Cognitions related to responsibility and resiliency: The role of interacting and its effects on health and adaptability of university professors and students

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to identify the relation between students’ preference for someprofessors as a function of their rigidity regarding responsibility beliefs and their capability for personalrecovery. A second objective was to examine if the development of such beliefs and their own capability forpersonal recovery relate to their academic performance. Responsibily beliefs are relevant in the context ofthe development of such problems as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) which may characterizeprofessionals from such careers as engineering, law, accounting and business administration. Thisdysfunction, if developed, may become chronic depending on psycho-social characteristics derived fromcertain types of upbringing in their family and from modeling by other individuals during their professionaltraining. This might in turn, attract individuals to studying such careers. Participants included 545 studentsfrom the Business Administration school at Mexico’s National University and 25 faculty who taught to suchstudents. Measures for all participants included responsibility beliefs and capability for personal recoveryof emotional and adaptive homeostasis. Measures for faculty also included interpersonal self-efficacy in theclassroom. Results showed that non-preferred (by their students) professors had more rigid cognitiveantecedents regarding responsibily beliefs but also more capability for personal recovery and resilienceunder adverse situations. Students with lower academic performance showed a similar tendency.Discussion. These and other findings are discussed in the context of somatic and psychological health, thepossibility to develop preventive strategies for the development of OCD in individuals attracted to theseprofessions, and reducing chronicity of somatic and psychological health problems derived from everydayinteraction in the classroom.