A longitudinal investigation of irrational beliefs, hedonic balance and academic achievement

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2017.07.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Test of cross-time associations between irrational beliefs and hedonic balance

  • Irrational beliefs related to more negative affect relative to positive affect

  • Irrational beliefs associated with increases in negative affect over time

  • Increases in irrational beliefs coincide with decreases in positive affect.

  • Irrational beliefs and hedonic balance unrelated to objective academic performance

Abstract

This investigation tested (linear and non-linear) cross-sectional and cross-time associations between irrational beliefs, hedonic balance and academic achievement. In total, 175 undergraduate students (Mage = 20.23 ± 5.06 years) completed measures of irrational beliefs and hedonic balance at mid-semester and again before their end of semester examinations. Student academic grades were obtained from a university electronic management package. Results showed that higher levels of irrational beliefs (depreciation) were associated with a more negative affective state at mid-semester and increases in negative affect (relative to positive affect) over time. Increases in irrational beliefs (depreciation and awfulising) also coincided with increases in negative (relative to positive) affect. Irrational beliefs and hedonic balance were unrelated to academic performance. In short, this study provides evidence that irrational beliefs are related to change in student affect over time, but that irrational beliefs and hedonic balance are unrelated to objectively measured academic achievement.

Introduction

There is considerable practical and well as theoretical value in identifying factors that contribute to academic performance. Among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an average of 5.2% of gross domestic product is spent on education (primary to tertiary), and continuation into higher education has increased substantially with 42% of adults now completing tertiary education – an increase from 26% over 30 years (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2016). Higher levels of educational attainment is associated with higher employment rates (and lower unemployment rates), better reported health, a reduced incidence of physical limitations, and higher reported life satisfaction (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2016). Given the positive outcomes associated with higher educational attainment, identifying factors that contribute to increments in academic success is of critical importance. In this investigation we explore cross-sectional and cross-time associations between irrational beliefs, hedonic balance, and objectively measured academic performance among students in the early phase of tertiary education.

This investigation is grounded within the framework of rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT; Ellis, 1957), a humanistic cognitive-behavioural approach to psychological well-being. REBT is considered the original cognitive-behaviour therapy, and was developed as a reaction to what was perceived to be ineffective psychotherapies of the time. REBT (Ellis, 1957) was inspired by the Stoic philosophers and a central tenet of REBT is that events themselves do not cause affective states. Rather, it is beliefs about the events that lead to the experience of positive and negative affect. REBT distinguishes itself from alternative cognitive-behavioural approaches by placing irrational and rational beliefs at its core. Rational beliefs are flexible, non-extreme, and logical whereas irrational beliefs are rigid, extreme, and illogical. Both rational and irrational beliefs can be categorised into four main dimensions. Rational beliefs comprise a primary belief (preferences) and three secondary beliefs derived from the primary belief (anti-awfulising, high frustration tolerance, and self/other acceptance). Irrational beliefs also comprise a primary belief (demandingness) and three secondary beliefs derived from the primary belief (awfulising, low frustration tolerance, and self/other depreciation). Irrational beliefs are at the heart of REBT and are considered the core reason for human misery and dysfunction (Dryden and Branch, 2008, Ellis and Dryden, 1997). Moreover, irrational beliefs are predicted to lead to a greater experience of negative affect and a lower experience of positive affect.

Current models of subjective well-being suggest that affective states fluctuate around a biologically determined set point that rarely changes in the long-term, but that meaningful short term change occurs in response to important life events (Lucas, 2007). Much research has demonstrated that irrational beliefs are associated with a greater experience of negative affect (for reviews, see Bridges and Harnish, 2010, Visla et al., 2015). In student populations, cross-sectional research has demonstrated that students reporting a greater experience of irrational beliefs tend to experience more negative affect (David et al., 2002, Malouff et al., 1992). A prospective study of undergraduate students also found that irrational beliefs measured at mid-term were associated with distress measured both concurrently and immediately prior to an exam (DiLorenzo, David, & Montgomery, 2007). However, as far as we are aware, research has not explored how irrational beliefs for academic achievement (e.g., “It would be catastrophic if I did not perform well in this exam”) relate to the experience of positive or negative affect. Context specific measures can help to establish whether irrational beliefs about academic achievement relate to student affective experience. This is important as negative affect has consistently been linked to poor academic achievement (Callaghan and Papageorgiou, 2014, Chapell et al., 2005, Pekrun et al., 2002).

