essay on behavior of student

Behavioral Learning Theory: Shaping Students’ Behavior and Learning

The Behavioral Learning Theory gives us insight into how to create a positive learning environment, influence our students’ behavior in class, and motivate them to develop good study habits.

By Paul Holt
Sep 20, 2023

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The Behavioral Learning Theory is based on the premise that all human behavior is learned.
According to this theory, our behaviors are simply reactions to external stimuli, and we can learn new behaviors through a process called conditioning.
When applied correctly, Behaviorism can be an effective tool for helping students perform better in class and allow them to develop self-regulating skills.

We all know not to touch something hot because it can burn. This is a lesson that we’ve learned based on experience. It’s nothing new, right? Experience does teach us a lot of things. According to the Behavioral Learning Theory, this is, in fact, how all humans and animals learn.

The Behavioral Learning Theory , also known as Behaviorism, is based on the idea that we learn through our interaction with the environment. In fact, one of its assumptions is that all behavior can be learned. Moreover, behaviors can be replaced by new behaviors through a process called conditioning.

As teachers, understanding the Behavioral Learning Theory can teach you how to encourage your students to learn and create an environment that’s more stimulating and conducive to learning. In this article, we’ll discuss the Behavioral Learning Theory, its benefits, and how educators can use it in the classroom to help students achieve academic success.

What is behavioral learning theory.

Behaviorism was first introduced in the 19th century as a reaction against mentalism . At the time, the study of the mind mostly relied on first-person accounts of people’s thoughts and feelings. Some psychologists didn’t think that unconscious thoughts and urges were objective or measurable. It was too subjective, which could lead to findings that were contradicting. Worse, they might not even be able to reproduce the same results.

Behavior, on the other hand, could be observed objectively, systematically studied, and empirically measured. Moreover, behaviorists believe that people can be trained to perform any task regardless of their genetic background or personality as long as you apply the right conditioning. In layman’s terms, we’re all blank slates when we’re born. And all our behavior is learned from our interaction with our environment.

A young girl in front of a chalkboard, smiling and pointing at a star with her index finger

Types of Behavioral Learning

Classical conditioning.

According to Classical Conditioning, a human or animal can learn new behavior by associating a neutral stimulus with another stimulus that causes a natural response. Once associated, the neutral stimulus can now trigger the learned response.

To explain this more clearly, let’s look at an experiment conducted by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov . You’ve heard of Pavlov’s dogs, right? In his experiments, he was able to teach dogs to associate the ringing of a bell (a neutral stimulus) with the arrival of food (the second stimulus). The smell of the food automatically triggers the dogs’ hunger, which includes physical signs such as salivation. Through conditioning, just hearing the ringing of the bell could cause the dogs to salivate, even if they no longer smelled the food.

Operant Conditioning

Most of us are very familiar with Operant Conditioning because this learning technique is based on the idea of reward and punishment. According to Operant Conditioning, consequences can control the behavior of an individual. A behavior is more likely to occur if the person knows that they’ll get something good out of it. It is less likely to occur if the person knows they’ll get punished.

Operant conditioning can be done using positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment:

Positive reinforcement: The presence of an added stimulus after you get the desired behavior can increase the likelihood of the individual repeating the behavior or, to put it more simply, giving a person something good to reinforce the behavior. For example, the teacher gives preschool kids a stamp if they are on good behavior in class at the end of the day. This makes them more likely to behave during class on the following days.

Negative reinforcement: Taking away something unpleasant after the desired behavior takes place. Over time, the desired behavior occurs more often with the expectation that the negative stimuli will be removed. For example, the beeping sound you hear when you don’t put on your seatbelt. We are motivated to put on our seatbelt quickly to stop the annoying beeps.

Positive punishment: Adding an undesirable stimulus after a behavior to discourage it from occurring in the future. For example, a student will get detention for misbehaving in class.

Negative punishment: Removing a positive stimulus after a behavior to discourage the person from doing it again. For example, removing a child’s internet privileges if he doesn’t do his homework.

Benefits of Behavioral Learning Theory in teaching

Understanding and harnessing the Behavioral Learning Theory can be an effective tool for influencing students to learn positive behaviors and discourage negative behaviors. Students can learn to work for rewards, including approval.

Benefits to using behaviorism in the classroom include:

Behaviorism helps create a structured learning environment. Students are taught how to obey the rules inside the classroom, whether online or in person, through rewards and punishments. This helps create a more organized and disciplined environment that is conducive to learning.
It can help give teachers a clear and objective structure for measuring a student’s performance.
It provides students with immediate feedback, which can improve learning. For example, positive reinforcement has been shown to help students retain information better.
Behaviorism can be used to shape a student’s study strategies.
It can help teachers adapt their teaching techniques according to the abilities and needs of each student.
It can teach students how to self-regulate. They gain an understanding of their behavior and motivations, allowing them to have more control over how they act. More importantly, it teaches them to become accountable for what they do.

How to apply the Behavioral Learning Theory in the online classroom

We’ve all experienced positive and negative reinforcement as well as positive and negative punishment in the classroom. These include:

Getting praised by the teacher for a correct response to a question.
Receiving a bonus to your grade if you have a perfect attendance record.
Getting a grade of “0” for not submitting assignments.
Getting your phone confiscated if you use it in class.
Getting a free homework pass if you get a perfect grade on the exam.

In addition to the ideas mentioned above, below are several strategies that can be applied to the online and physical classrooms:

Set clear expectations . Students need to have a clear understanding of the goals they need to achieve and the rules they need to follow in the classroom. This is especially important for online classrooms. Many students might not take online classes as seriously as classes held face-to-face in school. Make sure that your students understand your expectations during the online class and enforce the rules consistently.

Provide regular reviews. Going over the same material while providing your students with positive reinforcement can enable them to retain information better.

Give quick feedback. It’s important that students are provided feedback in a timely manner so they will associate it with the work they did. This helps shape your student’s study habits more effectively.

Reward good study habits. You need to help prevent students from cramming. Create a reward system that motivates them to regularly study the class materials. With the proper incentive, they’ll begin to associate regular study sessions with good feelings.

Provide guided practice. You can demonstrate the behavior that you want them to follow. For example, be directly involved in helping them solve a problem step-by-step and providing them reinforcement along the way.

Use negative reinforcement sparingly. Avoid too much negative reinforcement to prevent creating a negative atmosphere in the class.

Use game-based learning. Game-based learning can increase engagement and motivate students to learn. There are many online games that utilize the principles of Operant Conditioning to promote learning, such as FunBrain , Moose Math , and RoomRecess . Alternatively, you can create a token economy system. Students can earn tokens or points for certain behaviors or for accomplishing specific tasks. These tokens can be exchanged for rewards, which can incentivize them to follow the rules and stay on task.

The Behavioral Learning Theory teaches us how external stimuli can influence behavior and learning. As educators, we need to try to find different ways to elicit positive behaviors from our students and discourage negative responses. We need to be more aware of their needs and motivations so that we are able to create more positive learning environments and increase their motivation to learn.

Jigsaw Method: Learning from Shared Expertise

The Jigsaw Learning Method promotes inclusivity by valuing diverse perspectives and individual strengths. It deconstructs traditional classroom hierarchies to promote equality and respect and ensure that each learner plays an active role in everyone’s learning experiences.

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Attitude and Behavior of Students

Attitudes are one of the challenges teachers have to wrestle within the classroom. This post will provide a more in-depth understanding of what an attitude is and the traits of attitudes.

A student’s attitude is their tendency to respond a certain way towards something. Naturally, the student’s response can be on a continuum of positive to negative or good to bad. When a teacher says that a student has a bad attitude, they mean that the student did not respond positively to something they were asked to do. The opposite is also true; a student with a good attitude is likely someone who has a cooperative spirit in terms of complying with what they are asked to do by the teacher.

It is essential to mention that attitude is considered a psychological construct. This means you can see the consequences of the attitude but not the attitude itself. In other words, the behavior is observed to determine the attitude. For example, a child who refuses to follow orders provides evidence that they have a bad attitude.

Components of Attitude

There are three main components of an attitude, and they are cognitive, affective, and intentional. The cognitive aspect of an attitude refers to what beliefs a student has about a person or object. The affective component relates to the feelings a student has towards a person or object. Lastly, the intentional component address the intentions a person has towards a person or object.

Naturally, there is some overlap in these components. If a student has negative beliefs about something, it is probably that they have negative feelings as well.

Attitude Formation

Three common approaches attempt to explain how attitudes are formed. These three approaches are called the dispositional approach, situational approach, and social information processing approach.

The dispositional approach views attitudes as almost the same as a personality trait. Students are born to have a positive or negative outlook in different situations. In other words, if they are happy, they are happy, and if they are sad, they are sad. From a teaching perspective, it is a random chance whether a student will enjoy your class. This is not overly optimistic in terms of changing a student’s viewpoint.

The situational approach states that attitudes emerge depending on the context. For example, if students struggle to understand math, they may develop a negative attitude about math. However, the opposite is also true in that success will cause the development of a positive attitude. This view allows a teacher to try to find situations in which students can have success so that they can shape a positive attitude.

Lastly, the social information processing approach views that attitudes are caught from the people around us. For example, if a student with a neutral attitude is surrounded by students with negative attitudes, they also will develop a negative attitude. Students pick up on the information about various topics from the environment, which can largely shape their attitude towards something.

Intentions vs. Action

Generally, students will try to maintain consistency between their attitudes and actions. Failure to do this can lead to trying to justify inconsistent behavior through excuses. This happens when students do something they know is wrong and blame it on something else or someone. This disconnect between attitude and action is sometimes called cognitive dissonance.

Attitudes are part of life but how we respond is up to us. Whether a student has a positive or negative attitude, it is up to the teacher to find ways to work with this student. The ideas presented here are simply a stepping stone in this process.

Strategies for Managing Challenging Student Behaviors

Student misbehavior has been particularly agonizing for teachers this year, but there are proactive steps educators can take to remedy it.

High school students whispering in class

In the best of times, disruptive student behaviors are challenging to effectively act on. And now, this is compounded by our current reality: a traumatic time—during which many of us are just trying to hang on and stay in the profession—that has reduced our patience, taxed our energy, and increased our reactivity.

So maybe we can think differently about these behaviors. Maybe we can be proactive.

The first step in being proactive might be the easiest: identify challenging behaviors and their effects on the classroom. You know exactly what I’m talking about. Challenging behaviors can manifest academically: missing deadlines, plagiarism. They can manifest socially: side conversations, defiance. They can manifest emotionally: apathy, negativity. They can manifest quietly or loudly. And more often than not, they can manifest repeatedly.

These manifestations are exhausting—for you, for them, and for their peers.

Taking a Closer Look

While it can be easy to remain stuck in the first step of identification, to be proactive we must move to the second step of reflection. We must treat each behavior as both adaptive and communicative. This reflection is twofold: examining the student and ourselves.

Students act the way they do because it serves them in some capacity. How is their behavior serving them? What is driving their behavior? At times, this can be simple. Much more complicated is the task of examining ourselves as a responsible party in these exchanges. More often than not, I realize: Behaviors that challenge me mirror me .

Again, behaviors are both adaptive and communicative. How is my innate response to this student serving me? What is it about the behavior that grates on me so? What does my response communicate about me? Addressing student behaviors without this important step of reflection—of both parties—is short-sighted at best and ineffective at worst.

Displaying Curiosity and Humility

Once we have hypothesized underlying motives for the behaviors, as well as our own contributions, to be proactive we must approach the student about the behavior. The most important consideration in this regard is our intention. I use restorative practices as a frame, reminding myself that my ultimate goal is relationship. This means I approach students with curiosity and humility.

