BIG DATA ANALYSIS ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION AND EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR

(1)

Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°2, 550-557

DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.276 550

BIG DATA ANALYSIS ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL

CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION AND EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR

Xiaoxia Pan, Zhi Su*

Abstract

Psychological capital, an important psychological variable, can alleviate the negative emotions of individuals and collectives. Based on big data analysis, this paper explores the correlation between psychological capital construction and emotional behaviors, and establishes the relationship between professional identity, psychological capital construction and emotional behaviors. The research data were collected through a questionnaire survey in 5 colleges in Nanjing, China, and subjected to variance analysis, correlation analysis and mediating effect analysis on SPSS. The results show that there are significant positive correlations between each dimension of psychological capital and each dimension of emotional behaviors, namely, the hope and self-efficacy greatly promote emotional behaviors, while the resiliency and optimism have an obviously partial mediating effect on the latter; the construction of psychological capital is influenced by gender, marital status and age. The research results lay a psychological basis for promoting the construction of psychological capital.

Key words: Psychological Capital, Emotional Behavior, Professional Identity, Mediating Effect.

Received: 11-02-19 | Accepted: 10-08-19

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, colleges and universities have paid more and more attention to mental health education. College time is an important period for students' physical and mental health development, and the teachers' mental health problems directly affect students' attitudes towards learning and their ways of doing things (Yin, Wang, Huang et al., 2018). In the process of participating in the teaching works and interpersonal communication, in order to keep their emotional behaviors be in line with the requirements of the school, teachers often need to conduct a series of complex psychological processing and emotional behavior control processes. Moreover, teachers' emotional behaviors are also an aspect that is highly valued

Dean of Design and Art college of Changsha University of science and technology, Changsha 410076, China. E-Mail: panxiaoxiaaowe@163.com

in the education management of colleges and universities in China (Lee & Kartika, 2014; Hur, Rhee, & Ahn, 2016). As a kind of positive energy aggregate, psychological capital can provide individuals with mental energies, positively promote their attitudes and behaviors, and psychological capital can alleviate the adverse effects caused by the negative emotions (Jing, Hao, & Xian, 2013). College students are laborers with high emotional behaviors, the daily teaching, scientific research, and dealing with teacher-student relationship will consume a large amount of the psychological resources, and there is an important relationship between their psychological capital and emotional behaviors or emotional strategy choice (Sarwar, Nadeem, & Aftab, 2017; Cheung, Tang, & Tang, 2011).

Teachers' psychological capital and emotional behaviors are related to their professional identity, and positive professional identity will bring positive psychological states and emotional behaviors to the teachers (Moss

(2)

XIAOXIA PAN, ZHI SU 551

& Couchman, 2012). Existing researches have allocated psychological capital as a kind of positive emotional state, including self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resiliency (Kwok, Cheng, & Wong, 2015). Bidirectional, interactive,

transitive, and regular are the four

characteristics of emotional behaviors, wherein bidirectional is the most important feature of emotional behaviors, including not only the control of external behaviors, but also the

adjustment of the inner experience

(Vilhjalmsdottir, Gardarsdottir, Bernburg et al., 2016). The individual’s emotional behaviors are

influenced by individual, situational and organizational factors. People's emotional behaviors have certain influence on their cognitive and psychological behaviors, and researches have shown that there is a positive

correlation between positive emotional

behaviors and deep psychological behaviors, and there is a positive correlation between negative emotions and superficial psychological behaviors (Newman, Purse, Smith et al., 2015; Chen, Zhang, Jin et al., 2018). Based on the big data analysis, this paper explores the correlation between college students' psychological capital construction and their emotional behaviors, and attempts to establish the relationships between professional identity, psychological capital construction and emotional behaviors.

RESEARCH IDEAS AND ASSUMPTIONS

Due to external or internal factors, teachers would produce psychological activities and the

corresponding emotional behaviors. The

generation of the individual’s emotional

behaviors is not intermittent or isolated, but a continuous state (Sakaluk, 2016). Emotional responses are not always consistent with the pace of environmental and life changes, so when there is a conflict or non-synchronization occurs, they are greatly influenced by self-control and psychological identity. Table 1 shows the model

of the factors for the teachers’ psychological

identity, the four dimensions of psychological identity include cognition, emotion, behavior, and society. As individuals, teachers can perceive the self-concept as unique individuals; as a collective, they can perceive the collective self as collective members, maintain the frequency and quality of their interaction with others, and have connections with others. Figure 1 is a model of the influence of college students' occupational psychological stress on their emotional behaviors. Psychological stress directly affects psychological capital and emotional behaviors, and there is a chained multiple mediating effect between psychological stress, psychological capital and emotional behaviors.

