INFLUENCE OF SELF CONCEPT AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON BURNOUT AMONG UNIVERSITY OF UYO STAFF

ABSTRACT

The study examined the influence of self-concept and emotional intelligence on burnout. Three hundred participants were selected, one hundred and fifty teaching staff and one hundred and fifty non-teaching staff in the University of Uyo, Uyo, using convenience and purposive sampling techniques. Participants ages ranged between 22 and 59 with a mean age of 33.0576.The Goni Personal Self Concept Questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory– General Survey and Schuttes Self-report Emotional Intelligence Test were used as instruments  in the study. Three hypotheses were tested in the study. The independent t-test was employed for data analysis. Results revealed that there was no significance between self-concept and burnout [t= 0.88, p>0.05]. Also, there was no significant influence between emotional intelligence and burnout among university staff [t = 1.36, p >0.05.]. Results further revealed that teaching staff did not experience higher burnout than non-teaching staff [t (276) = -0.29, p>0.5).]. The implications as well as recommendations were made in line with the findings of the study.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

In time past it has been acknowledged that the teaching profession is being viewed as one of love and kindness. It is also a profession with covert and overt rewards although in as much as this rewards are present so also are the problems associated with the profession. Lately, the rate at which teachers experience stress has become a global concern in that the teaching profession is regarded as being highly stressful (Borg, 1990). The amount and degree of stress a teacher goes through may be associated with negative self-perception, negative life experience, low morale and the constant struggle to maintain personal values and standards in the classroom (Worrall & Mary, 1989). For the teaching profession burnout is one of the largest and difficult challenges that is currently being experienced. As earlier mentioned teaching is an emotional profession but in recent times a culture of burnout has been created. Burnout does not take place only as a result of a person being overworked and not paid accurately but that it could be as a result of prolonged stress, emotional fatigue or exhaustion, the feeling of disrespect and isolation, this condition affects job performance and teaching most especially because it is contagious meaning that it could affect the way a teacher communicates or relates with his or her students thereby lashing out the frustration  unto them. It may even go as far as causing physical illness. A plethora of studies on burnout have consistently documented that this phenomenon results in significant consequences, both at work and in family life (Hallesoy, 2000). As far as teaching is concerned, it has been characterized as a profession very susceptible to burnout (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001). The importance of burnout syndrome in the educational setting is even more emphasized, because apart from affecting mental psycho-somatic health and social health of educators, it also decreases the quality of teaching and work performance which in turn may negatively influences students’ academic achievement (Blandford, 2000). Maslach and Jackson (1986) recognized the deleterious effects of burned-out teachers on themselves, their students and finally on the learning process, and the importance of studying burnout phenomenon in the educational environment. Working with students simply means making effort to respond to their needs constantly and at the same time meeting the needs or demands of the school board when these teachers felt an imbalance between these demands and the resources made available for coping with them, burnout is at that point induced. Initially burnout was restricted to those individuals working with recipients (e.g., student, clients, patients), but the concept was later broadened to include all occupations (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). Burnout is distinguished from other syndromes, such as depression and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), because burnout is considered to be mainly job-related, whereas depression and CFS are more“context-free” (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998).

The psychological concept of burnout refers to long-term exhaustion from and diminished interest in the work we do. In 1974, Herbert Freuden Berger became the first researcher to publish in a psychology-related journal a paper that used the term burnout. The paper was based on his observations of the volunteer staff including himself that volunteered at a free clinic for drug addicts. Three different concepts of the term all had in common, exhaustion and as such it became the hallmark of the term. Among the various definitions that researchers have suggested for the comprehension of the burnout phenomenon, Maslach, Schaufeli and Leiter, (2001), approach seems to be accepted by the majority of the researchers. These authors conceptualized burnout as “a tri-dimensional syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism (depersonalization) and reduced efficacy (reduced personal accomplishment)”. Burnout such as education, health and social service (Alexander and Hergarty, 2000, Grunfeld, 2000, Koustelios, 2001 Koustelius & Tsigilis, 2005; Tsigilis, 2004). University is a place where many things take place almost the same time. There is ample evidence that university staff in the course of their careers, experience a great deal of stress. {University of Waterloo Gazette, 1995; Car-Gregg 2002}. The experience of stressors at work often results in depressed mood, exhaustion, poor performance, and attitude and personality changes, which, in turn, lead to illness and premature retirement (Burke & Greenglass, 1995; Cherniss, 1989; Friedman & Farber, 1992).