Curiosity allows for me to ask questions and listen rather than fix or criticize . Humility allows several benefits: One, I can let go of “proving the record” and instead build the relationship; two, I can speak with “I” language that demonstrates I also am taking responsibility; and three, it ensures that I am conversing with the student rather than coming at them.

As in any situation where a human feels threatened, a student backed into a corner with accusations rather than invited into a relationship through curiosity and humility will close up or act out.

Building Connections

After I have reflected and approached the student, the real work begins. This is where my integrity and trustworthiness as a teacher is tested—and rightfully so—by students demonstrating challenging behaviors. Did I really mean what I said about wanting to take responsibility, understand the student, and build a meaningful relationship with them? To walk the talk, the next step in being proactive, here are some practices to connect with students.

Survey students with academic and nonacademic questions: Use the surveys for one-on-one conversations, fun class trivia games, grouping and seating arrangements, sport and club attendance, etc. But most important, use the survey data! Students who are surveyed without ever having that data shared with them and acted upon are just guinea pigs.

Observe more, and talk less: Notice where students demonstrate different behaviors than they do in your class. Watch students interact in peer groups. The biggest mistake we can make when dealing with challenging behaviors is seeing the student who demonstrates them in a vacuum.

Partner with students: The majority of my most successful connections with students have begun with an opening like this: “X, I gotta say, I am really just not feeling like we are vibing lately. I feel like I’m letting you down and that you’re always upset with me. Did I do something to offend you? I really would like to make this right.” Few students, yes even those who display the most challenging behaviors, can resist being truly heard and respected. Explicitly partnering with students to do the repair work, the relationship work, is where the magic happens.

Compliment students: Sometimes a light comment about cool new shoes is the only positive message that a student receives in a day. Compliments communicate to students that they are seen.

Support students: While sometimes the root cause of challenging behaviors lies beyond an educator’s purview, often it is related to some personal struggle with the content. Clear and consistent expectations, easy-to-follow directions, chunked instruction, continued check-ins, just-right scaffolding and differentiation… best pedagogical practices such as these mitigate the worst behaviors.

Elevate students: Often, students act out in order to earn attention. Offering students who display challenging behaviors leadership opportunities in class is a way to reframe their peer influence from class clown to class champion.

Collaborate for students on their behalf: Ask other teachers about how the students are doing in their classes, what effective strategies they’re using, how they’ve connected with the students. Frame these conversations always as proactive and solution-forward—not gripe sessions.

Celebrating Successes

The final step in being proactive when dealing with difficult behaviors is the most important: monitor, adapt, and celebrate. Making progress with students who are displaying challenging behaviors is never one and done. Rather, just as relationship implies, it’s an ongoing dialogue. Pay attention to what’s working and what’s not working. Check in with the student about their perceptions. Celebrate the tiniest of victories. Be willing to admit when something is ineffective and make necessary changes. Commit to the long haul and trust the process.

Some of my favorite memories are when students who struggled during their first year in high school come up to me a few years later to joke about, “Remember when…?” Being proactive, even when we’re tired, allows for these moments of connection and joy. And that makes it all worthwhile.

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Essay on Student Life: 100, 200 and 300 Words

Updated on
Apr 21, 2024

Essay on student life: Student life, a phase that encompasses the essence of youth, is a period of transformation, self-discovery, and boundless opportunities. It’s a time when a student undergoes changes and faces challenges in academics, friendships, and personal growth. In this blog, we’ll explore the multifaceted aspects of student life and provide sample essays in various word counts, giving a glimpse into this remarkable journey.

Sample Essay on Student Life in 100 Words

A student’s life is an exciting ride of learning, self-discovery and experiences. It’s a blend of early-morning classes, late-night study sessions, and the thrill of making lifelong friends. This phase teaches a student to balance academics with extracurricular activities, fostering their growth as individuals. Each day is a new adventure, a chance to learn, explore, and evolve. The memories one creates during these years shape the future, moulding one into the person one aspires to become. It’s a time when a student embraces the joy of acquiring knowledge and savour the taste of independence. With the right balance of study and leisure, it becomes a cherished chapter in a student’s life.

Sample Essay on Student Life in 200 Words

Student life is a period of transformation and exploration. It’s a period where one transitions from childhood to adulthood, navigating through the complexities of education and personal growth. In the midst of academic challenges, students often form close bonds with peers. These friendships provide crucial support in times of stress and celebration during moments of success. However, it’s not all smooth, the pressure to excel, manage finances, and make important life decisions can be overwhelming.

The student life is a pivotal period of self-discovery and personal development. It’s not just about textbooks and lectures; it’s a journey of exploration and experimentation. From joining clubs and societies to engaging in community service, these experiences help in uncovering a student’s passions and talents. It’s a time when they build bonds that often last a lifetime, creating a support system that stands the test of time.

Also Read: How to Write an Essay in English

Sample Essay on Student Life in 350 Words

Student life, often referred to as the best years of one’s life, it’s a bundle of experiences that shape the future. It’s a time when one embarks on a journey of academic pursuits, self-discovery, and personal growth. These years are marked by hard work studying, social interactions, and a quest for independence.

The classroom becomes a second home. But student life is not just about academics; it’s a holistic experience. Friendship bonds provide the emotional support needed. The pressure to excel academically can be suffocating at times. Balancing coursework, extracurricular activities, and part-time jobs is a delicate juggling act. Financial constraints can add to the stress, making students contemplate their choices and priorities.

Despite these obstacles, student life offers a unique opportunity for self-discovery. It’s a time when young minds explore their passions, talents, and interests. It’s a period when taking risks is encouraged, and opportunities are abundant. Whether through involvement in clubs, sports, or artistic pursuits, it’s during this phase that one lays the foundation for future careers and aspirations.

Beyond academics and friendships, student life encourages us to explore the world. From educational trips to international exchanges, these experiences broaden horizons and expose one to different cultures and ideas. It’s a time when one learns to navigate the complexities of the real world. These experiences broaden one’s mindset, help in building a global outlook and enhance adaptability.

In conclusion, student life is a remarkable chapter in the books of everyone’s lives. It is a rollercoaster of experiences that challenge us, shape us, and ultimately prepare us for the world beyond. It is a time of intellectual growth, enduring friendships, and personal discovery. Despite the trials and tribulations, it is a journey worth embracing, for it is during these years that lays the groundwork for our future endeavours and aspirations,

Student life is a phase that bridges the gap between adolescence and adulthood. It’s a transformative journey filled with academic pursuits, personal growth, enduring friendships, and the resilience to overcome challenges. This period of life is not merely a stepping stone, it’s a phase where one lays the foundation for the future, equipping oneself with knowledge, skills, and experiences that will serve us throughout our lives

Also Read: Essay on Traffic Rules in 500+ Words in English for School Students

Short Essay on Student Life

Find the sample essay on student life below:

Rajshree Lahoty

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The Causes of Students’ Misbehavior and Ways of Managing It Essay

Introduction, various causes of misbehavior, ways of preventing and responding to misbehavior, reference list.

Students’ misbehavior usually has a disruptive impact on learning and teaching activities in the classroom. It can take various forms, for example, talking to others without permission or even bullying. Yet, in each case, educators have to find ways of resolving these problems.

This paper is aimed at discussing the causes of this misbehavior and the strategies that teachers should adopt in order to prevent and minimize these problems. In particular, it is necessary to show that such conduct can be explained by both internal and external factors that cannot be always controlled by a student. For example, this misbehavior can be attributed to poor instructional design or failure to involve students in classroom activities.

Thus, it should not be regarded only as a student’s fault. Secondly, this paper will demonstrate that coercion and punishment which excludes a student from the class is not the best strategy for addressing this issue. Instead, teachers should focus on instructional design and interpersonal skills that can help them find a better approach to learners.

Very often the origins of misbehavior are very difficult to trace back because it can be explained by a variety of factors such as family problems, school environment, peer pressure, or psychological problems of a student (Moles, 1990, p. 259). Researchers point out that there are several internal motivators for the misbehavior; one of them is the need for attention (Sagor & Cox, 2004, p. 176). These students want teachers to look more attentively at their needs and goals.

These students want to feel that they are valued by the teacher. Another factor that contributes to misbehavior is the desire to assert ones authority over others (Joseph, 2001, p. 125). Some students believe that the necessity to follow rules limits their freedom and ability to act independently. Such students often tend to bully others if they feel that their freedom is restricted by teachers or school administrators. Additionally, one should speak about assumed inadequacy (Joseph, 2001, p. 125; Belson, 1996, p. 79).

Some learners can assume that they do not belong to the class or that they cannot meet certain performance standards. Some teachers can often accuse children of being deviant or lazy. In some cases, such an accusation can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words, a student can come to the belief that his/her actions cannot change a teacher’s opinion about him or her. This is why teachers should avoid using such labels as “deviant” or “lazy” when talking to a child.

The discussion of these internal factors can also be linked to the Choice Theory developed by William Glasser (1988). In the opinion of this scholar, a student’s behavior is driven by the need for belonging, willingness to acquire power or freedom, and the desire to have fun (Glasser, 1988, p. 7).

Provided that these needs are not satisfied, a student is more likely to violate the rules that are set by the teachers. This theory can have profound implications for those people who design instruction models. Their task is to create such an environment in which a student can meet various psychological needs.

Apart from that, scholars argue that there are some causes of misbehavior that can be attributed to school environment. In particular, they point to such factors as lack of meaningful interaction with teachers, unequal power relations, or inability to fulfill ones talents or skills (Sagor & Cox, 2004, p. 177). Therefore, educators should take into account that sometimes they can cause the misbehavior in the classroom.

For instance, a student can act defiantly in those cases when teacher adopts a very authoritative attitude toward learners. Additionally, one can refer to the study carried out by Salee Supaporn (2000). This scholar shows that misbehavior can be linked to the activities in which students are engaged (Supaporn, 2000, p. 124). In particular, a student, who perceives a learning activity as interesting, is less likely to misbehave in the classroom.

Overall, boredom is one of the main factors that contribute to misbehavior in the classroom (Tauber, 2007, p. 134). Moreover, many students can misbehave when a teacher does not accommodate the lesson to their learning style (Haggart, 2004, p. 32).

For instance, auditory learners, who need to discuss ideas or topics with a teacher, may talk out of turn when a teacher does not encourage them to show their understanding of the material (Haggart, 2004, p. 32). This is why misbehavior should not be always explained by lack of self-control or discipline.

There is another aspect of this problem, namely the way in which educators perceive misbehavior and its causes. For instance, some of them think that its causes are fully controllable by a student (Evertson & Weinstein, 2006, p. 203). For instance, some teachers believe that poor performance or misbehavior during lessons can be attributed to chronic laziness or unwillingness to learn (Evertson & Weinstein, 2006, p. 203).

Usually these people believe that punishment is the best response to such a behavior. They do not consider the possibility that such conduct could have been caused by lack of social skills or attention-deficit disorder (Rubie-Davies, 2011, p. 225). More importantly, they do not change their strategies in any way when dealing with such a child. As a result, such students continue to underperform.

The statistical survey conducted by Pamela Kulinna (2007) indicates that teachers usually attribute misbehavior to such factors as peer pressure of family problems (p. 21). As a rule, they do not say that their strategies or instructional models are flawed. Overall, this study suggests that to cope with misbehavior educators should take a critical view at their teaching methods.

Thus, this discussion indicates that there could be numerous causes of student’ misbehavior. In some cases, it can be explained by internal motivators such as the need for attention or the willingness to gain power and authority. Yet, very often it can be attributed to school or classroom environment. This is the main issue that teachers should not disregard.

