CORRELATIONS BETWEEN DANCE FITNESS TRAINING, PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION AND HAPPINESS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

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Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1278-1284

DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.184 1278

C

ORRELATIONS BETWEEN

D

ANCE

F

ITNESS

T

RAINING

,

P

SYCHOLOGICAL

C

APITAL

C

ONSTRUCTION AND

H

APPINESS OF

C

OLLEGE

S

TUDENTS

Chao Qu

Abstract

For college students, the psychological capital (PsyCap) construction is essential to their personal happiness, and their development after entering into the society. This paper aims to sort out the correlations between dance fitness training, PsyCap construction and happiness of college students. First, the theory of PsyCap was introduced to clarify its four dimensions. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 30 college students from dance major and other majors. The survey data were analyzed to disclose the correlation between dance fitness training, PsyCap construction and happiness. The results show that the gender has an unobvious impact on PsyCap construction of college students; dance fitness training exerts a significant positive impact on the construction of PsyCap for college students. The research results shed new lights on the mental health education for college students.

Key words: Dance Major, College Students, Psychological Capital (Psycap), Happiness. Received: 18-04-19 | Accepted: 20-08-19

INTRODUCTION

In today's society, science, technology and economy are developing rapidly, and the competition between people is becoming increasingly fierce. The competition is not just the competition of talents, the differences in the psychological quality of people should also be taken into consideration. College students are about to step into the society, and they are going to experience pressures from various aspects of the society. The psychological condition of college students is related to the development of the whole nation and it determines the future destiny of the country.

Psychological Capital Appreciation (PCA) is a concept that describes the positive psychological state of human beings. Psychological capital is not only an effective resource for personal growth, but also a driving force for collective progress (Bauman, 2014; Datu & Valdez, 2016;

Art College of Taishan University, Taian 271000, China. E-Mail: [email protected]

Rehman, Cao, & Latif et al., 2017). The quality of psychological capital is an important measure for the psychological status of college students, and improving the quality of psychological capital is an effective means to improve the individual competitiveness of college students (Goertzen & Whitaker, 2015; Luthans, Luthans, & Jensen, 2012). Once the psychological capital is

improved, the work performance and

interpersonal relationship of college students will be significantly improved when they participate in the work in enterprises and institutions in the future (Selvaraj & Bhat, 2018; Nielsen, Newman, & Smyth et al., 2016; Youssef-Morgan & Luthans, 2015). Employers are often happy to see the improvement of employees' psychological quality and psychological capital. The competitiveness of the company is

determined by the performance and

competitiveness of employees. Therefore, college students with higher level of psychological capital are inevitably favored by employers of different natures (Sun, Zhao, & Yang et al., 2011; Gooty, Gavin, & Johnson et al., 2009). This paper adopts questionnaire survey to

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study the correlation between college students' dance fitness training, psychological capital construction and happiness, and the research results can be applied to the college teaching practice.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL THEORY

The meaning of psychological capital Psychology and sociology believe that human beings' strengths and potentials must be supported by powerful psychological capital if they are to be fully utilized. The growth of individual and the realization of self-worth both require psychological capital as a backing. The improvement of psychological capital can help different individuals cultivate positive feelings and emotions, and at the same time help them recognize and enhance their own strength and develop potentials, thereby enhancing their happiness and positive psychological factors.

Composition of psychological capital Psychological capital is consisted of qualities of many aspects, including various dimensions, wherein, optimism, resilience, efficacy and hope are the most commonly used dimensions.

(1) Hope

Hope is an important impetus for one to create value. A person who lacks hope cannot create value. Only those who have hope and a goal can create splendid achievements.

(2) Optimism

Pessimists are easy to give up when they encounter frustration, so it’s not easy for them

to succeed in their careers. Compared with pessimistic people, optimistic people are more likely to attribute the frustrations in life and work to accidental factors, so when facing

difficulties, it’s easier for them to hang on and

keep going. (3) Resilience

Resilience can help a person cope with different emergencies and help different people maintain their judgment and execution in the face of conflicts and dilemmas.

(4) Efficacy

Efficacy is the basic quality of a successful person. A confident person can calmly face possible problems during working and living, and can be convinced of the path he/she is currently taking.

Dance fitness training and psychological capital

After students entering colleges, their school works are heavy and they are under the pressure of about to step into the society. Many college students tend to focus only on the study of their majors while ignoring the cultivation of artistic sense and physical fitness. In fact, the cultivation

of aesthetic sentiment can expand one’s vision

and thinking, and meanwhile improve the

thinking mode. The strengthen of one’s physical

quality can make the individual maintain sufficient physical strength at any time, keeping a positive status when participating in any work, so that he/she is not prone to fatigue and drowsiness. In addition, art and sport can also affect an individual's psychological quality to a certain extent, which means that the two can affect the individual's psychological capital level. Dance fitness training is a special training mode which can not only help college students improve their artistic accomplishment and aesthetic level, but also enable them to fully mobilize their muscles of various parts of the body to improve their qualities in speed, strength, flexibility and other aspects. It can be inferred that dance fitness can affect people's psychological capital to a certain extent and enhance their psychological quality and comprehensive ability.