In line with the notion that irrational beliefs should lead to unconstructive behaviours (Ellis, 1957), researchers have explored whether irrational beliefs are harmful to performance across a variety of settings (for a review, see Turner, 2016). Surprisingly, we were unable to identify any research that had explored associations between irrational beliefs and academic performance. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that REBT (in which irrational beliefs are challenged and replaced with rational beliefs) can improve academic grades. A meta-analysis of five studies (seven independent samples) found that REBT was associated with greater increases in grade point average compared to non-intervention control conditions (Gonzalez et al., 2004). However, two of the five studies found no difference between REBT and control groups, suggesting that further research is warranted. Moreover, the extant research has not sufficiently examined the nature of the relationship between irrational beliefs and academic performance. It has been suggested that some level of irrational thinking could be helpful to performance in some acute circumstances (Turner, 2016, Turner and Barker, 2014). That is, irrational beliefs that enhance negative emotions that have a motivational component (e.g., anxiety) could lead to greater investment and deliberate practice (see e.g., Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2010). In other words, irrational beliefs could suggest to the individual that more effort is required (to avoid failure) leading to some adaptive behaviours (e.g., increased study time). Given this possibility, we test whether the relationship between irrational beliefs and academic achievement is linear or curvilinear in nature.

If irrational beliefs do relate to academic performance, from an REBT perspective it should be through the emotional (and associated behavioural) consequences of irrational beliefs (Ellis & Dryden, 1997). Therefore, it is important to examine affect when attempting to understand the role of irrational beliefs in academic performance. In this investigation we conceptualise positive and negative affect as hedonic balance (the relative amount of positive affect to negative affect). Hedonic balance is often considered a more suitable index of subjective well-being – than separate measures of positive and negative affect – when model predictions target the overall affective experience (Schimmack, Radhakrishnan, Oishi, Dzokoto, & Ahadi, 2002). Similar to previous research (DiLorenzo et al., 2007) we test for concurrent associations and cross-time associations, with irrational beliefs and hedonic balance assessed at mid-semester and prior to student examinations. Based on the REBT framework (Ellis, 1957), we hypothesised that (1) irrational beliefs would be negatively associated with concurrently measured hedonic balance and decreases in hedonic balance over time, (2) that decreases in hedonic balance will coincide with increases in irrational beliefs, (3) that higher levels of irrational beliefs and lower levels of hedonic balance – and increases in irrational beliefs and decreases in hedonic balance over time – would be associated with poorer academic achievement, and (4) that hedonic balance would mediate a negative association between irrational beliefs and academic achievement.

Section snippets

Participants

Data were collected from a student sample at mid-semester (Time 1) and at the end of the semester – six weeks later (Time 2). A total of 203 undergraduate students (33 men, 170 women) from a university in the New South Wales region of Australia agreed to take part at Time 1 (Mage = 20.32 ± 5.05 years). At Time 2, 28 participants did not return resulting in a final sample of 175 participants, and an attrition rate of 16.0%. Compared to those that returned at Time 2, study dropouts had lower levels of

Results

Table 1 provides means, standard deviations and bivariate correlations for study variables. Findings from the linear regression models for irrational beliefs and hedonic balance are reported in Table 2. In Model 1, there was a significant negative association between depreciation and hedonic balance at Time 1, demonstrating that participants reporting more irrational beliefs related to self-worth tended to report a more negative affective state. In Model 2, depreciation at Time 1 and the change

Discussion

This study examined interrelationships between irrational beliefs, hedonic balance, and academic achievement in an undergraduate sample. Supporting study hypotheses, greater levels of irrational beliefs (depreciation) were associated with a more negative affective state at mid-semester and increases in negative affect (relative to positive affect) over time. Also supporting study hypotheses, increases in irrational beliefs over time (depreciation and awfulising) coincided with increases in

References (35)

  • T.A. DiLorenzo et al.

