Positive Thinking, Coping with Daily Stressors and Health
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Positive Thinking, Coping with Daily Stressors and Health: A Comparison of Male and Female Faculty Members, at University of Education Zarghuna Naseem (2012) Department of Psychology and Applied Psychology University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan Positive Thinking, Coping With Daily Stressors and Health: A Comparison of Male and Female Faculty Members, at University of Education A dissertation submitted to the University of the Punjab, In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology) Zarghuna Naseem (2012) Department of Psychology and Applied Psychology University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan Certification It is certified that this Doctoral dissertation is the genuine work of the researcher. It has beenconducted under my direct supervision. I have reviewed the manuscript of this dissertation and guarantee its originality. I certify that the material has not ever been used in a manuscript already submitted in a partial or complete fulfillment for the award of any other degree from any other institution. I also certify that the dissertation is accordant to the prescribed format of the Punjab University. I approve its evaluation for the of Ph D degree through the official procedure of the university. Dr. Ruhi Khalid Director Institute of Psychology, Beacon House National University, Lahore Declaration I, Zarghuna Naseem, declare that this dissertation is solemnly my work and has not been submitted to any other institution for PhD degree. It has been supervised and certified by Dr. Ruhi Khalid and completed under the authorization of the Department of Psychology and Applied Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore. Researcher: _________________________ Zarghuna Naseem Dated: Acknowledgements I express my hearty gratitude and humble regards for Dr. Ruhi Khalid, Director Institute of Psychology, Beacon House National University, Lahore who supervised this dissertation and remained a source of reinforcement and inspiration for me throughout my work. It was due to her tireless efforts and assistance which made the completion of this dissertation possible. I am really thankful to faculty of University of Education, Lahore for their friendly cooperation and participation in this study. Without their cooperation, the research could not have been completed. I would like to acknowledge the cooperation of Psychology and Applied Psychology Department where the study was performed. I am grateful to all the university teachers of Pakistan who participated in this study and shared their valuable opinions which made the study worthwhile. I am thankful to my friends and family for their unconditional support and insightful comments which helped me to formulate this doctoral dissertation. Zarghuna Naseem Abstract Present study is an effort to explore relationship between positive thinking, coping with daily stressors and health outcomes. The researcher hypothesized that those who have positive thinking will appraise stressors less threatening, use problem focused coping strategies and will have better health as compared to the negative thinkers. Research was divided into two parts: Study I and Study II. In study I, the researcher developed and validated a Daily Stressor Scale (DSS) for university teachers. In order to develop the scale, countrywide data was collected from the university teachers. To make the data representative, 264 university teachers from the major universities of all provinces of Pakistan, Federal area and Azad Jammu & Kashmir were included in the study. A 27 items Daily Stressor Scale (DSS), having four subscales, was validated by factor analysis. The psychometric property of DSS was established by convergent validly. Separate norms were developed for total scale, subscales and for males and females. In study II, relationships among positive thinking, coping with DSS and health were analyzed in a sample of 182 faculty members, selected randomly, from University of Education. Positive thinking, operationalized as optimism, was measured through Life Orientation Test–Revised (LOT-R, Scheier, Carver & Brigades, 1994), coping with Brief Cope (Carver, 1997) and health with General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg, 1972). The results indicated significant relationships between positive thinking, daily stressors, and problem focused coping and health. Positive thinking accounted for 42% of variance in stress reduction, 12% in effective coping and 20% in health and wellbeing. Optimism and gender were the significant predictors of stress, coping and health. The findings were congruent with Fredrickson’s Broaden and Build Theory of Positive Emotions and Lazarus Model of Transactional Approach to Stress. Implications for clinical, counseling and educational settings, institutions, family and community are discussed. I Table of Contents Page No Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Rationale of the study 5 1.2 Theoretical background 9 1.3 Indicators of positive thinking 21 1.3.1 Optimism 22 1.3.1.1 Optimism as an explanatory style 23 1.3.1.2 Optimism as a personality trait 25 1.3.2 Hope 27 1.3.3 Positive affects 28 1.3.4 Self-esteem 30 1.3.4.1 Sources of self esteem 30 1.3.5 Happiness 33 1.4 Stress 34 1.4.1 Stress as a response model 34 1.4.2 Stress as a stimulus model 35 1.4.3 Stress as a transactional model 36 1.4.4 Work stress 39 1.4.5 Home stress 41 1.4.6 Stress and disease 42 II 1.5 Coping Strategies 43 1.5.1 Direct action and palliative 44 1. 