At present, there is no universal method of managing misbehavior in the classroom. Yet, researchers do describe ways in which a teacher can avert or minimize this problem. One of them is the use of instruction methods encourage a student to participate in learning activities (Landrum, 2011, p. 33; Casas, 2009, p. 85). In particular, the teacher should encourage students to demonstrate their understanding of the material (Landrum, 2011, p. 33).

Moreover, it is always necessary to provide feedback to learners and explain where they could have made mistakes. This approach enables students to take a more active part in their studies; they will not be only passive recipients of information.

Moreover, in this way, learning activities can be made more interesting because students will be able to interact with the teacher, instead of just following his/her commands. The learners will also see that a teacher genuinely cares about their successes and there will be fewer reasons for them to violate the rules that this person set. Thus, improved instructional methodology is one of the ways to reduce misbehavior in classrooms.

Additionally, a teacher should take into account that any class is made up of students who may have different learning styles. These people can acquire or develop new skills in different ways. As it has been said before, boredom can be a cause of misbehavior. Some students can feel in this way because they are not allowed to learn in a way that is most suitable for them (Walters & Frei, 2007, p. 7; Rayner & Cools, 2012, p. 166).

For instance, some students are kinesthetic learners; this means that they have to carry out physical activities in order to better understand new material. Their misbehavior is usually expressed through body movements or gestures that may seem strange to others (Haggart, 2004, p. 32). Teachers should pay more attention to the needs of such learners. For instance, those people, who teach algebra, usually let these students use pan scales. In this way, they can help them better understand the notion of equation (Kelly, 2000, p. 77).

This example demonstrates that the likelihood of misbehavior can be reduced provided that a teacher uses proper instructional methods and appreciates the differences in learning styles.

Apart from that, educators should try to show the practical use of the knowledge or skills that they want to teach students. Provided that this task is achieved, they will find it easier to keep the attention of these learners (Wadhwa, 2004, p. 121). Therefore, improved instructional models and flexible teaching methods are instrumental in preventing misbehavior.

Another issue that should be discussed is the use of punishment as a response to the misbehavior of students. One of the main arguments is that such punitive measures are aimed at excluding the child from the classroom, rather than helping him or her. In many cases, teachers may place a misbehaving child at the very back of them room (Noguera, 2003, p. 342). In turn, fighting or bullying can lead to suspension or expulsion from the school (Noguera, 2003, p. 342).

The main problem is that such strategies do not actually encourage a student to change his/her behavior. The main logic of this approach is that this punishment will deter other students from misbehaving. It is based on the assumption that a student will behave appropriately in order to avoid negative consequences. Yet, it can also lead to such problems as alienation from other pupils, negative attitude toward school or learning, or anti-social behavior.

It does not emphasize positive experiences associated with learning. This is the main drawback of this method. Furthermore, teachers, who continuously rely on punishment, run the risk of losing their authority. The thing is that the power of a teacher can come from various sources. It may rely on coercion or the ability to render punishment. Yet, as it has been argued by William Glasser (1990) such teachers cannot ensure that students are willing to comply with the rules (p. 5).

More importantly, students will regard them only as some authority figures who do not want to offer students sympathy or respect. Overall, the power of the teacher should rely more on his/her expertise and interpersonal skills, rather than coercion. Therefore, coercion and punishment are not the best methods of preventing or responding to student’s misbehavior.

Currently, researchers believe that in many cases, a teacher can respond to misbehavior without relying on punishment that excludes a student (Tate, 2006, p. 15). For instance, a teacher can ask a student to write an essay on the causes of his/her misbehavior and the reasons why such conduct is not appropriate.

Secondly, a teacher should keep in mind that misbehavior can be caused by anxiety or domestic abuse. In some cases, it may be necessary to ask a student after the lesson whether there is anything that disturbs him/her. Furthermore, humor can be much more effective than shouting in the classroom (Tate, 2006, p. 15). Moreover, researchers argue that a sudden pause or silence can be a very good method of attracting a student’s attention to the fact that he/she does not behave properly.

Such a method can be applied to students talk to one another at the time when a teacher explains a new topic. Additionally, teachers should take time to explain what kinds of behavior are inappropriate in the classroom. For some students, such an explanation can be more effective than punishment. This is how teachers can respond to misbehavior in the classroom without using coercive power.

Overall, this discussion indicates that the misbehavior in the classroom cannot always be blamed only on students. Very often, this conduct can be attributed to poor methods of instruction or failure to involve students into learning. The task of educators is to create an environment in which students feel themselves a part of the class. They must see themselves as active participants of educational process. Finally, teachers should remember there are ways of influencing the behavior of students without the use of coercive power.

Belson, M. (1996). Understanding classroom behaviour . Melbourne: Arena.

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The effect of social media on the development of students’ affective variables

1 Science and Technology Department, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China

2 School of Marxism, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

3 Government Enterprise Customer Center, China Mobile Group Jiangsu Co., Ltd., Nanjing, China

The use of social media is incomparably on the rise among students, influenced by the globalized forms of communication and the post-pandemic rush to use multiple social media platforms for education in different fields of study. Though social media has created tremendous chances for sharing ideas and emotions, the kind of social support it provides might fail to meet students’ emotional needs, or the alleged positive effects might be short-lasting. In recent years, several studies have been conducted to explore the potential effects of social media on students’ affective traits, such as stress, anxiety, depression, and so on. The present paper reviews the findings of the exemplary published works of research to shed light on the positive and negative potential effects of the massive use of social media on students’ emotional well-being. This review can be insightful for teachers who tend to take the potential psychological effects of social media for granted. They may want to know more about the actual effects of the over-reliance on and the excessive (and actually obsessive) use of social media on students’ developing certain images of self and certain emotions which are not necessarily positive. There will be implications for pre- and in-service teacher training and professional development programs and all those involved in student affairs.

Introduction

Social media has turned into an essential element of individuals’ lives including students in today’s world of communication. Its use is growing significantly more than ever before especially in the post-pandemic era, marked by a great revolution happening to the educational systems. Recent investigations of using social media show that approximately 3 billion individuals worldwide are now communicating via social media ( Iwamoto and Chun, 2020 ). This growing population of social media users is spending more and more time on social network groupings, as facts and figures show that individuals spend 2 h a day, on average, on a variety of social media applications, exchanging pictures and messages, updating status, tweeting, favoring, and commenting on many updated socially shared information ( Abbott, 2017 ).

Researchers have begun to investigate the psychological effects of using social media on students’ lives. Chukwuere and Chukwuere (2017) maintained that social media platforms can be considered the most important source of changing individuals’ mood, because when someone is passively using a social media platform seemingly with no special purpose, s/he can finally feel that his/her mood has changed as a function of the nature of content overviewed. Therefore, positive and negative moods can easily be transferred among the population using social media networks ( Chukwuere and Chukwuere, 2017 ). This may become increasingly important as students are seen to be using social media platforms more than before and social networking is becoming an integral aspect of their lives. As described by Iwamoto and Chun (2020) , when students are affected by social media posts, especially due to the increasing reliance on social media use in life, they may be encouraged to begin comparing themselves to others or develop great unrealistic expectations of themselves or others, which can have several affective consequences.

Considering the increasing influence of social media on education, the present paper aims to focus on the affective variables such as depression, stress, and anxiety, and how social media can possibly increase or decrease these emotions in student life. The exemplary works of research on this topic in recent years will be reviewed here, hoping to shed light on the positive and negative effects of these ever-growing influential platforms on the psychology of students.

Significance of the study

Though social media, as the name suggests, is expected to keep people connected, probably this social connection is only superficial, and not adequately deep and meaningful to help individuals feel emotionally attached to others. The psychological effects of social media on student life need to be studied in more depth to see whether social media really acts as a social support for students and whether students can use social media to cope with negative emotions and develop positive feelings or not. In other words, knowledge of the potential effects of the growing use of social media on students’ emotional well-being can bridge the gap between the alleged promises of social media and what it actually has to offer to students in terms of self-concept, self-respect, social role, and coping strategies (for stress, anxiety, etc.).

Exemplary general literature on psychological effects of social media

Before getting down to the effects of social media on students’ emotional well-being, some exemplary works of research in recent years on the topic among general populations are reviewed. For one, Aalbers et al. (2018) reported that individuals who spent more time passively working with social media suffered from more intense levels of hopelessness, loneliness, depression, and perceived inferiority. For another, Tang et al. (2013) observed that the procedures of sharing information, commenting, showing likes and dislikes, posting messages, and doing other common activities on social media are correlated with higher stress. Similarly, Ley et al. (2014) described that people who spend 2 h, on average, on social media applications will face many tragic news, posts, and stories which can raise the total intensity of their stress. This stress-provoking effect of social media has been also pinpointed by Weng and Menczer (2015) , who contended that social media becomes a main source of stress because people often share all kinds of posts, comments, and stories ranging from politics and economics, to personal and social affairs. According to Iwamoto and Chun (2020) , anxiety and depression are the negative emotions that an individual may develop when some source of stress is present. In other words, when social media sources become stress-inducing, there are high chances that anxiety and depression also develop.

Charoensukmongkol (2018) reckoned that the mental health and well-being of the global population can be at a great risk through the uncontrolled massive use of social media. These researchers also showed that social media sources can exert negative affective impacts on teenagers, as they can induce more envy and social comparison. According to Fleck and Johnson-Migalski (2015) , though social media, at first, plays the role of a stress-coping strategy, when individuals continue to see stressful conditions (probably experienced and shared by others in media), they begin to develop stress through the passage of time. Chukwuere and Chukwuere (2017) maintained that social media platforms continue to be the major source of changing mood among general populations. For example, someone might be passively using a social media sphere, and s/he may finally find him/herself with a changed mood depending on the nature of the content faced. Then, this good or bad mood is easily shared with others in a flash through the social media. Finally, as Alahmar (2016) described, social media exposes people especially the young generation to new exciting activities and events that may attract them and keep them engaged in different media contexts for hours just passing their time. It usually leads to reduced productivity, reduced academic achievement, and addiction to constant media use ( Alahmar, 2016 ).

The number of studies on the potential psychological effects of social media on people in general is higher than those selectively addressed here. For further insights into this issue, some other suggested works of research include Chang (2012) , Sriwilai and Charoensukmongkol (2016) , and Zareen et al. (2016) . Now, we move to the studies that more specifically explored the effects of social media on students’ affective states.

Review of the affective influences of social media on students

Vygotsky’s mediational theory (see Fernyhough, 2008 ) can be regarded as a main theoretical background for the support of social media on learners’ affective states. Based on this theory, social media can play the role of a mediational means between learners and the real environment. Learners’ understanding of this environment can be mediated by the image shaped via social media. This image can be either close to or different from the reality. In the case of the former, learners can develop their self-image and self-esteem. In the case of the latter, learners might develop unrealistic expectations of themselves by comparing themselves to others. As it will be reviewed below among the affective variables increased or decreased in students under the influence of the massive use of social media are anxiety, stress, depression, distress, rumination, and self-esteem. These effects have been explored more among school students in the age range of 13–18 than university students (above 18), but some studies were investigated among college students as well. Exemplary works of research on these affective variables are reviewed here.

In a cross-sectional study, O’Dea and Campbell (2011) explored the impact of online interactions of social networks on the psychological distress of adolescent students. These researchers found a negative correlation between the time spent on social networking and mental distress. Dumitrache et al. (2012) explored the relations between depression and the identity associated with the use of the popular social media, the Facebook. This study showed significant associations between depression and the number of identity-related information pieces shared on this social network. Neira and Barber (2014) explored the relationship between students’ social media use and depressed mood at teenage. No significant correlation was found between these two variables. In the same year, Tsitsika et al. (2014) explored the associations between excessive use of social media and internalizing emotions. These researchers found a positive correlation between more than 2-h a day use of social media and anxiety and depression.