Burnout is not recognized as a distinct disorder in the DSM-5 but is included in ICD-10 but not as a disorder. It can be found in the ICD under problems related to life-management difficulty. It occurs due to a mismatch between the nature of the job and the person doing the job, a common indication is work overload.

According to Farber (1991), even though stress and burnout may plague other professions “teachers do deserve special attention and consideration even if they are no more burned out than other professionals. Teacher burnout should be considered critically important since it can result in a teacher’s breakdown of physical health, emotional wellbeing and an inability to consider innovative classroom practice. When teachers experience burnout, the goal is just to survive the day (Friedman, 2000). This does not go unnoticed, because students sense when teachers are burned out and they must endure the result which is the teacher’s impatience and lack of support. Educators experiencing burnout have been described as more cynical, less flexible more likely to experience interpersonal conflicts with colleagues. Teachers who suffer from burnout may spread their negativity by behaving rigidly, showing an overly tough attitude towards their students, expecting less from students, demonstrating less involvement in teaching and showing little concern for their students (Hughes, 2001).

Self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about, evaluates or perceives him or herself. It therefore means that to be aware of oneself is to have a concept of oneself. According to Baumeister (1999) “the individual belief about him or herself, including the person’s attitudes and who and what the self is”. Self-concept is a cognitive or descriptive component of one’s self. According to Kobasa (1985) the coping ability is determined with individual’s self-image, it is a part of individual’s self-awareness or self-confidence. A positive self-concept is connected to the psychological adaptedness and emotional stability. An individual’s view of him or herself could greatly affect him or her to the extent of burnout. A teacher who does not think of himself or herself as capable of handling the teaching job is most likely to come down with psychological burnout. This is because in a bid to act in accordance to the wants or needs of both students and the school the possibilities of becoming unproductive and frustrated may set in. Teachers with positive self-concept are happier, more productive and more effective in discharging their duties as teachers, this made them less prone to burnout. Whereas, teachers with negative self-concept were discovered to perceive and assess events in a way that made them feel less satisfied about their work, (Villa & Calvete, 2001). It is essentially a mental picture of whom one is as a person. It can otherwise be defined as an organized knowledge structure or cognitive schema that contains all known information about the self, including past experiences, current knowledge, feelings, belief and self-evaluation (Markus, 1977). According to Rogers (1951), self-concept is defined as the organized consistent self of perceptions and beliefs about oneself. Parkey (1988) defined self-concept as the totality of a complex, organized and dynamic system of learned beliefs, attitudes opinions that each person holds to be true about his or her personal existence. According to Byne (1996) it is the accumulation of knowledge about the self, such as beliefs regarding personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals and roles. One could also refer to self-concept as a mental image or mental picture one has of oneself as it relates to one’s self image, self-esteem and ideal self which are the dimensions of the self-concept as posited by Rogers (1951). For Mead (1934) he felt that self-concept varies from one individual to another. Self-concept, Mead (1938) noticed, is a unique character that transforms human beings into a special kind of organism. (Mead, 1934, 1938; Esptein, 1972) noticed is not in burn, but rather develops through one’s interaction and reaction with his or her physical world. As identified by Argyle (1983), there are four likely factors known to influence the development of self-concepts, the reaction of other, comparison with others social roles and social identification. Self-concept is also known to be influenced and shaped by internal and external factors. Internal factors include: fear, doubt and anxiety, while external factors include: cultural ideals, family, peer, community pressures, work, school, social activities, social support and internet wage. Rogers (1951) observed self as a differentiated reform of the phenomenal field, consisting of a pattern of conscious perceptions and values of the “I” or “me”. He spells out some of the properties of self, that the self develops out of the organism’s interaction with the environment, it may interject the values of other people and perceive them in a distorted fashion: it strives for consistency, the organism behaves the way that are consistent with the self-experiences that are not consistent with the self-structure one perceived as threats, the self may change as a result of maturation and learning. It begins in childhood and is acquired through learning process, and as we grow older, our concept of self becomes more abstract and more ideal oriented. In this regard, one could infer that self-concept may be developed and maintained through the process of perceiving and reflecting on what we have perceived and what other thought about who we are. It is the self-concept that gives rise to possible selves, and it is possible selves that create the motivation for behavior.

