The relationship between emotional and personal well-being and social perception among university teachers and students

Abstract

Introduction. Research problem: identification of the relationship between social perception and the level of internal well-being of participants in the educational process. Goals: to study the representations of university teachers and students about other people, to find out the relationship between the characteristics of these representations with indicators of emotional and personal well-being of respondents. Methods. The study of social perception was conducted using a variant of the method "Semantic differential" (SD), which allows us to identify features of percipient evaluation of the qualities of people from the close environment (close) and those who are outside it (all). To study the severity of internal well-being the technique "Self-assessment of Emotional and Personal Well-Being" (SEPWB) was used. The study involved 132 university teachers and 656 students. Research result. In all groups of teachers and students people who are not from a close environment are evaluated significantly lower by the Wilcoxon criterion than those who are in a close circle (teachers M (close) = 5.84, M (all) = 2.70, Z = 9.593, p = 0.000; students M (close) = 5.17, M (all) = 3.25, Z = 14.181, p = 0.000). According to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criterion, teachers in general evaluate the qualities of people from a close circle of communication significantly higher than students (M (teach.) = 5.84, M (student.) = 5.17, λ = 2.098, p = 0.000). Vice versa, the qualities of people outside their inner circle are evaluated significantly lower by university teachers in general, than students (M (teach.) = 2.70, M (student.) = 3.25, λ = 2.951, p = 0.000). Mean values (M) of perceptions of people in the inner circle positively correlate with self-assessment of emotional and personal well-being of teachers (r = 0.230, p < 0.01) and students (r = 0.176, p < 0.001), whereas for views about people outside the inner circle such interactions are not typical. Some of the respondents are characterized by emotional and personal non-well-being (especially students of non-psychological training profiles, who have a low level of the SEPWB index in 10.19%, and a reduced level in 11.11%). Moreover, students from the general sample with a low level of the SEPWB index by the descriptor "lucky" are more positive in relation to "all people" than those, who have a high level of the SEPWB index (λ = 1.784, p = 0.003). Conclusion. The obtained data can be used for psychological support of participants in the educational process in order to harmonize their internal state and optimize interpersonal interaction. © 2020 LLC Ecological Help. All rights reserved.