acute stress due to exams or any other factors, they are more likely to not be open to doing certain activities or doing extra work for the subject at home. This can be solve by making students go into the

parasympathetic nervous system, when this happens a different network is activated, message goes through the amygdala and hits the orbital frontal cortex, part of the nucleus accumbens, very often getting a stimulation of the

vagus nerve. As this circuit starts to hit other parts of your brain a set of hormones are segregated into the bloodstream, primarily oxytocin in women and vasopressin in men. These are vasodilators, so they open up the blood vessels, the pulse goes down and therefore the body can renew itself and neurogenesis is able to happen. In this moment the person is at its best to do complicated tasks and be open to new ideas.

This can be done through

mindfulness, compassion or other characteristics of coaching with compassion mentioned in the previous chapter.

As shown through the previous chapter and this one, the cognitive and neurological approaches are linked. Both approaches explain how the activation of

the

sympathetic

nervous

system

affects

the

students’

psychological

development and how this affects their performance. Also both show how this can be counteracted through the parasympathetic nervous system which can be evoked through coaching with compassion.

The following chapter will

explain the student’s psycho-academic development debate through a different

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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approach,

self-efficacy.

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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5thChapter. SELF EFFICACY

This chapter explains how the teacher’s attitude can affect the psychological achievement of pupils according to the theory of Self-Efficacy. Self-Efficacy is part of Badura’s Social Learning Theory, which beliefs that our ability of learning is based on what others think of us and the consequences that others action have. According to Bandura (in Abbott, T. 2001), Self-Efficacy is the assumption in one’s capabilities to organise and to accomplish the courses of action required to deal with coming situations. Self-Efficacy shows confidence in the ability to have control over one’s own behaviour, motivation, and social environment.

One's sense of Self-Efficacy can play a massive role in how

someone approaches goals, tasks, and challenges. In other words, Self-

Efficacy can determine how much confidence a student has in getting an A or a C and therefore on how hard he/she perceives exams, essays and other school work.

This can be seen as the ability to persist and a person's ability to succeed with a task. As an example, Self-Efficacy directly relates to how long someone will study for and how hard they will study. High and low Self-Efficacy determines whether or not someone will choose to take on a challenging task or "write it off" as impossible.

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It’s believed people with a strong sense of Self-Efficacy view challenging problems as tasks to be mastered, in other words they have a hardy personality (Kobasa 1979). A hardy personality exists in a person who is in control of their own life, someone who has commitment with the world around them and has a strong sense of purpose, and who sees life challenges as problems to overcome rather than threats. They develop deeper interest in the activities in which they participate, due to the strong sense of commitment to their

interests

and

activities;

they

recover

quickly

from

setbacks

and

disappointments. Whereas people with a weak sense of Self-Efficacy avoid challenging tasks, believe that difficult tasks and situations are beyond their capabilities, they focus on personal failings and negative outcomes and quickly lose confidence in personal abilities. So the better the Self-Efficacy is the more commitment and control they have with and over the particular subject.

Bandura identified four factors affecting Self-Efficacy. Experience, or "Enactive Attainment”, the experience of mastering is the most important component for determining a person's Self-Efficacy. Success raises Self-Efficacy, while failure lowers it. For students, and everyone else, the way to master something is practice, the more practice they have, the better they get at it and therefore the more success they will have, but teachers need to encourage this behaviour for students to do it. However, there are some students who don’t need

teachers

to

tell

them

what

they

need

to

do,

they

only

need

encouragement to do better and support, but if teachers try to push this kind

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of students sometimes they will get over-stressed. When this happen they might feel overwhelmed and decide to take a break, by doing this they might start to do worse. Students who are often in this position tend to be type A

personality (Friedman and Rosenman 1959), belief that these people are often stressed, have a sense of impatience, urgency, a sense of competiveness and achievement striving.

Another part of Self-Efficacy is modelling, or Vicarious Experience, it involves the idea of “If they can do it, I can do it as well." When we see someone succeeding, our own self-efficacy increases; whereas when we see people failing, our Self-Efficacy decreases. This process is most effectual when we see ourselves as similar to the model. Although it is not as influential as direct experience, modelling is

especially

useful

for

people who are particularly

unsure of themselves. For example, some students may start doing more work, revising and get better grades if they see others doing so. Although students with a type B personality may not follow this behaviour as they tend to be more laid back (Friedman and Rosenman 1959).