Hanprathet et al. (2015) reported a statistically significant positive correlation between addiction to Facebook and depression among about a thousand high school students in wealthy populations of Thailand and warned against this psychological threat. Sampasa-Kanyinga and Lewis (2015) examined the relationship between social media use and psychological distress. These researchers found that the use of social media for more than 2 h a day was correlated with a higher intensity of psychological distress. Banjanin et al. (2015) tested the relationship between too much use of social networking and depression, yet found no statistically significant correlation between these two variables. Frison and Eggermont (2016) examined the relationships between different forms of Facebook use, perceived social support of social media, and male and female students’ depressed mood. These researchers found a positive association between the passive use of the Facebook and depression and also between the active use of the social media and depression. Furthermore, the perceived social support of the social media was found to mediate this association. Besides, gender was found as the other factor to mediate this relationship.

Vernon et al. (2017) explored change in negative investment in social networking in relation to change in depression and externalizing behavior. These researchers found that increased investment in social media predicted higher depression in adolescent students, which was a function of the effect of higher levels of disrupted sleep. Barry et al. (2017) explored the associations between the use of social media by adolescents and their psychosocial adjustment. Social media activity showed to be positively and moderately associated with depression and anxiety. Another investigation was focused on secondary school students in China conducted by Li et al. (2017) . The findings showed a mediating role of insomnia on the significant correlation between depression and addiction to social media. In the same year, Yan et al. (2017) aimed to explore the time spent on social networks and its correlation with anxiety among middle school students. They found a significant positive correlation between more than 2-h use of social networks and the intensity of anxiety.

Also in China, Wang et al. (2018) showed that addiction to social networking sites was correlated positively with depression, and this correlation was mediated by rumination. These researchers also found that this mediating effect was moderated by self-esteem. It means that the effect of addiction on depression was compounded by low self-esteem through rumination. In another work of research, Drouin et al. (2018) showed that though social media is expected to act as a form of social support for the majority of university students, it can adversely affect students’ mental well-being, especially for those who already have high levels of anxiety and depression. In their research, the social media resources were found to be stress-inducing for half of the participants, all university students. The higher education population was also studied by Iwamoto and Chun (2020) . These researchers investigated the emotional effects of social media in higher education and found that the socially supportive role of social media was overshadowed in the long run in university students’ lives and, instead, fed into their perceived depression, anxiety, and stress.

Keles et al. (2020) provided a systematic review of the effect of social media on young and teenage students’ depression, psychological distress, and anxiety. They found that depression acted as the most frequent affective variable measured. The most salient risk factors of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression based on the systematic review were activities such as repeated checking for messages, personal investment, the time spent on social media, and problematic or addictive use. Similarly, Mathewson (2020) investigated the effect of using social media on college students’ mental health. The participants stated the experience of anxiety, depression, and suicidality (thoughts of suicide or attempts to suicide). The findings showed that the types and frequency of using social media and the students’ perceived mental health were significantly correlated with each other.

The body of research on the effect of social media on students’ affective and emotional states has led to mixed results. The existing literature shows that there are some positive and some negative affective impacts. Yet, it seems that the latter is pre-dominant. Mathewson (2020) attributed these divergent positive and negative effects to the different theoretical frameworks adopted in different studies and also the different contexts (different countries with whole different educational systems). According to Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions ( Fredrickson, 2001 ), the mental repertoires of learners can be built and broadened by how they feel. For instance, some external stimuli might provoke negative emotions such as anxiety and depression in learners. Having experienced these negative emotions, students might repeatedly check their messages on social media or get addicted to them. As a result, their cognitive repertoire and mental capacity might become limited and they might lose their concentration during their learning process. On the other hand, it should be noted that by feeling positive, learners might take full advantage of the affordances of the social media and; thus, be able to follow their learning goals strategically. This point should be highlighted that the link between the use of social media and affective states is bi-directional. Therefore, strategic use of social media or its addictive use by students can direct them toward either positive experiences like enjoyment or negative ones such as anxiety and depression. Also, these mixed positive and negative effects are similar to the findings of several other relevant studies on general populations’ psychological and emotional health. A number of studies (with general research populations not necessarily students) showed that social networks have facilitated the way of staying in touch with family and friends living far away as well as an increased social support ( Zhang, 2017 ). Given the positive and negative emotional effects of social media, social media can either scaffold the emotional repertoire of students, which can develop positive emotions in learners, or induce negative provokers in them, based on which learners might feel negative emotions such as anxiety and depression. However, admittedly, social media has also generated a domain that encourages the act of comparing lives, and striving for approval; therefore, it establishes and internalizes unrealistic perceptions ( Virden et al., 2014 ; Radovic et al., 2017 ).

It should be mentioned that the susceptibility of affective variables to social media should be interpreted from a dynamic lens. This means that the ecology of the social media can make changes in the emotional experiences of learners. More specifically, students’ affective variables might self-organize into different states under the influence of social media. As for the positive correlation found in many studies between the use of social media and such negative effects as anxiety, depression, and stress, it can be hypothesized that this correlation is induced by the continuous comparison the individual makes and the perception that others are doing better than him/her influenced by the posts that appear on social media. Using social media can play a major role in university students’ psychological well-being than expected. Though most of these studies were correlational, and correlation is not the same as causation, as the studies show that the number of participants experiencing these negative emotions under the influence of social media is significantly high, more extensive research is highly suggested to explore causal effects ( Mathewson, 2020 ).

As the review of exemplary studies showed, some believed that social media increased comparisons that students made between themselves and others. This finding ratifies the relevance of the Interpretation Comparison Model ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ; Stapel, 2007 ) and Festinger’s (1954) Social Comparison Theory. Concerning the negative effects of social media on students’ psychology, it can be argued that individuals may fail to understand that the content presented in social media is usually changed to only represent the attractive aspects of people’s lives, showing an unrealistic image of things. We can add that this argument also supports the relevance of the Social Comparison Theory and the Interpretation Comparison Model ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ; Stapel, 2007 ), because social media sets standards that students think they should compare themselves with. A constant observation of how other students or peers are showing their instances of achievement leads to higher self-evaluation ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ). It is conjectured that the ubiquitous role of social media in student life establishes unrealistic expectations and promotes continuous comparison as also pinpointed in the Interpretation Comparison Model ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ; Stapel, 2007 ).

Implications of the study

The use of social media is ever increasing among students, both at school and university, which is partly because of the promises of technological advances in communication services and partly because of the increased use of social networks for educational purposes in recent years after the pandemic. This consistent use of social media is not expected to leave students’ psychological, affective and emotional states untouched. Thus, it is necessary to know how the growing usage of social networks is associated with students’ affective health on different aspects. Therefore, we found it useful to summarize the research findings in recent years in this respect. If those somehow in charge of student affairs in educational settings are aware of the potential positive or negative effects of social media usage on students, they can better understand the complexities of students’ needs and are better capable of meeting them.

Psychological counseling programs can be initiated at schools or universities to check upon the latest state of students’ mental and emotional health influenced by the pervasive use of social media. The counselors can be made aware of the potential adverse effects of social networking and can adapt the content of their inquiries accordingly. Knowledge of the potential reasons for student anxiety, depression, and stress can help school or university counselors to find individualized coping strategies when they diagnose any symptom of distress in students influenced by an excessive use of social networking.

Admittedly, it is neither possible to discard the use of social media in today’s academic life, nor to keep students’ use of social networks fully controlled. Certainly, the educational space in today’s world cannot do without the social media, which has turned into an integral part of everybody’s life. Yet, probably students need to be instructed on how to take advantage of the media and to be the least affected negatively by its occasional superficial and unrepresentative content. Compensatory programs might be needed at schools or universities to encourage students to avoid making unrealistic and impartial comparisons of themselves and the flamboyant images of others displayed on social media. Students can be taught to develop self-appreciation and self-care while continuing to use the media to their benefit.

The teachers’ role as well as the curriculum developers’ role are becoming more important than ever, as they can significantly help to moderate the adverse effects of the pervasive social media use on students’ mental and emotional health. The kind of groupings formed for instructional purposes, for example, in social media can be done with greater care by teachers to make sure that the members of the groups are homogeneous and the tasks and activities shared in the groups are quite relevant and realistic. The teachers cannot always be in a full control of students’ use of social media, and the other fact is that students do not always and only use social media for educational purposes. They spend more time on social media for communicating with friends or strangers or possibly they just passively receive the content produced out of any educational scope just for entertainment. This uncontrolled and unrealistic content may give them a false image of life events and can threaten their mental and emotional health. Thus, teachers can try to make students aware of the potential hazards of investing too much of their time on following pages or people that publish false and misleading information about their personal or social identities. As students, logically expected, spend more time with their teachers than counselors, they may be better and more receptive to the advice given by the former than the latter.

Teachers may not be in full control of their students’ use of social media, but they have always played an active role in motivating or demotivating students to take particular measures in their academic lives. If teachers are informed of the recent research findings about the potential effects of massively using social media on students, they may find ways to reduce students’ distraction or confusion in class due to the excessive or over-reliant use of these networks. Educators may more often be mesmerized by the promises of technology-, computer- and mobile-assisted learning. They may tend to encourage the use of social media hoping to benefit students’ social and interpersonal skills, self-confidence, stress-managing and the like. Yet, they may be unaware of the potential adverse effects on students’ emotional well-being and, thus, may find the review of the recent relevant research findings insightful. Also, teachers can mediate between learners and social media to manipulate the time learners spend on social media. Research has mainly indicated that students’ emotional experiences are mainly dependent on teachers’ pedagogical approach. They should refrain learners from excessive use of, or overreliance on, social media. Raising learners’ awareness of this fact that individuals should develop their own path of development for learning, and not build their development based on unrealistic comparison of their competences with those of others, can help them consider positive values for their activities on social media and, thus, experience positive emotions.

At higher education, students’ needs are more life-like. For example, their employment-seeking spirits might lead them to create accounts in many social networks, hoping for a better future. However, membership in many of these networks may end in the mere waste of the time that could otherwise be spent on actual on-campus cooperative projects. Universities can provide more on-campus resources both for research and work experience purposes from which the students can benefit more than the cyberspace that can be tricky on many occasions. Two main theories underlying some negative emotions like boredom and anxiety are over-stimulation and under-stimulation. Thus, what learners feel out of their involvement in social media might be directed toward negative emotions due to the stimulating environment of social media. This stimulating environment makes learners rely too much, and spend too much time, on social media or use them obsessively. As a result, they might feel anxious or depressed. Given the ubiquity of social media, these negative emotions can be replaced with positive emotions if learners become aware of the psychological effects of social media. Regarding the affordances of social media for learners, they can take advantage of the potential affordances of these media such as improving their literacy, broadening their communication skills, or enhancing their distance learning opportunities.

A review of the research findings on the relationship between social media and students’ affective traits revealed both positive and negative findings. Yet, the instances of the latter were more salient and the negative psychological symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and stress have been far from negligible. These findings were discussed in relation to some more relevant theories such as the social comparison theory, which predicted that most of the potential issues with the young generation’s excessive use of social media were induced by the unfair comparisons they made between their own lives and the unrealistic portrayal of others’ on social media. Teachers, education policymakers, curriculum developers, and all those in charge of the student affairs at schools and universities should be made aware of the psychological effects of the pervasive use of social media on students, and the potential threats.

