An Investigation on the Characteristics of Students’ Psychological Capital of Professional Learning in Zhejiang Normal University—Taking Physical Education as an Example ()
1. Introduction
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Education, in 2020, the total number of graduates in higher education will reach 38.33 million, and the gross enrollment rate has reached 48.1%, making China the largest country in higher education in the world [1]. In the rapid development of higher education today, improving the comprehensive quality of college students is one of the urgent problems to be solved, so we should pay more attention to and cultivate their comprehensive quality. Therefore, it is imperative to strengthen the publicity and education of college students’ mental health education consciousness. Mental health is an important part of modern health concepts and a good state of mental health is the prerequisite of modern quality education and personnel training. In 2016, the Ministry of Education issued the Opinions of The General Office of the State Council on Strengthening School PHYSICAL Education to Promote the All-round Development of Student’s Physical and Mental Health [2], affirming the promoting effect of physical exercise on the development of students’ mental health. Liu Yang also pointed out that physical exercise has its own advantages and potential in the process of cultivating individual positive psychological qualities [3].
In recent years, a new concept emerged in the field of organizational behavior―psychological capital, which was first proposed by Luthans. Luthans believed that psychological capital is “the core psychological element of an individual’s general enthusiasm, embodied in the psychological state that meets the standard of positive organizational behavior [4].” Later, researchers at home and abroad adopted this definition. When the concept of psychological capital was introduced into China, some scholars carried out research in this field and defined the psychological capital of college students, believing that it should be the sum of the positive abilities that college students possess in the special stage of life development, and effective development can help college students obtain self-affirmation and achievement [5]. And the psychological capital intervention of college students as a normal educational practice, as one of the important indicators to evaluate the overall development of college students, has practical significance. [6] It is therefore, necessary to consider other positive measures that can effectively benefit a wide range of people, Li Changjun [7] said, “Exercise is preferred”.
As a comprehensive discipline, physical education is not only limited to the cultivation of intelligence but also the face-to-face interaction and cultivation process between teachers and students, which determines the uniqueness of physical education that is incomparable to other disciplines. College students majoring in physical education who are closely related to physical activities in their life and study are also considered to have a higher level of mental health. [8] However, there are few studies on the amount of psychological capital that is reflected by their positive psychological state in study and life. Therefore, from the perspective of psychological capital, the research on the psychological capital of students majoring in physical education has positive and practical significance in expanding the psychological capital group.
At the same time, the introduction of the concept of psychological capital can provide a new perspective for mental health education in Chinese colleges and universities, guide students to cope with life and adapt to society with a positive attitude, and contribute to healthy and comprehensive development and growth of students [9]. However, the study of psychological capital in the field of education is still a late start, and there are few kinds of research on the psychological capital of college students, especially the combination of qualitative and quantitative studies. Therefore, on the basis of previous studies and from the perspective of psychological capital, this study conducted a multi-dimensional investigation and research on college students majoring in physical education at Zhejiang Normal University. This paper tries to understand the characteristics of psychological capital of students majoring in physical education, broaden the new perspective of psychological capital of students majoring in physical education, and provide a reference for the future in-depth study of psychological capital in sports-related aspects.
Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the factors influencing the psychological capital characteristics of college students majoring in physical education so as to provide relevant suggestions for broadening the group of college students’ psychological capital and improving the mental health education of college students majoring in physical education.
2. Research Object and Method
2.1. Research Object
The present study investigated the psychological capital characteristics of physical education students in Zhejiang Normal University from March to April in 2022.