Psychological capital and happiness

Good psychological capital can enhance

people’s happiness. A person with good

psychological capital is good at discovering positive aspects of work and life, and also has a high level of tolerance for unsatisfactory things. Therefore, such people are more likely to feel happy at work and in life.

QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY

This paper mainly adopts the questionnaire survey method to study the problem.

Subject selection

When conducting a questionnaire survey, the selection of respondents will have a certain impact on the final results. If the proportion of a certain type respondent is too large, it tends to yield a one-sided answer.

Different ages and genders will cause differences in psychological characteristics. In addition, this paper mainly studies the influence

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CORRELATIONS BETWEEN DANCE FITNESS TRAINING, PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION AND HAPPINESS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ₁₂₈₀

of college students' dance fitness training on their psychological capital and happiness. Therefore, when selecting the respondents of the questionnaire, this study has to keep a balance between the three features mentioned

above. The specific situation is shown in Table 1.

Table 1.

Basic information of the subjects

Numbering Gender Age Major

1 male 17 dance

2 female 18 dance

3 female 22 dance

4 male 20 dance

5 female 21 dance

6 male 18 dance

7 male 19 non-dance

8 male 20 non-dance

9 male 23 dance

10 male 19 dance

11 female 20 dance

12 female 16 dance

13 female 21 non-dance

14 male 22 non-dance

15 female 21 dance

16 female 18 dance

20 male 17 dance

21 male 23 dance

22 female 20 dance

25 male 17 dance

It can be seen from Table 1 that 15 male college students and 15 female college students were selected to participate in the survey; the dance majors and non-dance majors were 16 and 14 respectively, which basically reached a balance in gender and major. In addition, the paper also examines the balance between the numbers of students of different genders and majors. As shown in Figure 1, there are 7 male and 7 female college students of non-dance majors, respectively, the male-to-female ratio is 1:1; and there are 8 male and 8 female dance major college students, respectively, the male-to-female ratio is 1:1 as well, which has ensured the balance of gender ratio in different majors.

In addition, the respondents of the questionnaire survey were concentrated between the ages of 16 and 23. As shown in

Figure 2, the age distribution of dance major students is wider than that of non-dance majors, but in terms of the mean value, the age ranges of dance major students and non-dance major students are basically the same, that is, the age of the students has reached a balance between different majors.

Figure 1

.

Distribution of subjects of different

majors and genders

Figure 2

.

Age comparison between dance

majors and non-dance majors

As shown in Figure 3, the age distributions of male college students and female college students are similar. In general, the age of female college students is about one year younger, but on average, the ages of male and female college students are basically the same, that is to say, the age of students reached a balance between different genders.

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Figure 3

.

Age comparison between male and

female college students

Questionnaire design

The questionnaire used in this study is mainly composed of the following 11 questions, as shown in Table 2. Wherein, questions 1~10 are mainly about the psychological capital of the subjects: Question 1 mainly investigates the

subject’s self-confidence in his/her personal

talents; Question 2 inquires whether the temper of the subject is mild or not, the question is

related to the degree of the subject’s optimism

and resilience; Question 3 asks whether the subject can recover quickly after sufferings, and this question is related to the degree of resilience of the subject; Question 4 asks the subjects about their confidence in their own abilities; Question 5 asks the subjects about their satisfaction with the current living conditions, and this question is the one that most closely relates to the degree of optimism of the subject; Question 6 asks whether the subjects can remain calm after setbacks; Question 7 asks whether the subjects like challenging works or not, this question is related to the degree of confidence of the subject; Question 8 asks the subjects whether they have plans for their studies; Question 9 asks if the subjects are full of hope for their future; Question 10 asks if the subjects are good at discovering the better side of life. The question setting of the questionnaire can cover all aspects of psychological capital, and can fully reflect the current conditions of the psychological capital of the subjects.

Question 11 mainly asks about the subject's happiness, and the subjects were asked to rate their subjective feelings, the range of the score is from 0 to 100.

Table 2.

Questionnaire form

Number Questions Answer

1 Are there many people who

appreciate your talent? Y N

2 Are you tempered? Y N

3 Can you recover quickly if you

encounter setbacks? Y N

4 Do you have confidence in your

ability? Y N

5 Are you satisfied with your

current life? Y N

6 Are you calm enough in the face

of difficulties? Y N

7 Do you like challenging jobs? Y N

8 Do you have any plans for your

studies? Y N

9 Are you full of hope for your

future? Y N

10 Are you good at discovering the

good side of life? Y N

11 Your rating of your current

happiness. 0~100

The first ten questions of the survey were answered using Y or N, wherein Y means agree with the description of the question, while N means not agree with the description of the question; the eleventh question requires the subjects to select a number from 0 to 100 to rate their degree of happiness.