Individuals differ as to their abilities to practices effective differences are what are now referred to as difference in emotional intelligences (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). Emotional intelligence as a concept entered psychological literature from 1990s that has taken form. Zhorndike and Gardner is the result of meaning of emotional and intellectual minds and mutual relationships of intellect and feeling. The emotional intelligence theory provides a new view about predicting of success factors in life including work activities and efficient coping against stressful factors as the sources of psychical disorders because many characteristics such as sympathy. Emotional intelligence is an indicator of social and personality emotional dimensions that often in daily activities is to be considered (Sabouri, Moghadam & Hossan, 1372). Oginska-Bulik (2005) said that the ability to be effectively deal with emotions and emotional information in the workplace assist employees in addressing occupational stress and retaining psychological health. Emotional intelligence refers to the individual’s capacity for accepting realities, flexibility, and ability to solve emotional problems ability to problems solving and coping with stressful events.

Individuals with high emotional intelligence are different from others in having more life satisfaction enjoying family environment and participating in others feeling and are usually ordered, kind, successful, motivated and optimistic. Emotional intelligence is highly associated with the teaching profession and as such as a teacher who is not emotionally intelligent, that is, is not capable of solving emotional problems or flexible is most likely to experience burnout because of the job.

It has been agreed that humans derive their picture of themselves through what they learn of others people’s pictures (Kelly 1955; Cooley 1902 & Mead, 1934). Individuals tend to evaluate who they are through the response ad actions of others in every action they take. As pointed out by Baumeister & Agnew (1996), the personal construct of “self” is intrinsically bipolar. According to (Cooley, 1902; Mead 1934), self and society are really two sides of a coin. According to them both self and society are interdependent on each other. However, a way in which we come to form pictures of what we are like is to see how we compare ourselves with others? Through self-reflection, people often come to view themselves in a new and more powerful way, and it is through this new and more powerful way of viewing the self that self-concept develops Rogers (1951). As individuals grow they begin to acquire a set of belief about their self and as they develop these beliefs about who they are, they are more likely to begin to distinguish themselves from their environment and people around them. This is an indication that self-concept is dynamic and can change from time to time. Although some aspect of self-concept may remain for a long period but others can turn the opposite way in few seconds.

Mead (1934) maintained that self-concept is dynamic and is determined by those things we emotionally identify ourselves with at that moment. Franken (1994) however, pointed out that there is a growing body of research which indicates that it is possible to change the self-concept. Moreover, Rogers (1951) observed that when a person’s ideal self and actual self-image are not consistent or very similar, a state of incongruence exists, a state of conflict between one’s self image and one’s ideals self. According to Rogers (1951) this is likely to affect how much are values oneself which is because, in the cause of trying to resolve the established conflict between the self-image and ideal self, self-concept develops. If it entails positive and rational thoughts, positives self-concept is likely to be developed. Cox &Pyszezynski (2004) posited that positions self-concept involves recognizing both personal strengths and weaknesses and maintaining a positive self-concept or s view of self is a basic human motive. A person with a positive self-concept is pleasant, secure, contended and confident with him or herself whereas insecure and unhappy (Cox & Pyszezynski, 2004). While self-concept was once viewed or conceptualized as a stable, generalized view of self, it is now viewed as a dynamic and multi-faulted structure which influences areas as diverse as self-regulation, goal setting, information processing, affect regulation, motivation, social perception, situation and partner choice interaction strategies and reactions to feedback (Markus & Warf, 1987).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM   