It should be reminded that the alleged socially supportive and communicative promises of the prevalent use of social networking in student life might not be fully realized in practice. Students may lose self-appreciation and gratitude when they compare their current state of life with the snapshots of others’ or peers’. A depressed or stressed-out mood can follow. Students at schools or universities need to learn self-worth to resist the adverse effects of the superficial support they receive from social media. Along this way, they should be assisted by the family and those in charge at schools or universities, most importantly the teachers. As already suggested, counseling programs might help with raising students’ awareness of the potential psychological threats of social media to their health. Considering the ubiquity of social media in everybody’ life including student life worldwide, it seems that more coping and compensatory strategies should be contrived to moderate the adverse psychological effects of the pervasive use of social media on students. Also, the affective influences of social media should not be generalized but they need to be interpreted from an ecological or contextual perspective. This means that learners might have different emotions at different times or different contexts while being involved in social media. More specifically, given the stative approach to learners’ emotions, what learners emotionally experience in their application of social media can be bound to their intra-personal and interpersonal experiences. This means that the same learner at different time points might go through different emotions Also, learners’ emotional states as a result of their engagement in social media cannot be necessarily generalized to all learners in a class.

As the majority of studies on the psychological effects of social media on student life have been conducted on school students than in higher education, it seems it is too soon to make any conclusive remark on this population exclusively. Probably, in future, further studies of the psychological complexities of students at higher education and a better knowledge of their needs can pave the way for making more insightful conclusions about the effects of social media on their affective states.

Suggestions for further research

The majority of studies on the potential effects of social media usage on students’ psychological well-being are either quantitative or qualitative in type, each with many limitations. Presumably, mixed approaches in near future can better provide a comprehensive assessment of these potential associations. Moreover, most studies on this topic have been cross-sectional in type. There is a significant dearth of longitudinal investigation on the effect of social media on developing positive or negative emotions in students. This seems to be essential as different affective factors such as anxiety, stress, self-esteem, and the like have a developmental nature. Traditional research methods with single-shot designs for data collection fail to capture the nuances of changes in these affective variables. It can be expected that more longitudinal studies in future can show how the continuous use of social media can affect the fluctuations of any of these affective variables during the different academic courses students pass at school or university.

As already raised in some works of research reviewed, the different patterns of impacts of social media on student life depend largely on the educational context. Thus, the same research designs with the same academic grade students and even the same age groups can lead to different findings concerning the effects of social media on student psychology in different countries. In other words, the potential positive and negative effects of popular social media like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc., on students’ affective conditions can differ across different educational settings in different host countries. Thus, significantly more research is needed in different contexts and cultures to compare the results.

There is also a need for further research on the higher education students and how their affective conditions are positively and negatively affected by the prevalent use of social media. University students’ psychological needs might be different from other academic grades and, thus, the patterns of changes that the overall use of social networking can create in their emotions can be also different. Their main reasons for using social media might be different from school students as well, which need to be investigated more thoroughly. The sorts of interventions needed to moderate the potential negative effects of social networking on them can be different too, all requiring a new line of research in education domain.

Finally, there are hopes that considering the ever-increasing popularity of social networking in education, the potential psychological effects of social media on teachers be explored as well. Though teacher psychology has only recently been considered for research, the literature has provided profound insights into teachers developing stress, motivation, self-esteem, and many other emotions. In today’s world driven by global communications in the cyberspace, teachers like everyone else are affecting and being affected by social networking. The comparison theory can hold true for teachers too. Thus, similar threats (of social media) to self-esteem and self-worth can be there for teachers too besides students, which are worth investigating qualitatively and quantitatively.

Probably a new line of research can be initiated to explore the co-development of teacher and learner psychological traits under the influence of social media use in longitudinal studies. These will certainly entail sophisticated research methods to be capable of unraveling the nuances of variation in these traits and their mutual effects, for example, stress, motivation, and self-esteem. If these are incorporated within mixed-approach works of research, more comprehensive and better insightful findings can be expected to emerge. Correlational studies need to be followed by causal studies in educational settings. As many conditions of the educational settings do not allow for having control groups or randomization, probably, experimental studies do not help with this. Innovative research methods, case studies or else, can be used to further explore the causal relations among the different features of social media use and the development of different affective variables in teachers or learners. Examples of such innovative research methods can be process tracing, qualitative comparative analysis, and longitudinal latent factor modeling (for a more comprehensive view, see Hiver and Al-Hoorie, 2019 ).

Author contributions

Both authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

This study was sponsored by Wuxi Philosophy and Social Sciences bidding project—“Special Project for Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Workers in the New Form of Employment” (Grant No. WXSK22-GH-13). This study was sponsored by the Key Project of Party Building and Ideological and Political Education Research of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications—“Research on the Guidance and Countermeasures of Network Public Opinion in Colleges and Universities in the Modern Times” (Grant No. XC 2021002).

Conflict of interest

Author XX was employed by China Mobile Group Jiangsu Co., Ltd. The remaining author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

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A man stands at the top of a dimly lit staircase.

Expelling students for bad behaviour seems like the obvious solution, but is it really a good idea?

Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology

Disclosure statement

Linda J. Graham receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She chaired the 2020 inquiry into suspension, exclusion and expulsion processes in South Australian government schools, and was a member of the 2023 National School Reform Agreement Ministerial Reference Group.

Queensland University of Technology provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students.

The two were part of a group of four high school students suspended from Yarra Valley Grammar last Friday, after sharing a spreadsheet of photos of female classmates, ranking them with terms including “wifeys”, “cuties” and “unrapable”.

As principal Mark Merry said in a letter to parents on Tuesday, he had “formed the view” the position of two of the students had “become untenable”. The two other students who played a “lesser role” will face “disciplinary action”. The school is offering wellbeing support to the girls who were targeted.

Earlier this week, the suspensions were met with approval from Education Minister Jason Clare who told the ABC , “I’m glad the school’s fronting up. I think that they’ve taken the sort of action that the community would expect”.

Expelling or suspending students for this kind of behaviour seems like the obvious course of action. But is it a good idea?

Why do schools suspend or expel students?

Suspending or expelling a student is meant to be a last resort for serious problem behaviour. It is either supposed to allow space for a reset or as a consequence for behaviour which threatens other students’ safety or learning.

In the case of Yarra Valley Grammar, the suspensions and expulsions send a message to the girls in the school, other students, parents and the broader public this behaviour is not tolerated.

With so much media and public attention on the spreadsheet, the suspensions and expulsions also help protect the reputation of the school.

Clearly there has been some horrendous behaviour and it does need to have a stern response. But without condoning the behaviour in any way, kicking these students out of school is not the best way to handle this situation, which is a symptom of a much bigger problem.

What does the research say about suspensions and expulsions?

Typically, when a student is expelled, the outcomes are not positive for that child.

This is because expulsion is a punitive action, not an educative one.

Research shows suspending and expelling students can also simply build resentment and anger. If students feel like they are rejected from society , there is a risk they become more extreme in their views or behaviours.

Research also shows it can impact a young person’s learning and lead to leaving school early. We also know there is an association between suspension and expulsion and increased delinquency , including contact with the police .

The most protective thing to do is to keep young people in schools where they can be exposed to the influence of positive peers, under adult supervision, with a chance to keep up with their learning.

What could happen instead?

This is not to say students should just be told to go back to class as if nothing has happened.

With the help of experts like psychologists, schools can engage in a restorative justice process . This is about helping young people understand the real impact of their actions.

There can often be an assumption young people act with full knowledge of the consequences of what they are doing. But parts of their brain involving control and self regulation are still developing into adulthood.

Experts can work with students so they can learn their actions were not harmless fun with their mates but something that hurts others.

An example of how this can be done is through giving those students “ inquiry projects ” where they investigate similar incidents and present their findings to their peers. The emphasis is on an educative response that builds empathy and understanding in that young person.

The school could also ask the female students included in the spreadsheet to express through their choice of medium how it made them feel.

One criticism of this process is it requires the victims to engage in emotional labour when they have already experienced harm. But when a restorative justice process is done well , it can give the victims a voice and public acknowledgement of the wrong they have experienced.

Those victims can also receive an apology if they want it. That apology is likely to be more meaningful if the perpetrator has learnt something of the effect of their behaviour.

Importantly, the aim of a restorative justice process is not to dispense “justice”. It is to restore peace, to heal harms done and to prevent future harms from occurring through better understanding.

Given the Yarra Valley Grammar “list” is the latest episode in a string of incidents involving misogynistic behaviour by male students , it is time we tried something different.

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Published: 13 May 2024

The big five factors as differential predictors of self-regulation, achievement emotions, coping and health behavior in undergraduate students

Jesús de la Fuente 1 , 2 ,
Paul Sander 3 ,
Angélica Garzón Umerenkova 4 ,
Begoña Urien 1 ,
Mónica Pachón-Basallo 1 &
Elkin O Luis 1

BMC Psychology volume 12 , Article number: 267 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Metrics details

The aim of this research was to analyze whether the personality factors included in the Big Five model differentially predict the self-regulation and affective states of university students and health.

A total of 637 students completed validated self-report questionnaires. Using an ex post facto design, we conducted linear regression and structural prediction analyses.

The findings showed that model factors were differential predictors of both self-regulation and affective states. Self-regulation and affective states, in turn, jointly predict emotional performance while learning and even student health. These results allow us to understand, through a holistic predictive model, the differential predictive relationships of all the factors: conscientiousness and extraversion were predictors regulating positive emotionality and health; the openness to experience factor was non-regulating; nonregulating; and agreeableness and neuroticism were dysregulating, hence precursors of negative emotionality and poorer student health.

Conclusions

These results are important because they allow us to infer implications for guidance and psychological health at university.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

The personality characteristics of students have proven to be essential explanatory and predictive factors of learning behavior and performance at universities [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. However, our knowledge about such factors does not exhaust further questions, such as which personality factors tend toward the regulation of learning behavior and which do not? Or can personality factors be arranged on a continuum to understand student differences in their emotions when learning? Consequently, the aim of this study was to analyze whether students’ personality traits differentially predict the regulation of behavior and emotionality. These variables align as different motivational-affective profiles of students, through the type of achievement emotions they experience during study, as well as their coping strategies, motivational state, and ultimately health.

Five-factor model

Previous research has shown the value and consistency of the five-factor model for analyzing students’ personality traits. Pervin, Cervone, and John [ 5 ] defined five factors as follows: (1) Conscientiousness includes a sense of duty, persistence, and behavior that is self-disciplined and goal-directed. The descriptors organized, responsible, and efficient are typically used to describe conscientious persons. (2) Extraversion is characterized by the quantity and intensity of interpersonal relationships, as well as sensation seeking. The descriptors sociable, assertive, and energetic are typically used to describe extraverted persons. (3) Openness to experience incorporates autonomous thinking and willingness to examine unfamiliar ideas and try new things. The descriptors inquisitive, philosophical, and innovative are typically used to describe persons open to experience. (4) Agreeableness is quantified along a continuum from social antagonism to compassion in one’s quality of interpersonal interactions. The descriptors inquisitive, kind, considerate, and generous are often used to describe persons characterized by agreeableness. (5) Finally, neuroticism tends to indicate negative emotions . Persons showing neuroticism are often described as moody, nervous, or touchy.

This construct has appeared to consistently predict individual differences between university students. Prior research has documented its essential role in explaining differences in achievement [ 6 , 7 ], motivational states [ 8 ], students’ learning approaches [ 9 ], self-regulated learning [ 10 ].