Table 1.

The factor model of teachers' psychological identity

Factors Personal Collective Mutual factor

Cognitive Perceiving the self-concept as a unique individual

Perception of the collective self as a collective member

Feel self-esteem and engage in relationships

Emotional Positive feelings even when not with the group

Deal with emotions with maximum benefit and minimum harm

Have positive self-esteem and trust, and enjoy being with others

Behavior

Able to act according to self-interest and striving for

positive personality

Act and develop your career based on your group's interests

Can consider the interests of others in action, high quality

behavior.

Social

Being able to perceive oneself and their relationship, feeling depersonalized about oneself

Have the frequency and quality of communication with others, which can be recognized by the common

group

There's the frequency and quality of interaction with other people, there's a common connection with

other people

Figure 1

.

The influence model of occupational psychological stress on emotional behavior of

college students

Occupational psychological stress

Psychological capital

Happiness

Emotional behavior

(3)

BIG DATA ANALYSIS ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION AND EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR OF COLLEGE TEACHERS 552

Psychological capital can be divided into four mechanism models, including main effect model, buffer effect model, adjustive effect model and dynamic effect model (Du & Hao, 2017). Through data analysis we found that, no scholar has explored the correlation between psychological capital construction and emotional behaviors, therefore, this paper proposes a research

hypothesis: teacher’s psychological capital plays

a mediating role in emotional behaviors, and the various dimensions of psychological capital determine the teacher's professional identity and their feeling of happiness.

SURVEY RESEARCH AND RESULT ANALYSIS Research design and data extraction

Table 2.

Distribution of subjects

Variable Classification Number of people

Percentage /%

Gender Male 300 60%

Female 200 40%

Marital status

Married 356 71.2%

Unmarried 144 28.8%

Age

＜30 65 13%

30-40 232 46.4%

40-50 148 29.6%

50-60 55 11%

Title

Primary 147 29.4%

Intermediate 287 57.4%

Senior 66 13.2%

Property of the school

Public school 400 80%

Private

school 100 20%

In order to test the correlation between teachers' psychological capital and their emotional behaviors, this study adopted survey questionnaires, big data analysis, hypothesis testing and other methods to reveal the relationship between the two, so as to help the colleges deepen the theoretical researches on the positive psychology of teachers, as well as enrich their professional psychological identity. The research subjects are 500 teachers from 5 colleges and universities in Nanjing City, China, and the distribution of the subjects is shown in Table 2. The psychological capital questionnaire is a 6-point Likert scale, and the emotional behavior questionnaire is a 5-point Likert scale. Through the reliability test of the survey data, it is found that the reliability coefficient value is 0.863, showing good reliability. This paper used the SPSS software to analyze the survey data,

including variance analysis, correlation analysis and mediating effect analysis.

Results and discussion

Figure 2 shows the survey of the psychological stress of college students. The factors affecting teachers' psychological stress from high to low are: promotion pressure,

workload, sense of out-of-control,

organizational climate, and interpersonal conflict, and their main psychological stress comes from the promotion pressure and the workload. Figure 3 is an overview of the psychological capital of college students. It can be clearly seen that the average score of psychological capital is 4.27 points. The highest average score in the four dimensions of psychological capital is self-efficacy, followed by hope, resiliency and optimism. By observing the scores of the psychological capital, we can see that the highest value of each dimension is 6 points, except for the self-efficacy dimension, the minimum values of other three dimension are 2 points. Figure 4 shows the overall situation of college students' professional psychological identity. The average score of professional identity is 4.25. The average scores of professional values and professional behavior tendency are the highest, followed by the professional sense of belonging and the role values. By observing the scores of professional psychological identity, we can see that the maximum values of the scores of the variables of professional psychological identity are 5 points, as for the minimum values, the score of the professional values is the largest, followed by the role values, the professional behavior tendency and the professional sense of belonging.

Figure 2

.

Investigation on psychological

stress of college students

34.31% 17.65%

8.82%

24.51% _14.71%

Organizational climate Workload Interpersonal conflict Sense of out of control Promotion pressure

This paper divides the emotional behaviors into four types: deliberate asynchronous

(4)

behavior, surface behavior, passive deep behavior, and active deep behavior. Figure 5 shows the overall situation of college students' emotional behaviors. It can be clearly seen that

the average score of the emotional behaviors is 3.82, the average score of passive deep behavior factor is the largest, followed by

Figure 3

.

