Self-awareness as a psychological coping resource

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CHAPTER THREE LITERATURE REVIEW: SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND MINDFULNESS

Introduction

This chapter discusses the adaptive outcomes that may stem from fostering specific aspects of self-awareness; that is, mindfulness and self-consciousness. This conceptualisation builds on the considerable amount of history in the field of student development that has examined the protective aspects of personal attributes previously thought of as protective factors in student adjustment and performance – for example self-efficacy and dispositional optimism (Bandura, 1997; Magnano, Paolillo & Giacominelli, 2015). Furthermore, the current study conceptualises specific components of self-awareness as promotive factors (assets or resources). Addressing promotive factors may be one way of increasing positive adjustment for students in their first year of study during the transition into an institution of higher learning. The conceptualisation of self-awareness proposed here is consistent with the growing body of literature that argues for the incorporation of psychological factors in student attrition and persistence (Bean & Eaton, 2001) and in promoting adjustment and integration (Tinto, 1975).
This chapter discusses self-awareness as encompassing cognitive-based processes such as accepting and altering one’s relationship to difficult thoughts and emotions; including in stressful situations, as well as a behavioural construct that emphasises observable actions that are guarded by domains self-identified as important. Specifically, the chapter looks at empirical and theoretical support for the significance of mindfulness and self-consciousness, targeting core beliefs and skills aimed at restructuring maladaptive thoughts and behaviours; thereby promoting coping. Furthermore, the chapter discusses mindfulness and self-consciousness as psychological coping resources. Thus the chapter discusses the role of mindfulness and self-consciousness in individuals’ approaches and responses to thoughts and feelings and the related benefits in efforts to promote positive adjustment.

Coping and psychological resources

There has been growing interest in psychology with regards to how some individuals struggle to cope with stressful life events, while others are able to adjust well in the same stressful situations. Chan (1967) maintains that the individual’s personality and attitudinal constructs have an impact on how he/she copes with stressful life events. Accordingly, Chan is of the opinion that coping is determined by the individual’s perception of stress and their reaction thereof – that is negative perception and negative reaction leads to maladjustment, while positive perception and the resultant reaction leads to adjustment. Individuals appraise their stress from perceived situational demands and perceived personal coping resources (Lazarus, 1991).
Literature on coping highlights different ways in which individuals cope. Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) transactional model of stress and coping postulates that there are two types of coping; namely problem-focused coping, which involves efforts to modify the problem, and emotion-focused coping, which involves efforts to manage the emotional distress that is associated with the problem. A study conducted by Folkman and Lazarus (1980) that analysed 1 300 stressful episodes reported by individuals showed that both problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping are used. The results showed that depending on the appraisal, problem-focused coping (often employed when the situation is perceived as changeable) or emotion-focused coping (often employed when the situation is perceived as unchangeable) would be employed. Furthermore, Lazarus and Folkman (1984) maintained that there are individual characteristics, for example – beliefs and personal traits and situation characteristics, for example – the uncertainty and ambiguity of the situation that serve as antecedents, which determines how individuals appraise and cope with problems/situations.
Schwarzer (2000) added proactive coping, which is described as goal management efforts often applied prior to stressful situations and; preventative coping, which is described as risk management efforts applied during stressful situations. Proactive coping therefore, entails the enhancement of own capacity in adjusting to stressful situations, while preventative coping entails skills the individual possess to recognise a potential stressor (Schwarzer, 2000).
Hence, coping is about building up resources that would assist in minimising the effects of the stress and reduce the severity of the impact of that stressor on the individual.
According to Hammer and Marting (1987), there are five domains of coping resources, namely:
Cognitive coping – which entails the extent to which individuals maintain a positive sense of self, others and optimism about life
Emotional coping – which entails the degree to which individuals are able to express and accept a range of emotions (which may help in reducing the long term effects of stress)
Physical coping – which entails the degree to which individuals enact the health promoting behaviours that increase well-being
Social coping – it entails the degree to which individuals embed themselves in social networks that provide the support needed during periods of stress; and
Spiritual coping – which entails the degree to which individuals’ actions are guided by religious, familial, cultural or personal philosophy.
Hammer and Marting (1987) maintained that coping resources are those characteristic behaviours, attitudes and beliefs that serve as resources and are available to the individual to help alleviate the stress associated with life events. Therefore, coping resources may enable individuals to reduce the level of stress encountered and make better choices in stressful situations. The use of coping resources to positively alter meaning in a stressful situation can promote psychological adjustment and reduce the negative effects of stress, including anxiety and depression (Chan et al., 2007).