2.2. Research Methods
2.2.1. Literature Method
With the help of CNKI, Zhejiang Normal University Library and EBSCO system, CNKI is China’s knowledge infrastructure project, which includes 7679 academic journals, accounting for 99.6% of China’s printed journals in the same period and 29.75 million pieces of literature published since 1915. The inclusion rate is 99.9%, the inclusion rate of core journals is 96%, and the inclusion rate of important characteristic journals (such as agriculture, traditional Chinese medicine, etc.) is 100%. Zhejiang normal university library is the literature information center of Zhejiang normal university, 1,915,592 books and 700,000 volumes of books, electronic books over 7000 kinds of Chinese-foreign periodicals at home and abroad more than 3000 kinds of Chinese and English core periodicals and professional journals, basic covers all the various types of professional disciplines, with a complete, in the foreign literature collection features of the information retrieval system. EBSCO database consists of the following two full-text databases: Academic Search Premier (ASP) is the largest multi-disciplinary full-text database designed for Academic institutions. The content includes the full text of more than 3260 journals. Abstracts and indexes of over 4250 journals, full text in PDF format with color images, etc. Business Source Premier (BSP) is a comprehensive library of 1090 journals and indexes and abstracts of 1620 journals covering topics such as Business, management, economics, finance and accounting.
At the same time, through the collation and analysis of domestic and foreign literature on students’ psychological capital, sports psychological capital and other aspects, the preliminary understanding of students’ psychological capital and physical exercise psychological capital research status, and obtain a lot of theoretical resources. On this basis, the paper provides a direction for writing.
2.2.2. Questionnaire Survey
The investigation object of this study was to Zhejiang normal university sports education professional students, and to Zhang Kuo compiled by the positive psychological capital scale (PPQ) as measuring tools, mainly adopts the questionnaire star, measured by the method, through electronic questionnaire, circle of friends in the online investigation of Zhejiang normal university students, after the students completed the system automatic recovery. The distribution and recovery of questionnaires are shown in Table 1. The basic composition of the respondents is shown in Table 2.
2.2.3. Mathematical Statistics
Recycle and sort out the invalid questionnaires. The data options were sorted out and classified by Excel and imported into the SPSSAU system. The statistical description was carried out by using description frequency, mean and standard deviation. The characteristics of psychological capital of students majoring in physical education were analyzed by means of T-test and one-way analysis of variance.
3. Research Results and Analysis
In this study, descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance and independent sample T-test were conducted on the overall situation of psychological capital, gender, grade, major, sports performance and academic performance of college
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Table 1. Distribution and recovery of questionnaires.
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Table 2. Basic composition of respondents.
students majoring in physical education at Zhejiang Normal University. Among them, 315 students majored in physical education, some senior students who went out for internships and invalid questionnaires, with 169 valid samples.
3.1. Investigation and Analysis of the Psychological Capital Status of Physical Education Students in Zhejiang Normal University
3.1.1. Overall Level of Psychological Capital of College Students Majoring in Physical Education
This study investigated 169 college students majoring in physical education. The full compliance rate (7 points) of the 10 evaluation indicators fluctuated from 2.3% (4 people) to 14.8% (25 people); Completely inconsistent (1 point) rates ranged from 0.6% (1 person) to 7.1% (12 people); The evaluation general rate varied from 23.7% (40) to 45.0% (76). The analysis shows that the psychological capital level of the students majoring in physical education in Zhejiang Normal University is above average in general, and their attitude toward psychological capital is positive, but there is still some room for improvement.
3.1.2. The Present Situation of Psychological Capital of College Students Majoring in Physical Education
169 using SPSSAU software of Zhejiang Normal University sports education professional college students psychological capital descriptive statistics, it is concluded that the psychological capital and the various dimensions of the mean and standard deviation, through the analysis of their high on expectations for the future, optimistic treat at the same time, to have high self-esteem and is likely due to its students to exercise for a long time, The training life is not plain sailing, but boring and long. In such an environment, they can go ahead bravely and get excellent results, ranking among the top 300 in the provincial examination and entering the School of Physical Education of Zhejiang Normal University. It can be seen that they firmly believe in the “predictable future” and have a high sense of hope to face the future. Moreover, as college students majoring in physical education, long-term exercise and the spirit of fighting to the end on the field bring them a surge of self-efficacy. They can deal with things with confidence, have a clear cognition of themselves, and can correctly deal with themselves and put them into practice.