Five-factor model, self-regulation, achievement emotions and health

The relationship between the Big Five factors and self-regulation has been analyzed historically with much interest [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. The dimensions of the five-factor model describe fundamental ways in which people differ from one another [ 16 , 17 ]. Of the five factors, conscientiousness may be the best reflection of self-regulation capacity. More recent research has shown consistent evidence of the relationship between these two constructs, especially conscientiousness, which has a positive relationship, and neuroticism, which has a negative relationship with self-regulation [ 18 , 19 ]. The Big Five factors are also related to coping strategies [ 20 ].

The evidence on the role of the five-factor model in self-regulation, achievement emotions, and health has been fairly consistent. On the one hand, self-regulation has a confirmed role as a meta-cognitive variable that is present in students’ mental health problems [ 21 ]. Similarly, personality factors and types of perfectionism have been associated with mental health in university students [ 22 ]. In a complementary fashion, one longitudinal study has shown that personality factors have a persistent effect on self-regulation and health. Sirois and Hirsch [ 23 ] confirmed that the Big Five traits affect balance and health behaviors.

Self-regulation, achievement emotions and health

Self-regulation has recently been considered a significant behavioral meta-ability that regulates other skills in the university environment. It has consistently appeared to be a predictor of achievement emotions [ 24 ], coping strategies [ 25 ], and health behavior [ 26 ]. In the context of university learning, the level of self-regulation is a determining factor in learning approaches, motivation and achievement [ 27 ]. Similarly, the self- vs. externally regulated behavior theory [ 27 , 28 ] assumes that the continuum of self-regulation can be divided into three types: (1) self-regulation behavior, which is the meta-behavior or meta-skill of planning and executing control over one’s behavior; (2) nonregulation behavior (deregulation) , where consistent self-regulating behavior is absent; and (3) nonregulation behavior, when regulatory behavior is maladaptive or contrary to what is expected. Some example behaviors are presented below, and these have already been documented (see Table 1 ). Recently, Beaulieu and collaborators [ 29 ] proposed a self-dysregulation latent profile for describing subjects with lower scores on subscales regarding extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness and higher scores concerning negative emotional facets.

Table 1 here.

Consequently, the question that we pose - as yet unresolved - is whether the different personality factors predict a determined type of regulation on the continuum of regulatory behavior, nonregulatory (deregulatory) behavior and dysregulatory behavior, based on evidence.

Aims and hypotheses

Based on the existing evidence, the aim of this study was to establish a structural predictive model that would order personality factors along a continuum as predictors of university students’ regulatory behavior. The following hypotheses were proposed for this purpose: (1) personality factors differentially predict students’ regulatory, nonregulatory and dysregulatory behavior during academic learning; they also differentially determine students’ type of emotional states (positive vs. negative affect); (2) the preceding factors differentially predict achievement emotions (positive vs. negative) during learning, coping strategies (problem-focused vs. emotion-focused) and motivational state (engagement vs. burnout); and (3) all these factors ultimately predict student health, either positively or negatively, depending on their regulatory or dysregulatory nature.

Participants

Data were gathered from 2019 to 2022, encompassing a total of 626 undergraduate students enrolled in Psychology, Primary Education, and Educational Psychology programs across two Spanish universities. Within this cohort, 85.5% were female, and 14.5% were male, with ages ranging from 19 to 24 years and a mean age of 21.33 years. The student distribution was equal between the two universities, with 324 attending one and 318 attending the other. The study employed an incidental, nonrandomized design. The guidance departments at both universities extended invitations for teacher participation, and teachers, in turn, invited their students to partake voluntarily, ensuring anonymity. Questionnaires were completed online for each academic subject, corresponding to the specific teaching-learning process.

Instruments

Five personality factors.

The Big Five Questionnaire [ 30 ], based on the version by Barbaranelli et al. [ 31 ], assessed scores for five personality factors. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the 67 scale items resulted in a five-factor structure aligned with the Big Five Model. The outcomes demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties and acceptable fit indices. The second-order confirmatory model exhibited a good fit (chi-square = 38.273; degrees of freedom (20–15) = 5; p > 0.10; chi/df = 7.64; RMR = 0.0425; NFI = 0.939; RFI = 0.917; IFI = 0.947; TLI = 0.937; CFI = 0.946; RMSEA = 0.065; HoeLength index = 2453 ( p < 0.05) and 617 ( p < 0.01)). Internal consistency of the total scale was also strong (alpha = 0.956; Part 1 = 0.932 and Part 2 = 0.832; Spearman-Brown = 0.962 and Guttman = 0.932).

Self-Regulation : The Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ) [ 32 ] gauged self-regulation. The Spanish adaptation, previously validated in Spanish samples [ 33 ], encompassed four factors measured by a total of 17 items. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a consistent factor structure (chi-square = 845.593; df = 113; chi/df = 7.483; RMSM = 0.0299; CFI = 0.959, GFI = 0.94, AGFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.059). Validity and reliability values (Cronbach’s alpha) were deemed acceptable (total (α = 0.86; Omega = 0.843); goal-setting planning (α = 0.79; Omega = 0.784); perseverance (α = 0.78; Omega = 0.779); decision-making (α = 0.72; Omega = 0.718); and learning from mistakes (α = 0.72; Omega = 0.722)), comparable to those of the English version. Example statements include: “I usually keep track of my progress toward my goals,” “In regard to deciding about a change, I feel overwhelmed by the choice,” and “I learn from my mistakes.”

Positive-negative affect

The Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS-N) [ 34 ], validated with university students, assessed positive and negative affect. The PANAS comprises two factors and 20 items, demonstrating a consistent confirmatory factor structure (chi-square = 1111.147; df = 169; chi/df = 6.518; RMSM = 0.0346; CFI = 0.955, GFI = 0.963, AGFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.058). Validity and reliability values (Cronbach’s alpha) were acceptable (total (α = 0.891; Omega = 0.857); positive affect (α = 0.8199; Omega = 0.784); and negative affect (α = 0.795; Omega = 0.776), comparable to those of the English version. Sample items include “I am a lively person, I usually get excited; I have bad moods (I get upset or irritated).”

Learning Achievement Emotion : The variable was measured using the Spanish version [ 35 ] of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ-Learning) [ 36 ], encompassing nine emotions (enjoyment, hope, pride, relief, anger, anxiety, hopelessness, shame, and boredom). Emotions were classified based on valence (positive or negative) and activation (activating or deactivating), resulting in four quadrants. Another classification considered the source or trigger: the ongoing activity, prospective outcome, or retrospective outcome. Psychometric properties were adequate, and the confirmatory model displayed a good fit (chi-square = 529.890; degrees of freedom = 79; chi/df = 6.70; SRMR = 0.053; p > 0.08; NFI = 0.964; RFI = 0.957; IFI = 0.973; TLI = 0.978, CFI = 0.971; RMSEA = 0.080; HOELTER = 165 ( p < 0.05) and 178 ( p < 0.01)). Good internal consistency was found for the total scale (Alpha = 0.939; Part 1 = 0.880, Part 2 = 0.864; Spearman-Brown = 0.913 and 884; Guttman = 0.903). Example items include Item 90: “I am angry when I have to study”; Item 113: “My sense of confidence motivates me”; and Item 144: “I am proud of myself”.

Engagement-Burnout : Engagement was assessed using a validated Spanish version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students [ 37 ], demonstrating satisfactory psychometric properties for Spanish students. The model displayed good fit indices, with a second-order structure comprising three factors: vigor, dedication, and absorption. Scale unidimensionality and metric invariance were verified in the samples assessed (chi-square = 592.526, p > 0.09; df = 84, chi/df = 7.05; SRMR = 0.034; TLI = 0.976, IFI = 0.954, and CFI = 0.923; RMSEA = 0.083; HOELTER = 153, p < 0.05; 170 p < 0.01). Cronbach’s alpha for this sample was 0.900 (14 items); the two parts of the scale produced values of 0.856 (7 items) and 0.786 (7 items).

Burnout : The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) [ 38 ], in its validated Spanish version, was employed to assess burnout. This version exhibited adequate psychometric properties for Spanish students. Good fit indices were obtained, with a second-order structure comprising three factors: exhaustion or depletion, cynicism, and lack of effectiveness. Scale unidimensionality and metric invariance were confirmed in the samples assessed (chi-square = 567.885, p > 0.010, df = 87, chi/df = 6.52; SRMR = 0.054; CFI = 0.956, IFI = 0.951, TLI = 0.951; RMSEA = 0.071; HOELTER = 224, p < 0.05; 246 p < 0.01). Cronbach’s alpha for this sample was 0.874 (15 items); the two parts of the scale were 0.853 (8 items) and 0.793 (7 items).

Strategies for coping with academic stress : The Coping Strategies Scale (Escala Estrategias de Coping - EEC) [ 39 ] was utilized in its original version. Constructed based on the Lazarus and Folkman questionnaire [ 40 ] using theoretical-rational criteria, the original 90-item instrument resulted in a 64-item first-order structure. The second-order structure comprised 10 factors and two significant dimensions. A satisfactory fit was observed in the second-order structure (chi-square = 478.750; degrees of freedom = 73, p > 0.09; chi/df = 6.55; RMSR = 0.052; NFI = 0.901; RFI = 0.945; IFI = 0.903, TLI = 0.951, CFI = 0.903). Reliability was confirmed with Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.93 (complete scale), 0.93 (first half), and 0.90 (second half); Spearman-Brown coefficient of 0.84; and Guttman coefficient of 0.80. Two dimensions and 11 factors were identified: (1) Dimension: emotion-focused coping—F1. Fantasy distraction; F6. Help for action; F8. Preparing for the worst; F9. Venting and emotional isolation; F11. Resigned acceptance. (2) Dimension: problem-focused coping—F2. Help seeking and family counsel; F10. Self-instructions; F10. Positive reappraisal and firmness; F12. Communicating feelings and social support; F13. Seeking alternative reinforcement.

Student Health Behavior : The Physical and Psychosocial Health Inventory [ 41 ] measured this variable, summarizing the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The inventory focused on the impact of studies, with questions such as “I feel anxious about my studies.” Students responded on a Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). In the Spanish sample, the model displayed good fit indices (CFI = 0.95, GFI = 0.96, NFI = 0.94; RMSEA = 0.064), with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.82.

All participants provided informed consent before engaging in the study. The completion of scales was voluntary and conducted through an online platform. Over two academic years, students reported on five distinct teaching-learning processes, each corresponding to a different university subject they were enrolled in during this period. Students took their time to answer the questionnaires gradually throughout the academic year. The assessment for Presage variables took place in September-October of 2018 and 2019, Process variables were assessed in the subsequent February-March, and Product variables were evaluated in May-June. The procedural steps were ethically approved by the Ethics Committee under reference 2018.170, within the broader context of an R&D Project spanning 2018 to 2021.

Data analysis

The ex post facto design [ 42 ] of this cross-sectional study involved bivariate association analyses, multiple regression, and structural predictions (SEMs). Preliminary analyses were executed to ensure the appropriateness of the parameters used in the analyses, including tests for normality (Kolmogorov-Smirnov), skewness, and kurtosis (+-0.05).

Multiple regression

Hypothesis 1 was evaluated using multiple regression analysis through SPSS (v. 26).

Confirmatory factor analysis

To test Hypotheses 2 and 3, a structural equation model (SEM) was employed in this sample. Model fit was assessed by examining the chi-square to degrees of freedom ratio, along with RMSEA (root mean square error of approximation), NFI (normed fit index), CFI (comparative fit index), GFI (goodness-of-fit index), and AGFI (adjusted goodness-of-fit index) [ 43 ]. Ideally, all these values should surpass 0.90. The adequacy of the sample size was confirmed using the Hoelter index [ 44 ]. These analyses were conducted using AMOS (v.22).