The final step in the questionnaire is to score

each respondent’s questionnaire. When a respondent’s answer to a question is Y, it scored

10 points; otherwise, it scored 0 point. The full mark of the questionnaire is 100 points, and the limit of the lowest score is 0; and higher score indicates higher level of psychological capital of the subjects.

The overall score of the first ten questions in the questionnaire can reflect the student's psychological capital level. In addition, the eleventh question of the questionnaire can describe the degree of happiness of the students.

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULT ANALYSIS

Influence of age factor on psychological capital

The relationship between the age of the students and the score of the questionnaire is shown in Figure 4. From the figure we can see that, there is no significant correlation between

the students’ age and the score of the

questionnaire. The two college students with highest scores are 16 years old and 23 years old,

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respectively. The age difference between the two students is relatively large. The scores of other students were evenly distributed. It can be judged that the age factor has little influence on the psychological capital of college students, and it is a factor that can be excluded.

Figure 4

.

Relationship between age and

psychological capital

Influence of gender factor on psychological capital

In this paper, the scores of the first ten questions in the questionnaire were divided into two categories. The respondents with an overall psychological capital score higher than 60 were defined as A-grade, which means that the psychological capital is good; while the respondents with an overall psychological capital score lower than 60 were defined as B-grade, which means that the psychological capital is poor.

As shown in Figure 5, 71.43% of male college students have a good psychological capital level, while 28.57% of them have a poor psychological capital level, indicating that among the male college students, college students with a good psychological capital level is the majority.

Figure 5

.

Distribution of psychological

capital of male college students

As shown in Figure 6, 62.5% of female college students have a good psychological capital level, while 37.5% of them have a poor psychological capital level, indicating that among the female

college students, those with a good

psychological capital level is the majority, and this situation is similar to that of male college students.

Figure 6

.

Distribution of psychological

capital of female college students

By comparing Figure 5 with Figure 6 we can know that there are certain differences in the psychological capital level of male and female college students who had participated in the survey. The proportion of male college students with a good psychological capital level is higher,

but this difference is not very significant, and it’s

necessarily caused by the gender difference.

Influence of major factor on psychological capital

Figure 7

.

Distribution of psychological

capital of non-dance major students

As shown in Figure 7, for the non-dance major students, 50% of them have a good psychological capital level, while for the other half, the psychological capital level is worse, indicating that among the non-dance major students, the proportion of students with a good psychological capital level is equal to that with a poor

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psychological capital level.

As shown in Figure 8, for the dance major students, 86.67% of them have a good psychological capital level, while 13.33% of them have a poor psychological capital level, indicating that in the dance major student group, the proportion of college students with a good psychological capital level is much larger than that with a poor psychological capital level.

Figure 8

.

Distribution of psychological

capital of dance major students

Comparing Figure 7 and Figure 8, it can be seen that there is a significant difference in the psychological capital levels of the dance major and non-dance major students who had participated in the survey. The proportion of dance major students with a good psychological capital level is significantly higher than that of non-dance major students. This phenomenon indicates that college students' dance fitness training plays a very significant positive role in the construction of their psychological capital and deserves further promotion.

Psychological capital and happiness

This paper also examines the correlation between the scores of the first ten questions in the questionnaire and score of the eleventh question. The test results showed that the scores of the first ten questions were significantly correlated with the score of the eleventh question at the level of 0.01, and the correlation coefficient was 0.618.

The result indicates that there is a significant positive correlation between the level of psychological capital of college students and their feeling of happiness, students with a higher level of psychological capital tend to have a stronger feeling of happiness.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, 30 college students were selected as the subjects and a corresponding

questionnaire was designed for the

investigation. The first ten questions in the questionnaire were mainly for the investigation of college students' psychological capital, and the eleventh question was mainly for the investigation of college students' feeling of happiness. By analyzing the results of the questionnaire, the following conclusions are drawn:

(1) The gender factor of college students has little effect on the construction of their psychological capital. Among the male and female college students, the number of college students with higher psychological capital level accounted for a larger proportion;

(2) Dance fitness training has played a positive role in promoting the construction of psychological capital of college students.

Compared with non-dance majors, the

proportion of dance major students with a good psychological capital level is significantly larger than that of non-dance majors, and the difference between the two is quite obvious;

(3) There is a very significant positive correlation between the construction of psychological capital of college students and their feeling of happiness. Therefore, it is possible to improve the happiness of college students by improving their psychological capital levels.

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