5.2 Problem focused and emotion focused coping 44 1.5.3 Avoidance-focused coping 44 1.5.4 Assimilative and accommodative coping 45 1.5.5 Reactive, anticipatory, preventive, and proactive coping 45 1.5.6 Searching for meaning in adversity: An effective approach 46 1.6 Health 48 1.7 Gender Differences 49 1.8 Plan of the study 54 1.9 Independent Variable 56 1.10 Dependent Variables 56 1.11 Statement of the problem 57 1.12 Justification and likely benefits 57 1.13 Objectives of the study 59 1.14 Hypothesis of the study 60 Chapter 2 Related Literature 61 2.1 Positive thinking in stress appraisal 61 2.2 Positive thinking and occupational stress 68 2.2.1 Stressors among university teachers 71 2.3 Gender differences in coping with stress 74 2.4 Positive thinking and health 78 III 2.4.1 Positive thinking and cardiovascular diseases 78 2.4.2 Positive thinking and cancer 79 2.4.3Positive thinking and immune system 81 2.4.4 Positive Thinking and longevity 85 2.4.5 Positive thinking and resilience 88 2.4.6 Positive Thinking and other Diseases 89 2.5 Indigenous Research on Positive thinking, Stress and Coping 91 2.6 Summary of Review of literature 96 Chapter 3 Study I 98 Development of Daily Stressor Scale (DSS) 98 3.1 Aims of the study 98 3.2 Rationale behind Scale Development 98 3.3 Method 100 3.3.1 Phase I: Stages of Scale Development 100 3.3.1.1 Item Generation and Item Review 101 3.3.1.2 Pilot Testing of Daily Stressor Scale (DSS) items 102 3.3.2 Phase II. Validation of Daily Stressor Scale 103 3.3.2.1 Sample 104 3.3.2.2 Procedure 104 3.3.2.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 107 3.3.2.4 Criteria for Determining Factors 109 IV 3.3.2.5 Interpretation of Factors 116 3.3.2.6 Internal Consistency of the Daily Stressor Scale (DSS) 117 3.3.2.7 Correlation of Daily Stressor Scale with Subscales 118 3.3.2.8 Establishment of Norms for DSS and Four Subscales 119 3.3.3. Establishment of Convergent Validity of DSS 120 3.3.3.1 Sample 121 3.3.3.2 Research question 121 3.3.3.3 Measures: 121 3.3.3.3.1 Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) 121 3.3.3.3.2 Daily Stressor Scale 122 3.3.3.4 Procedure 122 3.3.3.5 Results 123 3.3.3.6 Conclusion 124 Chapter 4 Main Studies 127 4.1 Positive Thinking, Coping with Daily Stressors and Health 127 4.2 Hypothesis for the main study 134 4.2 Method 136 4.2.1 Population 136 4.2.2 Sample 137 4.2.2.1 Inclusion criteria 139 4.2.2.2 Exclusion criteria 139 4.3 Study variables 141 V 4.3.1 Positive Thinking 141 4.3.2 Daily Stressors 141 4.3.3 Coping with stress 142 4.3.4 Health 142 4.3.5Demographic variables 142 4.4 Research design 143 4.5 Tools 143 4.5.1 Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT) 143 4.5.2 Daily Stressor Scale (DSS) 145 4.5.3 Brief Cope Questionnaire 147 4.5.4 General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) 148 4.5.5 Demographic Sheet 149 4.6 Procedure 150 4.7 Demographic Characteristics of the sample 150 Chapter 5 Results 155 5.1 Descriptive Statistics for Study variables 157 5.2 Zero Order Correlation 161 5.3 Gender Comparison 162 5.4 Group Differences 170 5.5 Optimism as a predictor of daily stress, coping and health 173 5.6 Multiple Regression Analysis 177 Chapter 6 Discussion 181 6.1 Overview 181 VI 6.2 Positive Thinking, coping with stress and health 181 6.3 Gender differences in positive thinking, coping and health 191 6.4 Group differences in DSS 202 6.5 Conclusion 209 6.6 Limitations 213 6.7 Future Research 213 6.8 Theoretical and Practical Implications 214 6.9 Suggestions/Recommendations 216 References 219 Appendices 269 VII List of Tables Page No Table 3.1 105 Demographic Characteristics of the Countrywide Sample of Study I Table 3.2 107 Mean and Standard Deviation of the Demographic Variables for study I Table 3.3 109 Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett’s Tests Table 3.4 110 Eigenvalues and Percentage of Variance of 30-item of DSS Explained by Four factors Obtained through Principle Component Factor Analysis Table 3.5 112 The Factor Loading of the 30 items of Daily Stress Scale (DSS) on Four Factors Obtained Through Varimax Rotation Table 3.6 114 Eigenvalues and Percentage of Variance of 27-item of DSS Explained by Four factors Obtained through Principle