However, it is found in the survey that students majoring in physical education have a weak ability to resist setbacks, which may be due to the fact that students at this stage are mostly the only child in their families and receive much attention and care from their elders. Most of their student days before college are spent at home. Although I participated in physical exercise such as hard work, I seldom lived alone for a long time. Basically, I spent 1 - 2 weeks in closed intensive training or study. However, after entering the university, I was separated from my parents’ care and joined the “small society” of the university independently. However, I lacked the ability and experience to solve problems in the face of difficulties and setbacks. In addition, after entering the university, students are not different from their own strengths or better, compared with the former lack of attention and “spotlight”, which may cause a contrast in self-perception among college students. Standing at a higher place to see the scenery, you will meet better people, which will bring more stress. Although the university is a comprehensive development place, many students still are in the process of self-awareness, self-adaptation, which might make when they are faced with difficulties and setbacks, at a loss, and produce frustration, so much so that in case of failure and stress after speaking out of turn to give up, for those routes, and the performance is the lack of resilience [10].
3.2. Demographic Analysis of Psychological Capital of Students Majoring in Physical Education in Zhejiang Normal University
In order to further understand the sports education professional college students’ psychological capital whether there is a gender, grade, professional, sports level, differences in academic performance level, this study will use these factors as independent variables of sports education professional college students’ psychological capital as a whole and dimensions of psychological capital on the specific circumstances difference analysis.
3.2.1. Comparative Analysis of Psychological Capital of Students Majoring in PHYSICAL Education of Different Genders
As can be seen from Table 3, male students scored higher than female students in self-efficacy, hope, resilience, optimism and overall psychological capital. There were significant differences in all dimensions (P < 0.05).
Through the analysis, it can be concluded that there are significant differences between male and female students majoring in physical education in the overall dimensions of psychological capital self-efficacy, toughness and psychological capital, while there are no significant differences in the dimensions of hope and optimism. There may be three main reasons for the differences between males and females in self-efficacy, resilience and psychological capital:
Firstly, the questionnaire in this study adopts the Self-Rating Scale of Psychological Capital for College Students. Due to the personality differences between male and female students, female students consider problems more comprehensively, and their self-evaluation will be affected by many factors. It cannot be ruled out that the self-evaluation of female students in the process of filling in the questionnaire is low; In addition, gender stereotypes lead to the traditional concepts and gender cognitive biases such as “a woman without talent is virtuous” and “a man is a master at home and a woman is a master at home”, which also affect their resilience and self-efficacy.
Second, it is caused by traditional ideas. “Man be self-improvement”, “a man bleeding, no tears” and so on character image, to look for in men trained its tenacity and indomitable character, boys are more encouraged to brave exploration and attempt to enhance male self-efficacy, and in the personality and social psychology, studies have found that the men than women have higher
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Table 3. Comparative analysis of psychological capital of physical education majors in Zhejiang Normal University in different gender variables.
self-efficacy [11].
Thirdly is the particularity of physical education specialty. At Zhejiang Normal University, more male students participate in the training team. They will continue to participate in long-term sports training and pursue the sense of fitness brought by sports. Girls, on the other hand, seek smooth lines at the expense of long-term professional training. Therefore, a long time of exercise has also become a form of catharsis; in the face of setbacks, there is room for catharsis so that it has a way to release pressure, but also in the exercise of self-breakthrough, make it more resilient.
There is no significant difference between male and female students majoring in physical education in the dimension of psychological capital, hope and optimism, which may be due to the fact that most college students have grown up. At this stage, male and female students are relatively stable, more organized in dealing with daily affairs and proactive in dealing with things. In addition, the employment situation of physical education majors has been good in recent years, and they are full of expectations for the future and have a more positive and optimistic attitude towards the expected things.
3.2.2. Comparative Analysis of Psychological Capital of Physical Education Students of Different Grades
As can be seen from Table 4 below, there are significant differences in the overall dimensions of self-efficacy and psychological capital of students majoring in physical education at Zhejiang Normal University in different grades (P < 0.05), while there are no significant differences in the dimensions of hope, optimism and resilience. The overall psychological capital score from high to low is junior, senior, freshman, and sophomore. Among them, junior students have the highest scores in all dimensions, while sophomore students have the lowest scores in all dimensions of psychological capital.