The general situation of psychological capital of college students

3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2

Psychological capital Optimism

Resiliency Self-efficacy

Hope

Average value Minimum value Maximum value

1.95 2.00 2.05 2.10 2.15 2.20 2.25 2.30 2.35

4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5

Figure 4

.

The overall status of professional psychological identity of college students

3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0

Professional identity Professional sense

of belonging Professional

behavior tendency Role

values Professional

values

1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2.0

3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5

Figure 5

.

The general situation of college students' emotional behavior

3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0

Emotional behavior measurement Active deep

behavior Passive deep

behavior Surface

behavior Deliberate

asynchronous behavior

0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15 1.20 1.25 1.30 1.35 1.40

3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5

(5)

surface behavior, active deep behavior and deliberate asynchronous behavior. Compared with the professional psychological identity, the average score and minimum value of each factor of emotional behavior are the smallest; the maximum value of the four variables of emotional behavior is 5, and the variable with the largest minimum value is the deliberate asynchronous behavior.

Figure 6 shows the influence of gender, marital status and age on each dimension of the psychological capital. As shown in Figure 6(a), gender has significant differences in terms of the optimism dimension of teachers' psychological

capital, and the differences are not obvious in the other three dimensions; as shown in Figure 6(b), the marital status has a greater influence on the hope dimension and self-efficacy dimension of the psychological capital, and there are significant differences between the two dimensions, the scores of married teachers in the hope dimension and self-efficacy dimension are higher; from Figure 6 (c), it can be clearly seen that teachers of different ages show great differences in all dimensions of psychological capital. Overall, in terms of average score, the resiliency dimension is larger than the optimism dimension.

Figure 6

.

The effects of gender, marital status and age on the dimensions of psychological capital

16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30

Optimism Resiliency

Hope

Me

a

n

v

a

lu

e

Self-efficacy

Male Female

16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30

Optimism Resiliency

Hope

Me

a

n

v

a

lu

e

Self-efficacy

Married Unmarried

(A) Gender (B) Marital status

1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5

Optimism Resiliency

Self-efficacy Hope

Me

a

n

v

a

lu

e

＜30 30-40 40-50 50-60

(6)

ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION AND EMOTIONAL BEHAVIORS

Multiple mediation models include two types: parallel and chained. The research results show that psychological capital construction has a significant predictive effect on teachers' emotional behaviors. Figure 7 shows the

correlation between college students’

psychological capital and their emotional behaviors, from the figure we can clearly see that the scores between the psychological capital and the emotional behaviors show a significant positive correlation at the 0.01 level. In order to fully analyze the influence of psychological capital on emotional behaviors, we take the psychological capital as an independent variable, the emotional behaviors as dependent variables to carry out regression analysis, and the professional psychological identity is taken as the mediating factor. Table 3 shows the mediating effect of professional psychological identity on psychological capital and emotional

behaviors, it can be clearly seen that the psychological capital has a significant positive predictive effect on emotional behaviors, the professional psychological identity plays a partial mediating role in psychological capital and emotional behaviors, and the mediating effect is obvious.

Big data analysis shows that, in terms of the four dimensions of psychological capital, except

that there’s no significant correlation between

the optimism dimension and the emotional behaviors, there are significant correlations between the other dimensions and the emotional behaviors. Table 4 shows the mediating effects of various variables of psychological capital and the emotional behaviors. It can be clearly seen that the hope dimension and the self-efficacy dimension in psychological capital have significant positive predictive effects on emotional behaviors, while the resiliency dimension and the optimism dimension have partial mediating effect on the emotional behaviors, and the mediating effect is obvious.

Figure 7.

Research on psychological capital and emotional behavior of college students

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

Psychological capital Optimistic

Toughness Self-confidence

Hope

C

o

rr

e

la

ti

o

n

v

a

lu

e

Deliberate asynchronous behavior Surface behavior

Passive deep behavior Active deep behavior

Emotional behavior measurement

Table 3.

Mediating effect of professional psychological identity on psychological capital and

emotional behaviors

Steps Dependent variable Predictor variable R R2 _{Adjust R}2 _Beta _t

1 Emotional behavior Psychological capital 0.463 0.214 0.212 0.463 11.83

2 Professional identity Psychological capital 0.392 0.151 0.150 0.392 9.733

(7)

Table 4.

