Situational and dispositional factors in stress and coping among thesis

• Main Author: Fernandes, Ajoy
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2005
• Subjects: Adjustment (Psychology); Stress (Psychology); Stress management; Clinical Psychology; Counseling Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/106; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_doctoral/article/1105/viewcontent/CDTG003988_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study investigated how Filipino thesis and dissertation writers cope with stressors they experience, and the impact (facilitating/ inhibiting) of situational and dispositional factors in coping with stressors, with a view to develop an intervention to assist writers. The investigation was done in two phases. Employing a qualitative quantitative mixed design (N = 127) among dissertation (n = 30) and thesis writers (n = 97), Phase I utilized interviews (n = 74) and open-ended questionnaires (n = 53) to investigate stressors, coping mechanisms, factors facilitating writing, personal factors facilitating/ inhibiting writing, and suggestions for interventions. A quantitative design utilizing self-report inventories (n = 112); together with a study of exemplar cases (n = 4) combining qualitative and quantitative data - was employed to study how dispositions (neuroticism, personal standards perfectionism and maladaptive perfectionism) influence coping mechanisms. Phase II tested the effects of a psycho-educational program (generated from the findings of Phase I) in reducing anxiety and enhancing perceptions of ability to cope with thesis/ dissertation stressors. Overall, results indicate that the compounding of stressors, responsibilities and conflicts across the work-study-research-finance interface is a source of strain for most writers. Conflicts arise due to incompatible demands of multiple roles vis-à-vis limited time and resources, and challenge writers to manage time, tasks and finance according to personal values and priorities. Supportive gestures towards writers from family and friends are influenced by values characteristic of interdependent cultures. Moral support, provisions of finance, referrals for scholarships and grants, technical advice; assistance with, and relief from tasks provided by family, friends, advisers, administrators and employers; the availability of research-related facilities and grants; and closeness of school and workplace; were situational factors that facilitated writing and blunted the potential for conflict across the work-study-research-finance interface. Expectations and conflicts among panel, and limited involvement of advisers; conflicts with family, unsupportive colleagues or administrators at the workplace, limited access to research related facilities, and constraining academic or scholarship policies were situational factors that burdened the writing process and exacerbated conflicts along the interface. Adequate finance, full time study, and employment in well-funded institutions; research related skills, knowledge and experience were personal factors that facilitated writing. Personality influenced coping mechanisms neuroticism predicted emotion-focused coping, personal standards perfectionism predicted active coping, and maladaptive perfectionism predicted avoidant coping. Motivations played an important role in enabling writers to persist through difficulties. An intervention providing didactic instruction and facilitating interchanges of various forms of peer support among writers was effective in reducing anxiety and increasing perceptions of coping ability. Results are discussed in relation to existing theory and research