It can be seen from the above data that the psychological capital of college students majoring in physical education differs in grade, and the psychological capital level of students in higher grades is higher than that of students in lower grades. However, the overall level of physical education is relatively good.
Freshman dimensions in the overall level of psychological capital are in a state of low, maybe because they left the familiar environment, began to independent college life, made new friends, “exile” came to the new environment, in the running-in and tried to accept the challenge of the university life and relationships, and the power of the students around scores are equal, Lacking the superiority of the middle school stage, the sense of loss of “disappearing from the crowd” and the novelty and challenge of entering the new campus have both become factors affecting the psychological capital of college students. As they have just entered college, their spirit of “fearless young” also makes them full of hope for the future. That’s why they score higher on the hope and optimism dimensions.
Experience a year after a sophomore gradually adapt to college life, but “small
Table 4. Comparative analysis of psychological capital of physical education majors in Zhejiang Normal University in different grades (N = 169).
169
44
society” sex club activities and an increasing number of academic pressure make enthusiasm gradually reduce; at this time, students for the school system and surroundings have become familiar with, to the outside world things full of curiosity, confusion in entertainment playing and studying the choice of, so the extreme has the obvious difference of this stage. Suffering is a sophomore majoring in course selection stage, has certain influence to the future employment and development, for the future in the phase of confused and disoriented, choose to employment or one’s deceased father grind problems gradually emerges, students started to widen the gap between, to the temptation of the outside world and the future of confusion is likely to be they have lower scores on each dimension.
In the junior year, after two years of study life, gradually stabilized, began to think of the future development, study and exam pressure consume its psychological capital, but a questionnaire is the teachers’ qualification exams shortly after the result not out, it is their solution under the burdens of time, and the senior student employment, one’s deceased father grind rate remained high level, This makes them full of confidence in the future development, and at this stage, the study of professional knowledge will come to an end, and their knowledge reserve will be richer. They regard this stage as a new starting point and are full of more expectations and a fighting spirit for the future. This may be the overall higher level of psychological capital of junior students in all dimensions.
When entering the last year of university, the writing of graduation thesis and the choice of the future way out all contain great competitiveness. In addition, some students failed to find their desired jobs or pass the teacher qualification examination. The long-term struggle may be the factor that leads to their overall low level of resilience, self-efficacy and psychological capital. However, senior students are more mature in age than junior students, they have experienced failures and setbacks, and they begin to understand the relief and belief that they can “climb up”, so they are also more optimistic.
3.2.3. A Comparative Analysis of Psychological Capital of Students Majoring in PHYSICAL Education with Different Sports Skill Levels
Are shown in Table 5 below, under the differences of different sports levels, the overall level of psychological capital of scoring from high to low arrangement, respectively is: international master athletes grade college student, a national level athletes grade students, national class athletes in college students, the national second-level athlete grade college students, no athlete grade level students, national athletes level of the college students.
It can be seen that there is a big difference between the psychological capital level of international and national elite athletes, and since Zhejiang Normal University is a normal university rather than a physical education college, there are only 2 elite athletes. For this reason, interviews will be conducted to analyze the reasons for the large difference in a case.
Through the analysis, it can be seen that the overall level of psychological capital of college students who have won the national first-class athletes is higher, while the level of psychological capital of college students who have won the national second-class athletes, the national third-class athletes or those without the honorary title of athletes is not significantly different. It may be because the college students who have won the honorary title of national first-class athletes are far ahead in their individual technical ability in Zhejiang Normal University. They can represent Zhejiang Normal University to compete in various events and obtain good results in the competition, which can also win certain points in the academic year's evaluation and award, and thus obtain higher honors. It is precisely because of their relatively good professional performance that they are superior to ordinary people in employment and further study. As a normal provincial university, in the provincial university games, the national university games have good group results, and as one of them, for their hard work, contribution to every point has a sense of pride, this is also one of the reasons for their confidence in themselves and their school. National secondary athletes and national level 3 athletes or no athletes level of college students, professional skills are not particularly outstanding, will pressure into school to have a better development in
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Table 5. Comparative analysis of psychological capital of physical education majors in Zhejiang Normal University in different majors (N = 169).