Coping and psychological resources: Higher education context

The transition into institutions of higher learning can present a period of enormous stress for most students as they try to cope with the academic, social and personal changes experienced during this period (Wintre et al., 2011). During this period, students try to cope with the many changes and adapt into the new environment. There seems to be a correlation between how students cope and how they adjust into the new environment (Tao et al., 2000). According to Wintre and Yaffe (2000) research involving first-year students in institutions of higher learning highlights the stress experienced by students during the transition from high school into institutions of higher learning that can impact on how students cope during this transition and therefore, adjustment into the new environment.
Moreover, the stress experienced by students in institutions of higher education is often associated with psychological maladjustment, which is characterised by high levels of depression and anxiety (Crockett et al., 2007).
Empirical evidence suggests that students who are able to cope with the stress associated with the transition are able to adjust better; that is, coping buffer the effects of depression and anxiety in these students (Chemers et al., 2001; Crockett et al., 2007). Hammer (1986) supported this assertion and maintained that coping resources in students in institutions of higher learning can be related to their stress levels. Poor coping resources have been associated with high levels of stress and increased psychological symptoms, and necessitated student to visit student counselling centres. Hammer also maintained that there is a need to identify such coping resources for students in institutions of higher learning.
Furthermore, the findings of the study conducted by Chemers et al. (2001) indicated that a relationship exists between coping, emotional adjustment and academic performance in first-year students in institutions of higher learning. Another study conducted by Aspinwall and Taylor (1992) on 672 first-year students showed that most of the predicted effects on students’ adjustment were mediated by their coping resources. Furthermore, the study found that students were able to control the initial effects of positive and negative moods on adjustment when employing coping resources. Moreover, a follow-up study, conducted over a period of two years indicated that these students had higher levels of motivation and performed well in their studies.
Therefore, it is not surprising that coping strategies and coping resources of students experiencing stress in institutions of higher learning, as well as their influence on adjustment have received considerable attention (Mena, Padilla & Maldonado, 1987). Also based on the advocacy of personality constructs as coping resources (Chan, 1967), there is growing empirical evidence that supports the consideration of internal personality constructs in students’ coping (Crockett et al., 2007; Mena et al., 1987).
A general consensus is that the most effective coping strategies in students eliminate the use of dysfunctional coping, which can result in the development of negative attitudes and avoidance of problems (Thurber & Walton, 2012), as well as the use of maladaptive coping mechanisms such as substance use and promiscuous behaviour (Fisher, 2009).
Schwartzer (2000) maintained that focus should rather be on proactive and preventative coping, as they have been found to positively impact on student adjustment into the new environment. Similarly, problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping have been found to be effective coping strategies in stressful encounters experienced by students (Abdullah et al., 2010).