Social

Persuasion

discouragement

from

generally another

manifests person.

as

direct

Discouragement

encouragement is

generally

or more

effective at decreasing a person's Self-Efficacy than encouragement is at increasing it. This tends to be because people often see negative things as being more important than positive things.

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Social persuasion from teachers

Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

Luz Vinuesa Gonzalez

can affect students’ commitment but not always in positive ways, as sometimes students may perceive this as annoying, although when it is combined with mindfulness and a sense of purpose, can have a positive effect. Physiological Factors, in stressful situations, occur when people commonly exhibit signs of distress: shakes, aches and pains, fatigue, fear, nausea, etc. Perceptions of these responses in one’s self can markedly alter Self-Efficacy. Getting 'butterflies in the stomach' before public speaking will be interpreted by someone with low Self-Efficacy as a sign of inability, thus decreasing Self-

Efficacy further, where high Self-Efficacy would lead to interpreting such physiological signs as normal and unrelated to ability. It is one's belief in the implications of physiological response that alters Self-Efficacy, rather than the physiological

response

itself.

When

people

get

nervous

in

certain

circumstances, they often think they can’t do it; however, they need support from parents, teachers or people around them to have more confidence.

Psychologists have studied Self-Efficacy from several perspectives, noting various paths in the development of Self-Efficacy; the dynamics of Self-

Efficacy, and lack therefore, in many different settings; interactions between Self-Efficacy and Self-Concept; and habits of attribution that contribute to, or detract from, Self-Efficacy. Collins (1983) selected children at three different levels of mathematical ability, low, medium and high. Within each of this ability levels, she found children were assured in their perceived mathematical self-

Efficacy and others had self-doubts. They were given difficult problems to

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Does a teacher’s attitudes affect Student’s psychological development? EPQ 14/15

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solve. At each level of ability, children who believed strongly in their capabilities were quicker to discard faulty strategies. They chose to rework more of the problems they failed and did so more accurately than did children of equal ability who were plagued by self-doubts. Positive attitudes toward mathematics were better predicted by perceived Self-efficacy than by actual ability. As this study shows, people who perform poorly may do so because they lack skills or they have the skills but they lack the sense of Self-Efficacy to use their skills well.

In

conclusion,

teacher’s

Self-Efficacy can explain how self-doubts, combined with

attitude,

can

affect

students’

psychological

and

academic

achievement. Especially a pupil’s self-efficacy can be affected by teacher expectances. Lastly, the effect of A teacher’s attitudes on pupil can also be explained by the psychodynamic approach which will be discussed in the next chapter.

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6thChapter. PSYCHODYNAMIC EXPLANATION

This chapter will explain how the teacher’s attitude can affect the pupils’ motivation, self esteem, ability to change and private and public self.

Maslow’s theory of motivation outline the study of all those pushes and prods (biological, social and psychological) that defeat out lateness and move us, either to ease out reluctance to action (Miller 1962).

According to Maslow (in

Harari, P. and Legge, K. 2000), motivation has two parts ensuring by satisfying basic physical needs (safety, psychological, love, belonginess and esteem) and those that promote the person’s self-actualisation- realising one’s full potential and becoming everything one is capable of becoming especially in the intellectual and creative domains. To attend the needs higher up in the hierarchy, needs lower down need to have been covered. If a teacher doesn’t make a pupil feel part of the rest of the class ( Love and belonginess) or respect him (esteem needs), the student will not attend their cognitive needs

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or self actualisations and therefore he/she will not have curiosity to learn.

Self-actualisation (realising one’s potential)

Aesthetic needs (beauty, balance, order, form)

Cognitive needs

(curiosity, exploration, knowledge, predictability) Esteem needs (respect from others, competence)

Love and belongingness (Affection, being part of a group)

Safety needs (Protection from threats)

Psychological needs (Sex, food, oxygen, drink, temperature)

Maslow’s first part of this theory can be compared with the unconscious theory of Freud (in Ross, A. 2013-4). According to Freud, the unconscious continues to influence our behaviour and experience, even though we are unaware of these underlying influences. There are two parts in our unconscious, the Id and the Superego. The Id is present from the birth, according to Freud is driven by sex and pleasure; it includes survival instincts, and sometimes is denominated as the selfish child. In the other hand, the Superego is our aspirations and the ideal self; it creates conscience and firstly, it is generated by our parents’ voice, but then we create our own ideal self. The younger the individual is the more powerful his/her Id is. When a student does not do their

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homework or does not work hard enough he/she is being driven by his/her Id, and the pleasure of doing nothing. However, when a student works hard, he/she is being driven by his/her Superego and his/her ideal self. The

superego can be evoked through mindfulness (see chapter 3) and promoting the ideal self.

