1. Awareness of Emotions Leads to Self-Efficacy Among College Students
Amy Lee and Emily DeLaCruz
Baruch College, CUNY
BACKGROUND & HYPOTHESIS
What is self-efficacy and why is it important?
Self-efficacy is one’s belief in their own ability to succeed in a particular situation or accomplish a task (Bandura, 1977). Previous research has shown that the effort one puts into achieving goals, coping abilities, and behavior in the face of opposition are all heavily influenced by efficacy beliefs. Self reflection and knowledge of inner feelings, areas in which one excel, areas in which one do poorly, and areas in which one need to improve aid in the establishment of goals (Bandura, 1977 & Cervone, 2004).
If its true that self-efficacy is a good thing, how does emotional development come in to play?
Inner feelings are bound to occur when one make sense of what one can and cannot do, thus these emotional entities are important to make sense of who we are and aid in self-efficacy. Research has shown that while both negative and positive emotions increase in prevalence during a single moment, emotional experience becomes more stable with aging (Carstensen, 2011). Theories of adult development argues that there are individual differences and variability in emotional development (Carstensen, 2011 & Erikson, 1950).
The present study:
This present study assess the emotional development of participants and determine if there is a correlation between a participant’s emotional development and self-efficacy, through self-reflection of their perceived strengths and weaknesses in both an interpersonal and academic setting. Our hypothesis is:
H: If there is an increase in emotional awareness in an individual, then said individual will have an increase in self-efficacy because the individual’s strengths and weaknesses can be identified through self-reflection.
PARTICIPANTS: 98 undergraduates at Baruch College
Scales:
Items on a 5 or 7 point scale on the Likert scale- (1= strongly disagree to 5 or 7=strongly agree) Experiences In Close Relationships-Revised Scale (Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000)
Self-efficacy Scale in Personal Relationships Scale (Matsushima & Shiomi, 2003)
Future Time Perspective Scale (Liao,& Carstensen, 2018)
Emotional Self Awareness Scale
Adult Attachment Scale (Hazen & Shaver, 1987)
Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Ryan, 1982)
Narratives:
Strengths were operationalized as personal characteristics that would help in the given challenge, and weaknesses were operationalized as personal characteristics that would hinder them in the given challenge.
Strengths & weaknesses in an academic setting
Strengths & weaknesses in an interpersonal setting
CODING SYSTEM:
RESULTS
RELIABILITY:
Inter-rater reliability = ~ 79%
VALIDITY:
Dimensionality approach, specifically Principal Component Analysis has been used and those intercorrelations between our new coding system (emotional development & awareness) have produced neatly one dimension that we used to correlated with the criteria later on.
METHOD
Emotional Development [number of times present]
“I” items (including “I feel”); number of times present (e.g. my, me, myself)
“Others” items (including “Others feel”); number of times present (e.g. people, their)
Explaining themselves/their emotions; number of times present (e.g. purpose, as a result)
Emotional terms; number of times present
Overall score; add up prior codes
Problem [not present (0) or present (1)]
Same Old Storytelling (Expressing dominant, maladaptive, over-general views of self and relationships marked by lack of agency, stuckness)
Empty Storytelling (Describing an event with a focus on external details and behavior, and a lack of internal referents or emotional arousal)
Unstoried Emotion (Experiencing undifferentiated, under- or over-regulated emotional arousal, without coherent narration of the experience)
Superficial Storytelling (Talking about events, hypotheticals, self, others, or unclear referents in a vague, abstract manner with limited internal focus)
Awareness [number of times present]
Qualifiers (also, very, extremely); number of times present (e.g. adj.)
Emotional skill ; number of times present
Practical ability; number of times present
Communication; number of times present
Change [not present (0) or present (1)]
Competing Plotlines Storytelling (An alternative to a dominant view, belief, feeling, or action emerges, creating tension, confusion, curiosity, doubt, protest)
Inchoate Storytelling (Focusing inward, contacting emergent experience, searching for symbolization in words or images)
Unexpected Outcome Storytelling (Describing a new, adaptive behavior (action, thought, feeling, response) and expressing surprise, pride, relief, contentment)
Discovery Storytelling (Reconceptualizing, or articulating a novel understanding of the self, others, key events, behavior patterns, or change processes)
DISCUSSION
Our hypothesis that a correlation exists between emotional awareness and self-efficacy has been supported by the results of this study. An increase in emotional awareness in an individual, leads to an increase in self-efficacy in interpersonal relationships. This is very significant because it displays a relationship between awareness of one own’s strength and weaknesses and one’s self-efficacy, in the scope of emotions extends into both the academic and interpersonal setting. Given the exploratory nature of this study, limitations such as unconscious bias present in the study due to coding being done by the two researchers who proposed the study and the lack of generalization of the study’s results both exist.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATION & RECOMMENDATIONS
The practical implications of our study include the use of this approach in settings such as counseling. If the counselor trying to aid the individual can assess said individual’s emotional development, then they can gather a better understanding of the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the individual and the impact on their self-efficacy. Given that this study was created and operated through the REU program, we hope that future REU cohorts may build upon this study. The expansion of this study would allow the created coding scheme to be verified by other, unbiased researchers. Additionally, they may be able to add to the coding scheme by identifying other aspects or factors that may grant better insight into the correlation between emotional awareness and self-efficacy.