Burnout is a problem that is not only associated with the teaching profession but with several others which include; other non-teaching staff, the military, nurses, doctors, lawyers, social workers. As curing as a person has to constantly offer emotional support to another as a daily basis he or she is prone to burnout. There is a massive decline in the quality of students that graduate from school at different levels and this could not be solely the fault of the seriousness of the students but could also be related to the teacher’s inability to connect with these students and provide the attention and support that they require at all levels of education. Roughly half a million teachers quite their jobs yearly, some teachers are assigned course that they know very little about and because of this they are unable to teach anything to the students. These individuals are highly prone to burnout because of the prolonged chronic stress that they constantly undergo ranging from teaching and carrying the students along according to the place with which they learn to offering emotional support when a student is emotionally unstable to even worrying about their salaries. Majority of this school staff are never appreciated no matter the amount of energy and dedication they put into their jobs, the presence of constant supervision by higher authorities and the fact that a particular pattern of teaching, carrying out administrative duties, administering discipline is permitted, especially since it’s in a tertiary environment some teachers and workers most times do not have the chance to upgrade themselves because of the intensity of the job they do and as such they remain in the same position for several years. The probability of being promoted is usually very slim this keeps the members of staff in the same position for many years and the impression of stagnation could wear a person out. These problems have a way of leading them gradually to emotional exhaustion. In the last one decade, Nigerian University system has run ceaselessly without the usual holiday breaks for staff to refresh unless interrupted by sporadic strikes. The resultant effect of the pressures mounted on staff is the heavy workload that is continually increasing with the associated increase in stress, which appears to be a major threat to quality of life. Many staff now feel they can no longer complete the jobs they are expected to do. Non-Teaching staff carry extra loads through new part-time programmes being established despite the fact that the number of staff in relation to expected job to be done remains fairly constant. There are quite a number of researches that have been conducted on the variables of this study individually but scarcely any that put them together to study. This present study is set to provide answers to the following questions;

1.3     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

·        To what extent does self-concept influence burnout among University Staff?

·        How will emotional intelligence influence burnout among University Staff?

·        To what extent will teaching staff experience higher burnout than non-teaching staff?

1.4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The sole aim of this study is to find out how possible it is for self-concept and emotional intelligence to have an influence on burnout among University of Uyo teaching and non-teaching staff. Specifically, their objectives are;

To examine the influence of self-concept on burnout among University of Uyo teaching and non-teaching staff.

To examine the influence of emotional intelligence on burnout among University of Uyo teaching and non-teaching staff.

To find out if teaching staff will experience higher burnout than non-teaching staff.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 

This study hopes to be of great importance to the research community in that;

The findings of this study would help aspiring teachers, those who are already teachers, students and even employer of teachers to be aware of the best possible ways to avoid or prevent burnout.

This study will be able to gain the understanding of the general public by making sure that the concepts and language have been beaten down to its barest minimum.

This study hopes to attract the sensitivity of the public to the needs of the teachers, this will be drawn by the findings of this study and help teachers overcome all that lead to or could course burnout.

The measurement of burnout and its diagnosis is imperative due to the severe till that burnout generates in its victim, which will also be addressed by the study.

This study will provide data for those concerned who are interested in developing preventive strategies for use in school settings about the seriousness of the burnout phenomenon as it relates to emotional intelligence and self-concept of teachers and non-teaching staff. The results would contribute to the plans that may be made by the ministry of education to meet teacher’s requirement and to satisfy their needs.

1.6 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

Burnout: This refers to prolonged or long-time stress characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment as measured by Maslach Burnout Inventory – General survey.

Self-concept: This refers to the idea are has of oneself and one’s strengths, weaknesses, status as measured by Goni personal self-concept questionnaire (Goni, 2009). Scores above the nore (30.17) indicate high self-concept and scores below will indicate how self-concept.

Emotional intelligence: This refers to an individual’s capacity to effectively deal with emotions and emotional information’s and perceptions as measured by Schutte self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (Schutte, 1998). Scores above and below the norm (29.27) will indicate high and low emotional intelligence respectively.