    The interrelations between irrational cognitive processes and distress in stressful academic settings

    Personality and Individual Differences

    (2007)
  • J.M. Malouff et al.

    Examination of the relationship between irrational beliefs and state anxiety

    Personality and Individual Differences

    (1992)
  • M.S. Allen et al.

    Emotions correlate with perceived mental effort and concentration disruption in adult sport performers

    European Journal of Sport Science

    (2013)
  • M.S. Allen et al.

    Personality, hedonic balance, and the quality and quantity of sleep in adulthood

    Psychology and Health

    (2016)
  • H.T. Black et al.

    Evaluating and improving student achievement in business programs: The effective use of standardized assessment tests

    Journal of Education for Business

    (2003)
  • K.R. Bridges et al.

    Role of irrational beliefs in depression and anxiety: A review

    Health

    (2010)
  • C.W. Callaghan et al.

    The use of human resources literature regarding the relationship between affect and student academic performance

    South African Journal of Human Resource Management

    (2014)
  • M.S. Chapell et al.

    Test anxiety and academic performance in undergraduate and graduate students

    Journal of Educational Psychology

    (2005)
  • J. Cohen et al.

    Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences

    (2003)
  • J.R. Crawford et al.

    The positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS): Construct validity, measurement properties and normative data in a large non-clinical sample

    British Journal of Clinical Psychology

    (2004)
  • D. David et al.

    An empirical investigation of Albert Ellis's binary model of distress

    Journal of Clinical Psychology

    (2005)
  • D. David et al.

    Another search for the “hot” cognitions: Appraisal, irrational beliefs, attributions, and their relation to emotion

    Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

    (2002)
  • E.L. Deci et al.

    Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior

    (1985)
  • D. Didia et al.

    The determinants of performance in the university introductory finance course

    Financial Practice and Education

    (1998)
  • W. Dryden et al.

    The fundamentals of rational-emotive behavior therapy

    (2008)
  • A. Ellis

    Rational psychotherapy and individual psychology

    Journal of Individual Psychology

    (1957)
  • A. Ellis

    Reason and emotion in psychotherapy

    (1994)
  • Cited by (13)

    • Stress mindset in athletes: Investigating the relationships between beliefs, challenge and threat with psychological wellbeing

      2021, Psychology of Sport and Exercise
      Citation Excerpt :

      One finding which was not expected and contradicted the originally hypothesised model was the prominence of self-depreciation in directly predicting additional variables in the model, as the analysis identified additional associations of self-depreciation also predicting stress mindset and depressive symptoms. Self-depreciation irrational beliefs have been reported to be an important factor in determining affect in students (Allen et al., 2017), a key area to target in psychological interventions with athletes (Cunningham & Turner, 2016), and have also been found to positively relate to athlete’s psychological illbeing in previous studies (e.g., Turner et al., 2019b). However, in the present study, the strength of self-depreciation’s relationships with challenge and threat was also considerably greater than the other three types of irrational beliefs, exhibited by higher beta scores of at least a medium effect size in each relationship.

    • Confirmatory factor analysis of the irrational Performance Beliefs Inventory (iPBI) in a sample of amateur and semi-professional athletes

      2018, Psychology of Sport and Exercise
      Citation Excerpt :

      To conclude, the 20-item iPBI-2 appears to be a suitable alternative to the 28-item iPBI – showing stronger construct validity and comparable criterion validity – and we recommend researchers adopt this shorter version for use in athletic settings. The eight items removed also include the problem item identified for educational settings (Allen et al., 2017) meaning the iPBI-2 might also be more suitable measure for educational settings. There is a need to examine whether the 20-item iPBI-2 is able to predict psychological outcomes (e.g., symptoms of anxiety and depression) as has been shown with the 28-item version (Turner et al., 2016, 2017) and examine the test-retest reliability of the iPBI-2 across various achievement populations.

    • Irrational Beliefs Among Competitive High School Student Athletes: Are they General or Context-Driven?

      2023, Journal of Rational - Emotive and Cognitive - Behavior Therapy
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text