Self-awareness as a psychological coping resource

In psychology, the self is viewed as “both the product of situations and the shaper of behaviour in situations” (Oyserman, Elmore & Smith, 2012, p. 70). The self is an agency for making evaluations, exerting control and experiencing feelings (Cheng & Zeng, 2000). Individuals use the self to make choices in different contexts (Oyserman et al., 2012). The self furthermore, plays an integral role in human motivation, affect, cognition and identity (Sedikides & Spencer, 2007). The discussions in this chapter revolve around self-awareness – that is, how consciously focusing attention on the self can be used as a psychological coping resource that can facilitate first-year students’ adjustment and academic performance in institutions of higher learning.
The promotion of self-awareness is based on the notion that authentic self-knowledge is critical for psychological growth and maturity, and that pondering the self improves the extent and accuracy of self-knowledge (Trapnell & Campbell, 1999). Even in psychological assessment settings, research on self-awareness has led to the understanding that the assessments of various facets of the self; including attitudes, cognitions and affective and somatic states are usually more precise when they are made by the respondent, whose attention is self-directed (Gibbons, 1983). Accordingly, the latter is attributed to the ability of self-awareness to increase accuracy firstly by enabling the individual to focus more carefully on those aspects of the self and, secondly increasing an individual’s motivation to report accurately on the assessed self-dimensions (Gibbons, 1983).
Similarly, research conducted in clinical settings showed that self-awareness is essential for the psychological well-being of individuals; and that it is also beneficial in lessening the effects of certain mental disorders – that is self-awareness can be employed as a coping resource to lessen the effects of certain clinical disorders.
For example, studies on schizophrenia have shown a negative correlation between self-awareness and schizophrenia in the sense that positive symptoms typical of the acute stage of schizophrenia can be related to a dysfunction of the awareness and/or recognition of self and others’ actions (Daprati et al., 1997). Similarly, the positive coping effects associated with self-awareness are evident in the study conducted by Moeller and Goldstein (2014), where the findings revealed that self-awareness facilitated more adaptive behaviour in drug addiction and drug-biased attention, behaviour dissociation, insensitivity to negative outcome, as well as social inappropriateness. These positive coping effects are also evident in research on aggression, where empirical evidence suggests that self-awareness can reduce aggressive behaviours (Mohammadiarya et al., 2012).
The positive coping effects attributed to self-awareness have also been documented in non-clinical populations and in numerous areas of human functioning. Evidence from research suggests that self-awareness promotes behaviour regulation (Duval & Wicklund, 1972) and improves the individuals’ drive in unpleasant situations by bringing the individuals’ behaviour in line with aspirations or standards. Similar findings are evident in research on self-awareness and leadership (Hernandez, Luthanen, Ramsel, & Osatuke, 2015).
There is growing evidence, more specific to this study, of the value of self-awareness in academic contexts, specifically in the context of institutions of higher learning. Empirical support for self-awareness as a coping resource employed by students in institutions of higher learning seems to suggest that self-awareness promotes students’ self-knowledge, effective self-regulation, stress management, adjustment and academic performance. For example, in his study Steiner (2014) has emphasised the significance of self-awareness as a coping resource employed by students in institutions of higher learning – and maintained that in an academic context, self-awareness or the lack thereof can have a significant impact on students’ learning process.
In the context of learning, self-awareness is perceived as bringing into question students’ identity by allowing for the individual to compare him/herself to others, and use the feedback to create an opportunity for better self-knowledge, make the necessary adjustments and improvements, accommodate weaknesses where necessary, and establish more realistic views of themselves (Steiner, 2014).
Hence, Steiner considers self-awareness as the crux of lifelong learning and development and therefore, as crucial for effective learning. Accordingly, self-awareness can enable students to take responsibility for their own learning and enhance their leadership skills.
The findings of the study conducted by Novack (1999) also provided empirical evidence of the role of self-awareness in promoting personal growth and student well-being. For instance, self-awareness has been found to assist students with improving self-discovery, relieving stress and learning (Saunders et al., 2007). The findings of the study conducted by Brown, Campione and Day (1981) also indicated that self-awareness in the student populations is “a prerequisite for self-regulation, the ability to orchestrate, monitor, and check one’s own cognitive activities” (p. 20). Another study conducted by David and U (2016) involving 356 students in institutions of higher learning showed that self-awareness has a significant influence (positive) on students’ academic performance.
Self-awareness has also been found to reduce transgressive academic behaviour in students in institutions of higher learning. For example, the findings of a study conducted by Diener and Wallbom (1976) showed that self-awareness can reduce the level of cheating (for example, in exams) among students. Accordingly, self-awareness seems to decrease impulsive, counter-normative behaviour in students.
Furthermore, self-awareness can facilitate the adjustment of first-year students in the tertiary institution environment. For example, a study conducted by Manee, Khoiee and Eghbal (2015) involving a group of first-year students showed that self-awareness can have a significant positive impact on student adjustment than stress management and communication skills. Another study conducted by Levitz and Noel (1989) examined the impact of self-awareness on growth and developmental tasks of a group of 83 first-year students (for example, interpersonal relationships, academic autonomy, time management).
The results of the study showed a significant developmental growth from pre- to post test on several developmental subtasks, including greater direction in career and lifestyle planning, better life management and more involvement in the learning activities. Follow-up studies conducted by Levitz and Noel also showed evidence of the positive effect of self-awareness on student retention ‒ only two students dropped out of the institution by the end of the first year.
The next section examines the literature on self-awareness with emphasis on mindfulness and self-consciousness as coping resources. The section also surveys the background and empirical findings on mindfulness and self-consciousness with specific emphasis on empirical findings on the effects of mindfulness and self-consciousness in the context of institutions of higher learning.