the future, all need to face greater competition, in order to meet the teacher recruitment in advance, for has won the honorary title of outstanding graduate scholarships, such as running, It takes a lot of psychological capital. Everyone does not want to become an ailanya oak wood, are “scalping” for every minute and second efforts. This may be one of the reasons why their psychological capital is generally lower than that of university students who have won the first class national athletes.
3.2.4. Comparative Analysis of Psychological Capital of College Students Majoring in Physical Education with Different Academic Performance Levels
The survey defines students with academic performance in the top 40% of their grade as good, 30% - 60% of their grade as average, and the bottom 40% of their grade as poor. Six of them forgot their grades and were excluded from the analysis. The results show that the psychological capital level of students with better academic performance is generally higher, followed by students with average academic performance and students with poor academic performance, but there is no statistically significant difference (Table 6).
Get into each student of Zhejiang normal university is at the same starting line, in the process of running but has to keep the sprint, and have a rest stop, result in good students while maintaining the original learning attitude to forge ahead, always meet some problems during the learning process, stretching strength through the past became their motivation, Learn to grow in learning and enrich their lives so that they have a good ability to resist setbacks. At the same time, they also have high expectations for themselves. According to the selection conditions of outstanding graduates in the “Student Handbook of Zhejiang Normal University”, 40% of students have the opportunity to be selected as outstanding graduates of the university, and this honor can serve as a stepping stone in recruitment and employment, so they are full of expectations for their future development. However, the students whose optimism score is lower than the average score may be because they are more anxious and worry about their own gains and losses, so they need to make more efforts to consolidate their own
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Table 6. Comparative analysis on the psychological capital of physical education majors in Zhejiang normal university.
strengths. With lower scores of students, in the hope that dimension score is higher, they will hope for the future expectation, do not grasp the present, but its toughness is higher than the average scores of students, may is the pursuit of the development of other aspects, decisive factors of the learning achievement is not absolute, all aspects of development, glowing in different places, This may be one of the reasons for the higher resilience scores of students with lower academic performance.
4. Research Conclusions and Suggestions
4.1. Conclusions
1) The overall psychological capital level of college students majoring in Physical Education of Zhejiang Normal University presents a good pattern, and their scores are higher than the average.
2) The results show that in different grades, the self-efficacy of students in higher grades is higher than that of students in lower grades. In different genders, male college students are higher in self-efficacy, toughness and psychological capital than female college students, and there are significant differences. There is no significant difference in the psychological capital of students majoring in physical education in terms of athletes’ technical level and academic achievement.
3) The development of psychological capital of students majoring in physical education in Zhejiang Normal University is unbalanced. The overall score for psychological capital, hope and optimism are relatively high, but the score for resilience is at a low level. It shows that the students of physical education lack toughness and should cultivate their quality of resistance to pressure actively.
4.2. Suggestions
1) In the psychological capital score of college students majoring in physical education of Zhejiang Normal University, toughness is the weakest one on the whole. Colleges and schools should pay attention to it, carry out lectures and activities, and focus on strengthening the frustration education of college students majoring in physical education and improving their ability to resist pressure and defeat.
2) The proportion of male and female students in physical education majors of Zhejiang Normal University is very different, and the overall score of female students’ psychological capital is relatively weak. The college should pay more attention to and guide the cultivation of students’ psychological capital, especially female students, and carry out relevant auxiliary activities to improve their psychological capital level.
3) According to the differences in psychological capital of different groups, the campus psychological station, the counselors of the physical education college and the peer counselors of the physical education college of Zhejiang Normal University should formulate scientific plans to improve psychological capital, so that the college students majoring in physical education can cultivate a higher level of psychological capital during their college life.