1. Margarida Pedroso de Lima Isabel Albuquerque Marcela matos FPCE, University of Coimbra, Portugal E-mail: mplima@fpce.uc.pt ATEE 2010 26 – 30 August, Budapest, Hungary Teachers’ personal projects as moderators between personality traits and psychological well-being

2.  Teachers’ well-being emerges as essential for effective teaching.  Recently, a new model of employee well-being posits subjective and psychological well-being as key criteria for employees mental health.  Previous research has shown that personality emerges as significant and consistent predictor related both to subjective and to psychological well-being.  However, these studies refer mainly to the influence of one of the personality levels: the traits level.

3.  Authors consider that the study of structure, functioning and coherence of personality involves three levels: traits, goals and narratives.  The interplay between enduring structures and dynamic processes - one of the most distinctive and intriguing features of human beings.  It remains unclear how several personality levels (traits, goals and narratives) interact to influence well-being.  The present study investigates the dynamic relationship between conscientiousness facets (traits level) and job personal projects (goals level) in enhancing teachers’ psychological well-being.

4.  Conscientiousness is one of the five personality domains of the Five Factor Model (McCrae & John, 1992) - the most consistent model of personality (trait level).  Conscientiousness concerns to the individuals’ degree of organization, persistence, and motivation in goal-directed behaviour and integrates six facets: competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline and deliberation.  This personality domain has shown to be the most consistent predictor of job performance among the Big Five.

5.  Personal Projects integrates the goals personality level - units of analysis in personality that explore intentional action in context, and the dynamics and impacts of these action.  Personal Projects are extended sets of personally salient actions that range from the daily doings to the self-defining passion of a lifetime (Little, 1983).  Content of Personal Projects refers to occupational, health/body, leisure, interpersonal, intrapersonal, academic and maintenance domains.

6.  Psychological Well-Being is a multidimensional construct related to positive psychological functioning in adulthood and elderly people (Ryff,1989).  Psychological Well-Being comprises six dimensions: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose of life, positive relationship with others, self- acceptance.  Each dimension articulates different challenges individuals encounter as they strive to function positively.

7. Do teacher’s job personal projects have a moderating influence in the relationship between conscientiousness facets and psychological well-being dimensions?

8.  Therefore, this study explores the premise that teachers’ job personal projects moderate the relationship between conscientiousness facets and their psychological well- being dimensions.  Specifically, we propose to study the impact of the moderating influence of teachers’ job personal projects in the relationship between competence and deliberation (conscientiousness facets) and positive relations with others, purpose of life and environmental mastery (three of psychological well-being dimensions).

9. Competence Deliberation Positive relations with others Purpose of life Enviromental mastery Job personal projects Our purpose is to investigate if Job Personal Projects alter the strength or the direction (moderation) of the relation between traits and PWB dimensions.

10.  Conscientiousness Facets (Independent Variables):  Competence – to have a sense of efficiency, self-confidence and resourcefulness.  Deliberation – to be meticulous, cautious and concentrate.  Psychological Well-Being Dimensions (Dependent Variables):  Positive Relations with Others - to develop and maintain warm and trusting interpersonal relationships  Purpose of Life - to find meaning in one’s efforts and challenges  Environmental Mastery - to shape their environment so as to meet personal needs and desires  Personal Projects (Moderator Variable):  Job Personal Projects – Personal projects linked to teachers’ work domain

11.  Participants  398 teachers from primary and higher schools were selected randomly by clusters (Viseu district, Portugal).  72.1 % were females (n=287) and 27.9 % males (n=111), mean age 41.09 (SD=7.71).  75.6% are married (n=301).  79% were graduated (n=314).  Teaching years of experience mean was 16.85 (SD=8.00)

12.  Measures  Personality Traits – NEO Personality Inventory – Revised (NEO PI R) (Costa & McCrae, 1992 ).  Personal Projects – Personal Projects Analysis (Little, 1983).  Psychological Well-Being – Scales of Psychological Well- Being (Ryff & Essex, 1992).

13.  Competence: M=21.78 (SD=3.18).  Deliberation: M=18. 76 (SD=4.16).  Competence and deliberation (conscientiousness facets) are moderately and positively correlated to positive relations with others, purpose of life and environmental mastery (psychological well-being dimensions).

14. Results Moderating influence of Job PP in relationship between Competence and Positive Relations with Others

15. Results Moderating influence of Job PP in relationship between Competence and Purpose of Life

16. Results Moderating influence of Job PP in relationship between Competence and Environmental Mastery

17. Results Moderating influence of Job PP in relationship between Deliberation and Positive Relations with Others

18. Results Moderating influence of Job PP in relationship between Deliberation and Purpose of Life

19. Results Moderating influence of Job PP in relationship between Deliberation and Environmental Mastery

20.  Teachers’ job pp do indeed reveal a moderating influence in the relationship between competence and deliberation traits and psychological well-being, positive relations with others, purpose of life and environmental mastery.  There is specificity in the way teachers’ job pp moderate the relationship between each particular trait and the psychological well-being dimensions:  To have job pp is beneficial to teachers’ psychological well-being if teachers have low competence;  To have job pp is beneficial to teachers psychological well-being if teachers have high deliberation  Exception: Moderation of the relationship between deliberation and positive relation with others - To have job pp is beneficial to positive relations with others if teachers have low deliberation.

21.  Our study presents a contribute to the personality realm and its relation to teachers’ psychological well-being:  empirically supports the proposal that an holistic understanding of relations between personality and well-being should considerer the personality as a whole, since the several personality levels interact in the production of well-being ▪ Personal action moderates the traits influence and alter the strength and direction of their impact in three dimensions of psychological well-being.  highlights the importance of teachers’ work in their psychological well-being ▪ To have or not to have personal action linked to teachers’ work has an impact on the relationship between personality traits and teachers’ psychological well-being.

22. Thank you!