Attribution can also play a major role, as students are aware of their own and others success and failures, which create an emotional response. Weiner (1986) believes that the causes for an attribution are multi dimensions. There are three dimensions of causality, local dimensions which causes internal and external, stability dimension which causes stable transient and controllability dimension which can be caused by an uncontrollable or a controllable cause. For example, if a pupil fails an exam and he/she blames it on how hard the paper was, external, stable and uncontrollable this will make them feel angry, or he/she can blame it on a bad headache which is internal, unstable and uncontrollable and will make him/her, feel angry and disappointed or they can

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blame it in the lack of ability which is internal, stable and controllable which will make him/her feel depressed. By blaming lack of ability, it can have two results on a pupil, either he/she works harder to have a better ability to re-do the test or he/she accepts they can’t do it and not bother with the subject any more. This can be explained by Freud’s theory (1923/1984) as the bigger the gap between the real self and the ideal self or Superego the bigger the guilt and the more powerful the Id is.

According to Rosenberg and Hovland (1960) a stimuli can create certain attitudes. These attitudes can affect sympathetic nervous responses or verbal statement of effect, cognition (perceptual responses, verbal statement of beliefs)

or

behaviour

(overt

actions,

verbal

statements

and

concerning

behaviour). A stimulus can be having a bad grade or the teacher not paying enough attention to the pupil, this can have an effect on sympathetic nervous system (see chapter 3), a belief of not being good enough or behaviour such as misbehaving or talking over the teacher.

Also, a student can behave differently due to the theory of Public and Private Self (in Gross, R. 2005). The Public self consists in the image we convey, our beliefs of public image and our act image focus. The private self consists on our self-consistency, our self-evaluation and our self-enhancement (positive images). Our self concept consists on our self-esteem, our self-image and our ideal-self. Our self image is the way we describe ourselves. According to Kuher and McPartland (In Gross, R. 2005), if we ask ‘who I am?’ twenty

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times, it can give two answers, either social roles which are visually objective aspects of the self-image as facts, or personality traits which are opinion and judgement, what the person thinks they are like from others perspective. How others

behave

towards

them

has

an

important

influence

on

the

self-

perception; maybe also physical characteristics. Allport (1993) gives two rather dramatic examples of our bodily sense: ‘me’ or ‘not me’, if the body changes also the body images changes. Self esteem is essentially evaluative. How much we like and approve ourselves combined with how worthy a person thinks we are. According to Coopersmith (1967) self-esteem is a personal judgement of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes the individual holds towards himself. A student can feel that his/her Public and Private self is in danger, if he/she feels the teacher doesn’t treat him/her equally to the other pupils, especially if he/she feels the teacher is being discriminative their selfesteem can be lowered down.

Also, Herter’s (in Gross, R. 2005) five domains are important for students’ psychological development. The five domains are

scholastic competence,

athletic competence, social acceptance, physical acceptance and behavioural conduct. Scholastic competence consists on how able the child considers him/herself at schoolwork. Athletic competence consists on how able the child considers at a sport. Social acceptance consists on whether the child feels popular with his/her peers. Physical acceptance consists on how good looking the child believes him/herself to be. Behavioural conduct consists on to what extent the child considers his/her general behaviour acceptable to others. In a

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child’s profile this is combined with the self-perception. These five domains can either lower down or increase self-esteem which will have an impact on the students’ curiosity to learn.

Boyatzis theory (In Boyatzis, R. 2015) of initial change can also explain pupils’ development. He believes that when people change in a sustainable way they change sticks.