Prediction results

The predictive relationships exhibited a continuum along two extremes. On the one hand, conscientiousness, extraversion and openness were significant, graded, and positive predictors of self-regulation. On the other hand, Agreeableness and Neuroticism were negative, graded predictors of self-regulation. A considerable percentage of explained variance was observed ( r 2 = 0.499). The most meaningful finding, however, is that this predictive differential grading is maintained for the rest of the variables analyzed: positive affect ( r 2 = 0.571) and negative affect ( r 2 = 0.524), achievement emotions during study, engagement burnout, problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies, and student health. See Table 2 .

Structural prediction results

Structural prediction model.

Three models were tested. Model 1 proposes the exclusive prediction of personality factors on the rest of the factors, not including self-regulation. Model 2 evaluated the predictive potential of self-regulation on the factors of the Big Five model. Model 3 tested the ability of the Big Five personality traits to predict self-regulation and the other factors. The latter model presented adequate statistical values. These models are shown in Table 3 .

Models of the linear structural results of the variables

Direct effects.

The statistical effects showed a direct, significant, positive predictive effect of the personality factors C (Conscientiousness) and E (Extraversion) on self-regulation. The result for factor O (openness to experience) was not significant. Factors A (agreeableness) and N (neuroticism) were negatively related, especially the latter. In a complementary fashion, factors C and E showed significant, positive predictions of positive affect, while O and A had less strength. Factor N most strongly predicted negative affect.

Moreover, self-regulation positively predicted positive achievement emotions during study and negatively predicted negative achievement emotions. Positive affect predicted positive emotions during study, engagement, and problem-focused coping strategies; negative affect predicted negative emotions during study, burnout, and emotion-focused strategies. Positive emotions during study negatively predict negative emotions and burnout. Engagement positively predicted problem-focused coping and negatively predicted burnout. Finally, problem-focused coping also predicted emotion-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping negatively predicts health and well-being.

Indirect effects

The Big Five factors exhibited consistent directionality. Factors C and E positively predicted positive emotions, engagement, problem-focused coping, and health and negatively predicted negative emotions and burnout. Factor O had low prediction values in both negative and positive cases. Factors A and N were positive predictors of negative emotions during study, burnout, emotion-focused coping and health, while the opposite was true for factors C and E. These factors had positive predictive effects on self-regulation, positive affect, positive emotions during study, engagement, problem-focused strategies and health; in contrast, the other factors had negative effects on negative affect, negative emotions during study, burnout, emotion-focused strategies and health. See Table 4 ; Fig. 1 .

SEM of prediction in the variables Note. C = Conscientiousness; E = Extraversion; O = Openness to experience; A = Agreeableness; N = Neuroticism; SR = Self-Regulation; Pos.A = Positive Affect; Neg.A = Negative Affect; Pe.S = Positive emotions during study; Ne.S = Negative emotions during study; ENG = Engagement; BURN = Burnout; EFCS = Emotion-focused coping strategies; PFCS = Problem-focused coping strategies: HEALTH: Health behavior.

Based on the Self- vs. External-Regulation theory [ 27 , 28 ], the aim of this study was to show, differentially, the regulatory, nonregulatory or dysregulatory power of the Big Five personality factors with respect to study behaviors, associated emotionality during study, motivational states, and ultimately, student health behavior.

Regarding Hypothesis 1 , the results showed a differential, graded prediction of the Big Five personality factors affecting both self-regulation and affective states. The results from the logistic and structural regression analyses showed a clear, graded pattern from the positive predictive relationship of C to the negative predictive relationship of N. On the one hand, they showed the regulatory effect (direct and indirect) of factors C and E, the nonregulatory effect of O, and the dysregulatory effect of factors A and especially N. This evidence offers a differential categorization of the five factors in an integrated manner. On the other hand, their effects on affective tone (direct and indirect) take the same positive direction in C and E, intermediate in the case of O, and negative in A and N. There is plentiful prior evidence that has shown this relationship, though only in part, not in the integrated manner of the model presented here [ 29 , 45 , 46 , 47 ].

Regarding Hypothesis 2 , the evidence shows that self-regulation directly and indirectly predicts affective states in achievement emotions during study. Directionality can be positive or negative according to the influence of C and E and of positive emotionality or of A and N with negative affect. This finding agrees with prior research [ 29 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ].

Regarding Hypothesis 3 , the results have shown clear bidirectionality. Subsequent to the prior influence of personality factors and self-regulation, achievement emotions bring about the resulting motivational states of engagement-burnout and the use of different coping strategies (problem-focused vs. emotion-focused). Positive achievement emotions during study predicted a motivational state of engagement and problem-focused coping strategies and were positive predictors of health; however, negative emotions predicted burnout and emotion-focused coping strategies and were negative predictors of health. These results are in line with prior evidence [ 49 , 52 , 53 ]. Finally, we unequivocally showed a double, sequenced path of emotional variables and affective motivations in a process that ultimately and differentially predicts student health [ 54 , 55 ].

In conclusion, these results allow us to understand the predictive relationships involving these multiple variables in a holistic predictive model, while previous research has addressed this topic only in part [ 56 ]. We believe that these results lend empirical support to the sequence proposed by the SR vs. ER model [ 27 ]: the factors of conscientiousness and extraversion appear to be regulators of positive emotionality, engagement and health; openness to experience is considered to be nonregulating; and agreeableness and neuroticism are dysregulators of the learning process and precursors of negative emotionality and poorer student health [ 57 ]. New levels of detail—in a graded heuristic—have been added to our understanding of the relationships among the five-factor model, self-regulation, achievement emotions and health [ 23 ].

Limitations and research prospects

A primary limitation of this study was that the analysis focused exclusively on the student. The role of the teaching context, therefore, was not considered. Previous research has reported the role of the teaching process, in interaction with student characteristics, in predicting positive or negative emotionality in students [ 49 , 58 ]. However, such results do not undercut the value of the results presented here. Future research should further analyze potential personality types derived from the present categorization according to heuristic values.

Practical implications

The relationships presented may be considered a mental map that orders the constituent factors of the Five-Factor Model on a continuum, from the most adaptive (or regulatory) and deregulatory to the most maladaptive or dysregulatory. This information is very important for carrying out preventive intervention programs for students and for designing programs for those who could benefit from training in self-regulation and positivity. Such intervention could improve how students experience the difficulties inherent in university studies [ 47 , 59 ], another indicator of the need for active Psychology and Counseling Centers at universities.

Data availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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This research was funded by the R&D Project PID2022-136466NB-I00 and the R&D Project PGC2018-094672-B-I00. University of Navarra (Ministry of Science and Education, Spain), R&D Project UAL18-SEJ-DO31-A-FEDER (University of Almería, Spain), and the European Social Fund.

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Conceptualization, J.d.l.F and ELG; formal analysis and methodology, J.d.l.F and ELG.; project administration, J.d.l.F.; writing—original draft, J.d.l.F, PS, AG, BU, MP, and ELG; writing—review & editing, J.d.l.F, PS, AG, BU, MP and ELG. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Fuente, J.d.l., Sander, P., Garzón Umerenkova, A. et al. The big five factors as differential predictors of self-regulation, achievement emotions, coping and health behavior in undergraduate students. BMC Psychol 12 , 267 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01768-9

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There is an ethical duty to express solidarity with the weak in any situation that involves oppressive power.

If the machinery of oppressive power is to be trained on the weak, then there is a duty to stop the gears by any means necessary.

The first principle sometimes takes the “weak” to mean “whoever has the least power,” and sometimes “whoever suffers most,” but most often a combination of both. The second principle, meanwhile, may be used to defend revolutionary violence, although this interpretation has just as often been repudiated by pacifistic radicals, among whom two of the most famous are, of course, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr . In the pacifist’s interpretation, the body that we must place between the gears is not that of our enemy but our own. In doing this, we may pay the ultimate price with our actual bodies, in the non-metaphorical sense. More usually, the risk is to our livelihoods, our reputations, our futures. Before these most recent campus protests began, we had an example of this kind of action in the climate movement. For several years now, many people have been protesting the economic and political machinery that perpetuates climate change, by blocking roads, throwing paint, interrupting plays, and committing many other arrestable offenses that can appear ridiculous to skeptics (or, at the very least, performative), but which in truth represent a level of personal sacrifice unimaginable to many of us.

I experienced this not long ago while participating in an XR climate rally in London. When it came to the point in the proceedings where I was asked by my fellow-protesters whether I’d be willing to commit an arrestable offense—one that would likely lead to a conviction and thus make travelling to the United States difficult or even impossible—I’m ashamed to say that I declined that offer. Turns out, I could not give up my relationship with New York City for the future of the planet. I’d just about managed to stop buying plastic bottles (except when very thirsty) and was trying to fly less. But never to see New York again? What pitiful ethical creatures we are (I am)! Falling at the first hurdle! Anyone who finds themselves rolling their eyes at any young person willing to put their own future into jeopardy for an ethical principle should ask themselves where the limits of their own commitments lie—also whether they’ve bought a plastic bottle or booked a flight recently. A humbling inquiry.

It is difficult to look at the recent Columbia University protests in particular without being reminded of the campus protests of the nineteen-sixties and seventies, some of which happened on the very same lawns. At that time, a cynical political class was forced to observe the spectacle of its own privileged youth standing in solidarity with the weakest historical actors of the moment, a group that included, but was not restricted to, African Americans and the Vietnamese. By placing such people within their ethical zone of interest, young Americans risked both their own academic and personal futures and—in the infamous case of Kent State—their lives. I imagine that the students at Columbia—and protesters on other campuses—fully intend this echo, and, in their unequivocal demand for both a ceasefire and financial divestment from this terrible war, to a certain extent they have achieved it.

But, when I open newspapers and see students dismissing the idea that some of their fellow-students feel, at this particular moment, unsafe on campus, or arguing that such a feeling is simply not worth attending to, given the magnitude of what is occurring in Gaza, I find such sentiments cynical and unworthy of this movement. For it may well be—within the ethical zone of interest that is a campus, which was not so long ago defined as a safe space, delineated by the boundary of a generation’s ethical ideas— it may well be that a Jewish student walking past the tents, who finds herself referred to as a Zionist, and then is warned to keep her distance, is, in that moment, the weakest participant in the zone. If the concept of safety is foundational to these students’ ethical philosophy (as I take it to be), and, if the protests are committed to reinserting ethical principles into a cynical and corrupt politics, it is not right to divest from these same ethics at the very moment they come into conflict with other imperatives. The point of a foundational ethics is that it is not contingent but foundational. That is precisely its challenge to a corrupt politics.

Practicing our ethics in the real world involves a constant testing of them, a recognition that our zones of ethical interest have no fixed boundaries and may need to widen and shrink moment by moment as the situation demands. (Those brave students who—in supporting the ethical necessity of a ceasefire—find themselves at painful odds with family, friends, faith, or community have already made this calculation.) This flexibility can also have the positive long-term political effect of allowing us to comprehend that, although our duty to the weakest is permanent, the role of “the weakest” is not an existential matter independent of time and space but, rather, a contingent situation, continually subject to change. By contrast, there is a dangerous rigidity to be found in the idea that concern for the dreadful situation of the hostages is somehow in opposition to, or incompatible with, the demand for a ceasefire. Surely a ceasefire—as well as being an ethical necessity—is also in the immediate absolute interest of the hostages, a fact that cannot be erased by tearing their posters off walls.