Self-consciousness as a psychological coping resource

Literature reviewed indicated that there are mixed views on the effects of self-consciousness across different contexts. The findings indicated that in clinical contexts, where individuals have already been diagnosed with a psychiatric condition, higher levels of self-consciousness can exacerbate pre-existing symptoms. For example, self-consciousness has been found to exacerbate symptoms of neuroticism (Scandell, 1998), psychoticism (Davill, Johnson & Danko, 1992) and eating disorders – that is, self-consciousness is associated with increased body weight, which leads to concerns about body shape, as well as binge eating frequency (Sawaoka, Barnes, Blomquist, Masheb & Grilo, 2012) and anxiety disorders (Jostes, Pook, & Florin, 1999).
This assertion is supported by research that showed that self-consciousness can lead to different types of anxieties in individuals; for example, competition anxiety and social anxiety (Ashford, Karageorghis & Jackson, 2005), as well as obsessive compulsive disorder (Marker, Calamari, Woodard & Riemann, 2006). De La Serna, Richmond and Page (1986) argued that individuals who are highly self-conscious are more suspicious, show obsessive-compulsive behaviour, and are likely to report strange inner experiences than individuals with a low degree of self-consciousness. The findings of the study by Christensen (1982) also showed that self-consciousness can be associated with heightened self-perception of inadequacy, as well as reduced and ineffective social behaviour. Evidence from research also suggests that individuals who are highly self-conscious are mostly affected by any kind of feedback – positive or negative respectively (Hull & Young, 1983). Self-consciousness has also been found to impact negatively on psychological adjustment (Moreira & Canavarro, 2012).
Despite being portrayed as a negative trait, self-consciousness can serve as a valuable psychological resource ‒ that is, self-consciousness can play an important role in the encoding and retrieval of accessible knowledge about the self, which influences the perceptions we have of ourselves, our emotions as well as behaviour in different contexts or situations (Hull et al., 1988). Also, the findings of a study by Carver and Scheier (1981) provided evidence of the role of self-consciousness on reactance (that is, improved reactance responses to threats). A study conducted by Scheier and Carver (1982) also revealed that self-consciousness can lead to greater persistence – for example, research participants who were highly self-conscious were found to be more persistent in situations where they received positive feedback. It has also been observed that self-consciousness plays a role in increasing awareness of attitudes (Gibbons, 1983) and enhancing effects of self-regulatory activities, thereby allowing for better self-regulation (Lischetzk & Eid, 2003).
Again, self-consciousness can play an important role in regulating strategic self-representational behaviour (Doherty & Schlenker, 1991), monitoring one’s behaviour (Pinku & Tzelgov, 2006) as a preventative factor in internalising problems (inner-directed ‒ generating distress in the individual) and externalising problems (outer-directed ‒ generating discomfort in the environment) (Nie, Li, Dou & Situ, 2014).
Studies such as the one conducted by Scheier, Fenigstein and Buss (1974) provided empirical evidence for the positive effects of self-consciousness on psychological well-being and psychological distress. The results of their study demonstrated that self-consciousness can inhibit aggressive behaviour, and can also decrease engagement in socially-inappropriate behaviours. Also, evidence suggests that self-consciousness can increase resistance to situational influences such as group pressure or false feedback (Gibbons, Carver, Scheier & Hormuth, 1979).
These complexities of understanding self-consciousness and the debate on whether high levels of self-consciousness should be regarded as beneficial or detrimental; especially in enhancing adaptive behaviour is referred to in the literature as the paradox of self-consciousness (Trapnell & Campbell, 1999). A look at emerging explanations of the paradox of self-consciousness suggests that negative effects of self-consciousness identified by studies can be attributed to maladaptive forms of self-focus, and that adaptive forms of self-focus can be associated with psychological well-being (Nakajima, Takano & Tanno, 2017).
As a result, most studies have focussed on understanding mechanisms of self-consciousness by studying the impact of the direction or focus (facets) of self-consciousness; that is private self-consciousness and public self-consciousness.
The public and private facets of self-consciousness have been the focus of research since the 1970s when Feningstein et al. (1975) developed the Self-Consciousness Scale. The argument is that different individuals do not only differ in the frequencies and duration of self-focused attention, but also in the content and direction of their attention – that is, self-consciousness can be public and private (Buss, 1980). A survey of existing literature suggests that public self-consciousness and private self-consciousness have opposing effects on behaviour and coping (Matthews & Wells, 1994). Hence, it is essential to look at the findings of existing research on coping mechanisms in cases where individuals employ both public self-consciousness and private self-consciousness as coping resources.

DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
ABSTRACT
1. CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem Statement
1.3 Understanding student adjustment in institutions of higher learning
1.4 South African higher education
1.5 South African first-year students
1.6 Research aims
1.7 Research questions
1.8 Significance of the study
1.9 Research hypothesis
1.10 Scope of the research
1.11 Definition and brief discussion of key terms
1.12 Outline of Chapters
2. CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Epistemological underpinning
2.3 Developments in student development research
2.4 The role and contribution of human development theories
2.5 Conclusion
3. CHAPTER THREE: LITERATURE REVIEW: SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND MINDFULNESS
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Coping and psychological resources
3.3 Self-awareness as a psychological coping resource
3.4 Self-consciousness as a psychological coping resource
3.5 Mindfulness
3.6 Conclusion
4. CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Objectives of the study
4.3 Research questions and hypotheses
4.4 Research approach and design
4.5 Data collection
4.6 Population and sampling
4.7 Research instruments
4.8 Data analysis
4.9 Ethical considerations
4.10 Conclusion
5. CHAPTER FIVE: DATA ANALYSIS AND THE FINDINGS
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Response rate
5.3 Descriptive statistics
5.4 Research findings
5.5 Hypotheses testing
5.6 Conclusion
6. CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Discussion of the results
6.3 Theoretical perspective
6.4 Applications and implications of the study
6.5 Limitations
6.6 Recommendations
6.7 Recommendations for future research
6.8 Conclusion 189
7. REFERENCE LIST
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