The mediating effect of psychological capital variables and emotional behaviors

Predictor variable R R2 _{Adjust R}2 _Beta _t

Hope 0.385 0.146 0.144 0.385 9.546

Self-efficacy 0.431 0.184 0.183 0.431 10.906

Resiliency 0.488 0.238 0.237 0.488 12.77

Optimism 0.112 0.014 0.012 0.112 2.655

CONCLUSIONS

Based on big data analysis, this paper explored the correlation between college students' psychological capital construction and their emotional behaviors, and established relationships between professional identity, psychological capital construction and emotional behaviors. The specific conclusions are as follows:

(1) The results of big data analysis show that, among the four dimensions of psychological capital, the average score of the self-efficacy factor is the highest, followed by hope, resiliency, and optimism; in terms of professional psychological identity, the average

scores of the professional values and

professional behaviors are the highest, followed by the professional sense of belonging and the role values; in terms of emotional behavior, the average score of passive deep behavior factor is the highest.

(2) Gender has significant differences in terms of the optimistic dimension of teachers' psychological capital, while the differences are not obvious in the other three dimensions; the marital status has a greater influence on the hope dimension and the self-efficacy dimension of the psychological capital, and there are significant differences between the two dimensions; married teachers have higher scores in the hope dimension and the self-efficacy dimension. Teachers of different ages show great differences in all dimensions of psychological capital. Overall, in terms of average score, the resiliency dimension is larger than the optimism dimension.

(3) Psychological capital has a significant positive predictive effect on emotional behaviors, the specific manifestation is that the hope dimension and the self-efficacy dimension of psychological capital have a significant positive predictive effect on emotional behaviors, the resiliency dimension and the optimism dimension have a partial mediating effect on emotional behaviors, and the effect is obvious. Professional psychological identity

plays a partial intermediary role in psychological capital and emotional behaviors.

Acknowledgement

Phased Achievements of the 2018 Hunan Provincial Department of Education Project "Training Simulation Experience of Tower Car Based on Virtual Reality (VR) Platform" (Project No. 18C0182).

REFERENCES

Chen, W., Zhang, Q., Jin, M., & Yang, J. (2018). Research on online consumer behavior and psychology under the background of big data.

Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience,31(10), e4852.

Cheung, F., Tang, S. K., & Tang, S. (2011). Psychological capital as a moderator between emotional labor, burnout, and job satisfaction among school teachers in china. International Journal of Stress Management,18(4), 348-371. Du, X., & Hao, J. (2017). Moral stories emphasizing

actors’ negative emotions toward their

nonhelping behavior promote preschoolers’

helping behavior. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,168, 19-31.

Hur, W. M., Rhee, S. Y., & Ahn, K. H. (2016). Positive psychological capital and emotional labor in korea: the job demands-resources approach.

International Journal of Human Resource Management,27(5), 477-500.

Jing, G. U., Hao, C., & Xian, Z. (2013). Influence of psychological and emotional factors on the venture enterprise value and the investment decision-making. Procedia Computer Science,17, 919-929.

Kwok, S. Y. C. L., Cheng, L., & Wong, D. F. K. (2015). Family emotional support, positive psychological capital and job satisfaction among chinese white-collar workers. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(3), 561-582.

Lee, L. Y., & Kartika, N. (2014). The influence of individual, family, and social capital factors on expatriate adjustment and performance: the

(8)

moderating effect of psychology contract and organizational support. Expert Systems with Applications,41(11), 5483-5494.

Moss, S. A., & Couchman, G. (2012). The conflict between the interventions that prevent burnout and the culture of modern capitalism: the benefits of ambivalent emotions. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Organisational Psychology,5, 13-24.

Newman, M., Purse, J., Smith, K., & Broderick, J. (2015). Assessing emotional intelligence in leaders and organisations: reliability and validity of the emotional capital report (ECR).

Australasian Journal of Organisational Psychology,8, e6.

Sakaluk, J. K. (2016). Exploring small, confirming big: an alternative system to the new statistics for

advancing cumulative and replicable

psychological research. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,66, 47-54.

Sarwar, H., Nadeem, K., & Aftab, J. (2017). The impact of psychological capital on project success mediating role of emotional intelligence in construction organizations of pakistan. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research,7(1), 22. Vilhjalmsdottir, A., Gardarsdottir, R. B., Bernburg, J.

G., & Sigfusdottir, I. D. (2016). Neighborhood income inequality, social capital and emotional distress among adolescents: a population-based study. Journal of Adolescence,51, 92-102. Yin, H., Wang, W., Huang, S., & Li, H. (2018).

Psychological capital, emotional labor and

exhaustion: examining mediating and

moderating models. Current Psychology, 37(1),