About gain cycles and spirals of efficacy beliefs, positive affect and activity engagement

Taking Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory as our starting point, we tested how efficacy beliefs (self-efficacy and perceived collective efficacy) reciprocally influence activity engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption) indirectly through their impact on positive affect (enthusiasm, satisfaction, and comfort) over time. We conducted two longitudinal studies using independent samples. Study 1 is a two-wave longitudinal field study that examines gain cycles regarding the dynamic relationships among self-efficacy, positive affect, and work engagement in 274 secondary school teachers. Study 2 is a three-wave longitudinal laboratory study about gain spirals in the dynamic relationships among collective efficacy beliefs, positive affect, and task engagement in 100 university students working in groups. Our findings show that: (1) efficacy beliefs reciprocally influence activity engagement indirectly through their impact on positive affect over time; (2) enthusiasm is the positive affect with the strongest effect on activity engagement; and (3) a gain spiral exists whereby efficacy beliefs increase over time due to engagement and positive affect (most notably enthusiasm). Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications in terms of Social Cognitive Theo

Fostering implementation of health services research findings into practice: a consolidated framework for advancing implementation science

Abstract Background Many interventions found to be effective in health services research studies fail to translate into meaningful patient care outcomes across multiple contexts. Health services researchers recognize the need to evaluate not only summative outcomes but also formative outcomes to assess the extent to which implementation is effective in a specific setting, prolongs sustainability, and promotes dissemination into other settings. Many implementation theories have been published to help promote effective implementation. However, they overlap considerably in the constructs included in individual theories, and a comparison of theories reveals that each is missing important constructs included in other theories. In addition, terminology and definitions are not consistent across theories. We describe the Consolidated Framework For Implementation Research (CFIR) that offers an overarching typology to promote implementation theory development and verification about what works where and why across multiple contexts. Methods We used a snowball sampling approach to identify published theories that were evaluated to identify constructs based on strength of conceptual or empirical support for influence on implementation, consistency in definitions, alignment with our own findings, and potential for measurement. We combined constructs across published theories that had different labels but were redundant or overlapping in definition, and we parsed apart constructs that conflated underlying concepts. Results The CFIR is composed of five major domains: intervention characteristics, outer setting, inner setting, characteristics of the individuals involved, and the process of implementation. Eight constructs were identified related to the intervention (e.g., evidence strength and quality), four constructs were identified related to outer setting (e.g., patient needs and resources), 12 constructs were identified related to inner setting (e.g., culture, leadership engagement), five constructs were identified related to individual characteristics, and eight constructs were identified related to process (e.g., plan, evaluate, and reflect). We present explicit definitions for each construct. Conclusion The CFIR provides a pragmatic structure for approaching complex, interacting, multi-level, and transient states of constructs in the real world by embracing, consolidating, and unifying key constructs from published implementation theories. It can be used to guide formative evaluations and build the implementation knowledge base across multiple studies and settings.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/1/1748-5908-4-50.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/2/1748-5908-4-50-S1.PDFhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/3/1748-5908-4-50-S3.PDFhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/4/1748-5908-4-50-S4.PDFhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/5/1748-5908-4-50.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/6/1748-5908-4-50-S2.PDFPeer Reviewe

A cross-national study of work engagement as a mediator between job resources and proactive behaviour

This study investigates the mediating role of work engagement (i.e, vigor and dedication) among job resources (i.e., job control, feedback and variety) and proactive behavior at work. This mediating role was investigated, using Structural Equation Modeling in two independent samples from Spain (n= 386 technology employees) and The Netherlands (n= 338 telecom managers). Results in both samples confirmed that work engagement fully mediates the impact of job resources on proactive behavior. Subsequent multi-group analyses revealed that the strengths of the structural paths of the mediation model were invariant across both national samples, underscoring the cross-national validity of the mode

How Parental Beliefs About School Can Potentially Influence Student Engagement

Decades of research have demonstrated that beliefs matter, driving people’s emotional responses and, in turn, their behaviors. The recent work of Clifton and colleagues (2019) has significantly advanced the understanding of world beliefs through the development of the primal world belief’s (primals) scale. Primals are highly correlated with personality and well-being variables. Evidence suggests they serve as a schematic lens influencing how people view their experiences of the world. Building on this research, this capstone examines the hidden biases influencing judgment when it comes to the messages parents share with their children about school. Taking a metacognitive approach, the potential for a parent’s beliefs about school to influence their children’s beliefs and, in turn, their children’s mastery are examined, and are considered in the context of mattering. It is possible that parent beliefs could create positive and negative spirals, influencing both student and community outcomes. For this reason, the primals scale was modified to measure (1) student beliefs about school (2) student perceptions of their parent’s beliefs about school and (3) student engagement. Data will be gathered and analyzed over this next year. A positive psychology intervention (PPI) was also created using the modified primals scale to gain a better understanding of the possible underlying mechanisms associated with beliefs and to potentially identify elements of causation. It was also developed to guide parents—alongside their children—to regularly savor the Good in schools. Intended to alter hidden biases and framing beliefs, it is expected to help parents and their children develop a broader base of resources and strategies for support. The intervention is targeted to improve beliefs about school, increase PERMA, and increase mattering, agency, and hope. This analysis suggests there may be opportunities for expanding the role of positive psychology in schools