This happens in a discontinuous fashion called the complexity

or chaos theory, which believes that when we change we don’t do it on a linear way. These moments in which we change are moments of emergence. The research at case western university showed that there is a pattern of the moment of emergency and there are five that always occur, first is the ideal self, the second is the real life, so when someone comes up with your strength and gaps towards the personal self,

the third is the learning agenda

which is how the person wants to do it, the fourth one is practicing and fifth is the establishment of these trusting resonant relationship (see Chapter Three) because the person has to drive those changes but they can’t do it alone. Equally, if a student has decided to change and study more they need a resonant relationship with their teacher to help them to do it. A teacher can help them to plan how they will change and encourage the pupil through mindfulness.

In conclusion, psychodynamic explanations can explain the motivation of students, how they can change and how this can be affected by teachers.

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7thChapter. CONCLUSION

This Dissertation aimed to show whether teacher’s attitudes towards the student affects their psychological and academic development. This Dissertation has shown that teacher’s attitudes does affect the student’s development with different research and has given explanations for the students’ development in the different approaches.

This Dissertation has exposed that a particular attitude can have a significant impact in the student. This Dissertation has started by showing examples of studies relevant to the argument and which show that the teacher’s behaviour affects the student’s performance.

The second chapter gives different ways in

which teacher can affect the student positively, such as Rosenthal and Jacobson, who showed that through self fulfilling prophecy pupils can improve their curiosity and grades; teacher’ behaviour can affects negatively like it was shown by Nixon, who showed that through induced helpless student’s can believe that they are less able and will care less about the subject which means the student will do worst academically.

Then, this Dissertation went into explaining the cognitive approach showing how emotional intelligence and emotional contagion can prove that the teachers’ attitude can benefit or damage the student development. This is done by explaining the concepts of

sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous

system. It also explains the different competencies teacher need to be

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resonant leaders. This chapter used evidence from Boyatzis who showed that emotional

intelligence,

social

intelligence

and

cognitive

intelligence

competencies are the most important.

Later on, Chapter Three has demonstrated the neurological process under which student can be when the teacher or the subject puts them under acute or chronic stress. It explained how resonant and dissonant relationship can affect the student. It looked at how the different networks work and the effects that they have on the student. This chapter used evidence by Desetti and Bateson; they showed that recalling resonant leaders activated the social

network. It also explains how the fight or flight response works and how it affects the student’s performance when they are under chronic or acute stress.

Chapter Five, it manifested the association between the theory of Self-Efficacy related with type A, type B and hardy personalities and the relationship between students and teachers. This chapter outlined the process for the student’s to improve their Self-Efficacy. The persistence of the student’s Self-

Efficacy is related to the types of personality. This chapter uses evidence from Friedman and Roseman, they found the qualities of type A and type B personalities. It also used research by Kobasa, who found the qualities of a

hardy personality.

Chapter Six, it has revealed the psychodynamic approach which explains how a student can change to be more or less desirable and how this can be

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affected by the teacher. The chapter explained this with the use of Maslow’s motivation theory, Freud’s unconscious theory, the theory of Attribution and

Initial Change. This chapter concluded that through motivation and support pupil’s can improve their academic performance.

By doing this, this Dissertation has been able to show that the teacher’s behaviour does affect the student’s psychological and academic development and how it can be manipulated and affected by the teacher.

When doing further work in this field, there are different ways in which this Dissertation could be expanded. A research could be done in this field to prove certain theories such as self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, a nonparticipant observation in a class, pupils’ behaviour could be observed, this data could e combined with interviews with teachers to see their expectances of every pupil; also these could be compared with final grades. These would show whether the pupils fulfilled the teacher’s expectances. Another way of expanding this Dissertation could be researching into the different methods of teaching. By looking at the methods of teaching, it could be seen which ones are more effectives than others, psychologically and academically. Again, this could be proven with observation in real settings. These two suggestions could give a wider and more complex picture of how teacher’s behaviour could affect student psycho-academic development.

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9. Appendix

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9. Freud, S., 1923/1984. The Ego and the ID. Pelican Freud Library (11). Harmondsworth: Penguin.

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14. Harari, P. and Legge, K., 2000. Psychology and Education. Essex: Heinemann

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18. Ross, A., 2013/4 Psychology GCSE, Long Road Sixth Form College, unpublished.

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19. Weiner, B. 1986. An Attributional theory of Motivation and Emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag

20. Zooey Girl, 2007. Learned Helplessness [video online] Available at : [Accessed 8th November 2014]

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