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

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Does a Teacher’s Attitude Affect a Student’s Psycho-

academic Development?




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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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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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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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Chapter 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 cause-

effect 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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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. In the same way the teacher’s and pupil’s

relationship can have an effect on the performance and 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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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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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. 2014-

15). 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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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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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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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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daily hassles improving performance. 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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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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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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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 can be the neurological

approach.




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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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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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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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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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approach, self-efficacy.




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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 generally manifests as direct encouragement or

discouragement from another person. Discouragement is generally 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. Social persuasion from teachers

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vicarious

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modelling_(psychology)




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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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterflies_in_the_stomach




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

teacher’s 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.

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

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)




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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 self-

esteem 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 non-

participant 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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Bibliography:

1. Abbott, T., 2001. Social and personality Development. London:

Routledge

2. Allport, D.J. Attention and control. Have we been asking the wrong questions? A critical review of twenty-five years. In Meyer, D.E. and Kornblum, S.M. (eds) Attention and performance, Volume XIV. London: MIT Press.

3. Brain, C., Russell, J. and Smith, K., 2009. Edexcel GCSE Psychology.

Harlow, Essex: A Pearson Company UK 4. Boyatzis, R., 2015 Inspiring leadership through Emotional Intelligence

Case Western University. Available at: <https://www.coursera.org/course/lead-ei> [Accessed Date 18th August 2014 until 7th November 2014]

5. Cannon, W.B., 1927 The James –Lange theory of emotions: A critical

re-examination and an alternative theory. A Journal of Psychology 14, 489-491.

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7. Collins, R.C. 1983 Headstart: An update on programme effect. Newsletter of the Society for Research in Child Development. Summer, 1-2.

8. Coopersmith, S., 1967. The antecedents of Self Esteem. San Francisco: Freeman.

https://www.coursera.org/course/lead-ei




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

10. Friedman, M. and Roseman, R.H. (1959) Association of specific overt

behaviour pattern with blood and cardiovascular findings. Journal of experimental Psychology, 95, 317-26.

11. Gervais, R., 2005. Daily hassles beaten by uplifting experience. Poster

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12. Gross, R., 2005. In Psychology the mind of science 5th ed London:

Hodder Arnold.

13. Kobasa, S., 1979. Stressful life event, personality, and health: An inquiry into hardiness. Journal of personality & Social Psychology, 37, 1-11.

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

Heinemann

15. Miller, G.A. 1962. Psychology: the science of mental life. Harmondsworth: Penguin

16. Legge, K., 2014/15 Sociology AS, Long Road Sixth Form College, unpublished.

17. Rosenberg, M.J. and Hovland, C.I., McGuire, Abelson, R.P. and Brehm J.W. (eds). 1960. Attitude Organisation and Change: An Analysis of Consistency Among Attitude Components. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

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 : <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFmFOmprTt0&app=desktop> [Accessed 8th November 2014]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFmFOmprTt0&app=desktop

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