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

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 (M age = 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 important for change in student affect over time, but that irrational beliefs and hedonic balance are unimportant for objectively measured academic achievement.

Assessing beliefs about emotion generation and change: The conceptualisation, development, and validation of the Cognitive Mediation Beliefs Questionnaire (CMBQ)

“…Future research should determine the extent to which S-R generation and C-M change beliefs are orthogonal, and the extent to which they may interact to predict emotion and emotion regulation. A discrepancy value (C-M change minus S-R generation), much like that of the hedonic balance score derived from the positive and negative affect dimensions of the PANAS (e.g., Allen et al, 2017), could be considered. Perhaps, it is the extent to which C-M change beliefs predominate over S-R generation beliefs, that is most important for emotion regulation.…”

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

“…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, 2017) Note: All inter-factor correlations are significant at the .001 level.…”

“…The measure was developed to be generalisable to all achievement contexts (e.g., occupational, athletic, military, and academic), and has been adopted for research in athletic contexts (e.g., Deen et al, 2017;Turner et al, 2017), but so far has not been validated in an athletic sample. This is important as a recent investigation identified item 7 of the iPBI ("I need my manager/coach to act respectfully towards me") as problematic for educational settings (Allen, El-Cheikh, & Turner, 2017) meaning some changes might be necessary for the questionnaire to be valid across different achievement contexts. This investigation sought to test the construct validity of the iPBI in a sample of amateur and semi-professional athletes.…”

Development and psychometric testing of the care dependence perception questionnaire

“…Mean scores of both scales were not significantly different according to patients’ age, sex or hospital. To obtain a synthetic indicator of subjective well‐being, the hedonic balance (HB) score (Diener, 2009) was calculated by subtracting the total score of the Negative perception factor from the total score of the Positive perception factor (Allen et al, 2017). Hedonic balance was positive (HB = 33.71, SD 27.65, range −66.07 to 80.00), indicating that patients reported higher scores for positive than for negative perceptions.…”