Leadership, job stress and uncertainty among nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: Impacts and implications in lieu of pertinent theoretical constructs

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on practicing nurses in the United States. The study considered the effect of communication, self-efficacy, intolerance to uncertainty, and life satisfaction on nurses’ job satisfaction; additionally, this study considered the extent to which nurses perceived organizational response efficacy was predicted by their perceptions of communication and perceived threat susceptibility. A total of 191 nurses participated in the online survey. The study revealed that life satisfaction was positively predicted by communication, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction in multiple regression analyses. Perceived communication positively predicted perceived organizational response efficacy while perceived threat susceptibility predicted an inverse relationship with organizational response efficacy. This study reveals that improving job satisfaction, even in a pandemic, can be accomplished by empowering nurses through improving job resources while minimizing job demands. The implications for the study discuss the necessity for an overhaul of nursing leadership during the COVID-19 crisis to maintain the care standard and nurse commitment

The impact of project team characteristics on employee performance and well-being in the IT sector: the mediating role of collaborative job crafting

Due to the increase in global competition and change in information technology, project teams are used to deal with organisational demands. However, challenges arising from specific team characteristics concerning poor technical self-efficacy, weak team identity and high avoidant attachment may pose a significant impact on an employee’s performance and work-related well-being. The present study aims to examine specific project team characteristics that may facilitate or act as a barrier to outcomes such as individual team members’ in-role or extra-role job performance and levels of work engagement. Furthermore, the role of collaborative job crafting is explored in explaining the relationship between the characteristics of a project team and outcomes from the lens of conservation of resources theory. Through an online survey, the data were collected at three time points with a 12-week interval between each time point and employed difference scores to measure the change in the outcome variables. A total of 125 project teams and 803 participants including project leaders from five multinational IT organisations had participated in the study and the data were analysed using multilevel structural equation modelling. The original contribution of the thesis signifies that higher team-level information system self-efficacy leads to a decrease in in-role performance over time. However, based on conservation of resources theory, a team with collective higher information system self-efficacy that engages in collaborative job crafting behaviour, acquire key team resources, leading to a gain spiral that facilitates in an improvement of in-role and/or extra-role performance and work engagement of project team members over time. Contrary to the expected results, a stronger aggregated functional background social identity of a team depletes the resources of employees when engaging in collaborative job crafting activity, resulting in loss spirals. These findings give impetus to future multilevel and longitudinal investigations of the role of self-efficacy, social identity and team-level job crafting behaviours in project teams. Keywords: self-efficacy, social identity, collaborative job crafting, conservation of resources theory, multilevel modellin

Fostering Self-efficacy for Biblical Learning and Doctrinal Awareness with Micro-teaching in a Brief Course on Bible Study

Self-efficacy for biblical learning was explored in the context of a small group experience focused on how to study the Bible. After first developing a new instrument to measure self-efficacy for biblical learning in a pilot study, ten church attendees participated in a seven-week course designed around the hermeneutical principles of understanding a Scripture passage in textual and historical context, placing the passage in the grand story of God, and relating it to relevant doctrine. The small group process employed micro-teaching as a mechanism to facilitate challenge and mastery experience in learning. Micro-teaching places the student in the role of teacher for very short segments of the class. It was hypothesized that this elevation of the student role would facilitate stronger self-efficacy beliefs for biblical learning and increase doctrinal awareness. Results demonstrated considerable improvement in both self-efficacy and doctrinal awareness across multi-methods. Positive change in teaching confidence and accuracy ratings was also observed for participants’ micro-teaching, which points to the process as a mastery experience. Because self-efficacy beliefs are excellent predictors of future behavior, increased efficacy for biblical learning could lead to increased engagement with the Bible. Implications for future research and practical ministry are discussed, including elevated involvement of congregants in Bible study classes and increased focus on hermeneutical skills

‘Offline’ vs ‘online’ media: Claim-makers, content, and audiences of climate change information

This paper aims to explore both similarities and differences between offline and online climate change communication in terms of claim-makers, content, and audiences. It is based on academic peer reviewed papers directly relevant to the communication of climate change by the media, published in English language between 2010 and 2016. Interdependences between offline and online media are often cited, especially in terms of web searches of information already reported by traditional media (both print and television). In some other cases, the study of the intermedia agenda shows that the debate originated on online blogs triggers and conditions the attention of print media. This interdependence is also showed by a polarisation between ‘activists’ and ‘contrarians’ in both online and offline arenas. However, while the web offers greater space for interaction and a variety of sources, the dominance of the ‘old media’ point of view seems to undermine these attempts