Part of the significance of a student protest is the ways in which it gives young people the opportunity to insist upon an ethical principle while still being, comparatively speaking, a more rational force than the supposed adults in the room, against whose crazed magical thinking they have been forced to define themselves. The equality of all human life was never a self-evident truth in racially segregated America. There was no way to “win” in Vietnam. Hamas will not be “eliminated.” The more than seven million Jewish human beings who live in the gap between the river and the sea will not simply vanish because you think that they should. All of that is just rhetoric. Words. Cathartic to chant, perhaps, but essentially meaningless. A ceasefire, meanwhile, is both a potential reality and an ethical necessity. The monstrous and brutal mass murder of more than eleven hundred people, the majority of them civilians, dozens of them children, on October 7th, has been followed by the monstrous and brutal mass murder (at the time of writing) of a reported fourteen thousand five hundred children. And many more human beings besides, but it’s impossible not to notice that the sort of people who take at face value phrases like “surgical strikes” and “controlled military operation” sometimes need to look at and/or think about dead children specifically in order to refocus their minds on reality.

To send the police in to arrest young people peacefully insisting upon a ceasefire represents a moral injury to us all. To do it with violence is a scandal. How could they do less than protest, in this moment? They are putting their own bodies into the machine. They deserve our support and praise. As to which postwar political arrangement any of these students may favor, and on what basis they favor it—that is all an argument for the day after a ceasefire. One state, two states, river to the sea—in my view, their views have no real weight in this particular moment, or very little weight next to the significance of their collective action, which (if I understand it correctly) is focussed on stopping the flow of money that is funding bloody murder, and calling for a ceasefire, the political euphemism that we use to mark the end of bloody murder. After a ceasefire, the criminal events of the past seven months should be tried and judged, and the infinitely difficult business of creating just, humane, and habitable political structures in the region must begin anew. Right now: ceasefire. And, as we make this demand, we might remind ourselves that a ceasefire is not, primarily, a political demand. Primarily, it is an ethical one.

But it is in the nature of the political that we cannot even attend to such ethical imperatives unless we first know the political position of whoever is speaking. (“Where do you stand on Israel/Palestine?”) In these constructed narratives, there are always a series of shibboleths, that is, phrases that can’t be said, or, conversely, phrases that must be said. Once these words or phrases have been spoken ( river to the sea, existential threat, right to defend, one state, two states, Zionist, colonialist, imperialist, terrorist ) and one’s positionality established, then and only then will the ethics of the question be attended to (or absolutely ignored). The objection may be raised at this point that I am behaving like a novelist, expressing a philosophy without a politics, or making some rarefied point about language and rhetoric while people commit bloody murder. This would normally be my own view, but, in the case of Israel/Palestine, language and rhetoric are and always have been weapons of mass destruction.

It is in fact perhaps the most acute example in the world of the use of words to justify bloody murder, to flatten and erase unbelievably labyrinthine histories, and to deliver the atavistic pleasure of violent simplicity to the many people who seem to believe that merely by saying something they make it so. It is no doubt a great relief to say the word “Hamas” as if it purely and solely described a terrorist entity. A great relief to say “There is no such thing as the Palestinian people” as they stand in front of you. A great relief to say “Zionist colonialist state” and accept those three words as a full and unimpeachable definition of the state of Israel, not only under the disastrous leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu but at every stage of its long and complex history, and also to hear them as a perfectly sufficient description of every man, woman, and child who has ever lived in Israel or happened to find themselves born within it. It is perhaps because we know these simplifications to be impossible that we insist upon them so passionately. They are shibboleths; they describe a people, by defining them against other people—but the people being described are ourselves. The person who says “We must eliminate Hamas” says this not necessarily because she thinks this is a possible outcome on this earth but because this sentence is the shibboleth that marks her membership in the community that says that. The person who uses the word “Zionist” as if that word were an unchanged and unchangeable monolith, meaning exactly the same thing in 2024 and 1948 as it meant in 1890 or 1901 or 1920—that person does not so much bring definitive clarity to the entangled history of Jews and Palestinians as they successfully and soothingly draw a line to mark their own zone of interest and where it ends. And while we all talk, carefully curating our shibboleths, presenting them to others and waiting for them to reveal themselves as with us or against us—while we do all that, bloody murder.

And now here we are, almost at the end of this little stream of words. We’ve arrived at the point at which I must state clearly “where I stand on the issue,” that is, which particular political settlement should, in my own, personal view, occur on the other side of a ceasefire. This is the point wherein—by my stating of a position—you are at once liberated into the simple pleasure of placing me firmly on one side or the other, putting me over there with those who lisp or those who don’t, with the Ephraimites, or with the people of Gilead. Yes, this is the point at which I stake my rhetorical flag in that fantastical, linguistical, conceptual, unreal place—built with words—where rapes are minimized as needs be, and the definition of genocide quibbled over, where the killing of babies is denied, and the precision of drones glorified, where histories are reconsidered or rewritten or analogized or simply ignored, and “Jew” and “colonialist” are synonymous, and “Palestinian” and “terrorist” are synonymous, and language is your accomplice and alibi in all of it. Language euphemized, instrumentalized, and abused, put to work for your cause and only for your cause, so that it does exactly and only what you want it to do. Let me make it easy for you. Put me wherever you want: misguided socialist, toothless humanist, naïve novelist, useful idiot, apologist, denier, ally, contrarian, collaborator, traitor, inexcusable coward. It is my view that my personal views have no more weight than an ear of corn in this particular essay. The only thing that has any weight in this particular essay is the dead. ♦

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Student Opinion

Should Schools Serve Healthier Meals if It Changes Students’ Favorite Foods?

New federal rules will require school cafeterias to reduce the amount of salt and sugar in the foods they serve. Do you think students will embrace the changes?

By Shannon Doyne

Do you eat breakfast, lunch or snacks from your school’s cafeteria? If so, what do you eat? What are your favorite foods? How nutritious do you think your choices are?

New federal regulations on salt (or sodium) and sugar are coming to school cafeterias. Do you think they will change your favorite foods? Will they affect what and how much students eat at school?

In “ With New Salt and Sugar Limits, School Cafeterias Are ‘Cringing ,’” Julie Creswell writes about a debate over the new rules:

Around 11:40 on a cool spring day in early April, students began to stream into the lunchroom at Haleyville High School in Alabama. Cheerleaders, soccer and baseball players, and other members of the student body filed through the lunch line and sat at their tables. They chatted and laughed about upcoming games (go, Roaring Lions!) and prom as they dug into plates of chicken Alfredo, green beans and salad. Emma Anne Hallman, standing in a corner, watched the teenagers carefully. As the child nutrition director for the Haleyville City School District, she has the job of feeding 1,600 students, in prekindergarten through 12th grade. For months, Ms. Hallman and other heads of school lunch programs have worried about new federal regulations that would reduce allowable sodium levels and introduce new sugar restrictions for foods served in school cafeterias. A debate has raged, with many parents and nutritionists applauding efforts to make lunches more nutritious while some school lunch administrators fretted that the results will be less tasty to students, reducing consumption and increasing waste. “We are cringing, as it could result in changes across our menus,” Ms. Hallman said. “We would have to look at the sodium amounts in the recipes of some of our students’ favorite foods, like chicken wings, hot wings or even some of the Asian foods.”

The article continues:

While far from perfect (cafeterias serve plenty of processed foods), school lunches are arguably much healthier than they were a few years ago, thanks to a signature program geared toward combating childhood obesity and championed by Michelle Obama when she was first lady. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, passed in 2010, required schools to reduce the calories, fat and sodium in foods served in cafeterias and to increase offerings of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and nonfat milk. The new regulations drew sharp criticism, however, and the Trump administration rolled back some of them, such as a prohibition on 1 percent chocolate milk. But last year, the Biden administration proposed updates that would gradually limit salt and sugar in school lunch foods in an attempt to meet federal dietary standards . On Wednesday, the Agriculture Department made the new rules final after scaling back several provisions in the earlier proposal and shifting the start dates. Instead of gradually cutting sodium in lunch foods by a third from current levels by the fall of 2029, school cafeterias will have to cut sodium levels 15 percent by the 2027-28 academic year. And for the first time, schools will need to limit the amount of added sugars in cereals and yogurts, starting in the 2025-26 academic year. Standing in a Haleyville School District pantry a few weeks ago, Ms. Hallman nodded to boxes containing cups of Cocoa Puffs and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. They contain less sugar than the cereals that are bought from grocery stores and poured into bowls at home. Still, she said many of these foods would most likely be affected by the new rules and have to be reworked by the manufacturer. The label of a Cocoa Puffs cereal bar, for instance, showed it had eight grams of added sugar, while a frosted strawberry Pop-Tart had 14 grams. “Breakfast, particularly grab-and-go options, is going to be tricky,” Ms. Hallman said. “The changes could affect how many times a week we can offer certain items with sugar to the students.” Many nutritionists and health-policy watchdog groups say the new rules on sodium and sugar are important, with so many children struggling to have or make nutritious choices outside school.

Students, read the entire article and then tell us:

Before reading the article, were you aware that public schools must meet nutritional standards set by the federal government? Do you think these rules are reflected in what meals get served, how often certain items appear on the menu, or what foods can be served together at your school?

What, if anything, surprised you about the challenges schools face when it comes to serving food? Does it make you see school lunch differently?

Do you think the people who prepare school meals are right to fear that the new rules will require them to change or discontinue some of the students’ favorite items? Or will students embrace healthier meals at school?

What do you notice about the foods served at your school? Do students tend to eat healthy most days? Are the most popular items high in sugar or sodium?

Now think about what gets thrown out in cafeteria trash cans. Is food waste a serious issue at your school? If so, what can be done to help?

If students are less likely to eat foods that are low in salt and sugar — and perhaps less tasty — is it still worth it to make school lunches healthier? Why or why not?

Do students at your school have a say in what the cafeteria serves? If menus were created by students, what do you think would change and why?

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.

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Behavioral Learning Theory: Shaping Students’ Behavior and Learning

Table of Contents

Types of Behavioral Learning

Operant Conditioning

Benefits of Behavioral Learning Theory in teaching

How to apply the Behavioral Learning Theory in the online classroom

Jigsaw Method: Learning from Shared Expertise

Tanner Christensen’s Productivity for Creatives on Skillshare: Turning Ideas into Action

7 Best Data Engineering Courses for Data Wranglers

educational research techniques

Attitude and Behavior of Students

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Strategies for Managing Challenging Student Behaviors

Taking a Closer Look

Displaying Curiosity and Humility

Building Connections

Celebrating Successes

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Essay on Student Life: 100, 200 and 300 Words

Sample Essay on Student Life in 100 Words

Sample Essay on Student Life in 200 Words

Sample Essay on Student Life in 350 Words

Short Essay on Student Life

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The Causes of Students’ Misbehavior and Ways of Managing It Essay

The effect of social media on the development of students’ affective variables

Introduction

Significance of the study

Exemplary general literature on psychological effects of social media

Review of the affective influences of social media on students

Implications of the study

Suggestions for further research

Author contributions

Conflict of interest

Publisher’s note

Expelling students for bad behaviour seems like the obvious solution, but is it really a good idea?

Disclosure statement

Why do schools suspend or expel students?

What does the research say about suspensions and expulsions?

What could happen instead?

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The big five factors as differential predictors of self-regulation, achievement emotions, coping and health behavior in undergraduate students

Conclusions

Introduction

Five-factor model

Five-factor model, self-regulation, achievement emotions and health

Self-regulation, achievement emotions and health

Aims and hypotheses

Participants

Instruments

Positive-negative affect

Data analysis

Multiple regression

Confirmatory factor analysis

Prediction results

Structural prediction results

Models of the linear structural results of the variables

Indirect effects

Limitations and research prospects

Practical implications

Data availability

Acknowledgements

Author information

Contributions

Corresponding author

Chris Manning: How computers are learning to understand language