Personal beliefs as determinants of effectiveness in helping professions Reason or heart—how to manage one’s own emotions?—the age-old question of everyone trying to cope in a difficult situation, a stressful one, namely fulfilling a specific social role. People working in social professions of a helping character often treat their profession more as a mission than a job. In emotionally charged confrontations with social reality, in the face of difficult situations that have to be faced on one’s own, the force of beliefs about the professional role may increase and become rigid. According to Helena Sęk, people working in social professions “can, among other things because of rigid and hierarchical beliefs, labelled with a large quantifier, be insufficiently rational and reflective. Every person has an individual system of beliefs that influences his or her life and behaviour. Through it, they make decisions, have a particular attitude toward the world and self-esteem. Beliefs are judgments about the order of the world, other people, oneself, what is important in life, how causes and consequences are explained in the world and in a person’s life, what their meaning is, that is, in general—a person’s own philosophy of life. It can be said generally that beliefs forming the basis of personality direct action, emotions, and perception, determining the quality and level of one’s life. They are an overall view of the world and of ourselves (J. C. Raudner, p. 31). Research on beliefs and their role leads to the conclusion that “they are a sort of lens through which we look at the world, try to understand and assess it, plan the future, define important goals, (…) beliefs are one of the most important factors shaping the lives of individuals” (A. Cisłak, p. 13).” Knowledge, feelings, and experience are the three components creating the internal structure of beliefs. All these elements permeate one another. Beliefs are connected to knowledge, without which evaluation of the phenomena that are their object is impossible. Feelings also accompany beliefs and the process of their emergence.
From the relation of beliefs to social reality we draw conclusions about their truthfulness or falsehood, and therefore beliefs are divided into rational, which provide the best basis for harmonious personality development, and irrational (T. Szaciło, p. 72). We can discover truth or falsehood in beliefs only by relating them to reality. Subjectively, however, people treat their beliefs as true and correct. Especially among people with low self-acceptance there can appear irrational, extreme beliefs such as: “one has to be liked and respected by everyone,” “one should be maximally competent in all areas of activity,” “it is better to avoid difficulties than to face them,” etc. (Sęk H., p.91), which reduce the chance of success for those people. These irrational occupational beliefs can lead to occupational burnout.
Representatives of helping professions can be characterized by relatively high perfectionism, low autonomy, low tolerance for differences, non-acceptance of ambiguity, and principles of probability (Sęk, 2000, p. 90). Each epoch has been characterized by a different understanding of human work, which became a subject of historiographical and anthropological reflection. Today, work is indicated as a special kind of human life activity that influences personality. It plays an increasing role in modern human life, because people draw from it a sense of meaning in their existence. If work is performed in favorable conditions, is well organized, assessed, and remunerated, and is consistent with a person’s interests and abilities, it positively affects their well-being and psychophysical condition. It is a source of satisfaction and self-realization. Fatiguing, boring, poorly organized, underappreciated work not only does not meet needs and aspirations, but over time may become a cause of stress and tension, reducing the sense of quality of life. The result can be disturbances of mental and physical health. The pathological effects of work can take various degrees of intensity, ranging from psychological overload to occupational burnout. One may ask – can beliefs influence effectiveness in a given profession or area of activity?
In relation to the issue of effectiveness in helping professions, given the subject of this article, I will be interested in personal beliefs of individuals regarding their own competencies or lack thereof in relation to the work performed. People convinced of the mutability of human nature prefer development-oriented standards for competencies, which is supported by their typical high expectation of success and relatively weak experience of failure. People convinced of the constancy of human nature, by contrast, set goals associated with avoiding failures, which is supported by their typical low expectation of success probability and a tendency to experience failures strongly (A. Cisłak, p. 81). Achieved professional successes raise expectations concerning one’s own competencies. Occasional difficulties overcome through decisive action strengthen perseverance—the person gains the belief that by effort those difficulties can be overcome. Belief in oneself and one’s own abilities is a belief in one’s sense of personal efficacy and achievement of a defined goal. A condition for consolidating belief in one’s own efficacy of action is enabling an employee to have freedom of choice in one’s conduct at work and to be given information about gradually approaching the final result. With low self-efficacy, a person through failure loses a sense of challenge, feels threatened, and develops the belief that effective coping with difficulties in professional life is impossible (Sęk H. p.86). Lowered motivation to act is caused by a belief that undertaken actions are ineffective. Such beliefs about lacking adequate resources to overcome difficulties in the workplace are directly linked to self-esteem. It is precisely low self-esteem that often underlies susceptibility to stress, and consequently fear of failure. This distorted style of thinking takes the form of negative beliefs that adversely affect emotions and behaviour. People think of themselves as incompetent because in the future they have lost several battles and suffered defeats. Thus, beliefs are often based on incorrect interpretation of past events and related experiences.
People working in social professions of a helping character should continue to undertake self-assessment and conduct internal dialogue, the result of which is readiness for change. This is linked to searching for a way of acting in changing social reality. Change is an unavoidable consequence of everyone’s existence; however, striving to introduce change involves two opposing tendencies—acceptance and resistance. Resistance to change is a normal and indispensable element of behaviour, often even very appropriate. One can say that a creative social worker is placed in a situation that requires a specific way of behaving and reacting, which is possible only with inner permission for change. A positive attitude of significant people in the employee team and a creative climate leads to taking innovative actions. The point is that no one should be alone on this path and that everyone can feel internal acceptance. One may hypothesize that it is precisely people with a creative style of professional action who significantly influence the atmosphere and climate in the employee team. On both sides, however, there must be a relation of interdependence based on partnership.
Self-esteem is a regulator of all actions, and especially actions of a creative nature. Actions that should, as a result, lead to change. Change is readiness; it is a creative stance toward professional work; it is the abandonment of present “suspension” in helplessness in front of success. Readiness for change can with full conviction be called “the courage to be creative in social reality.” How to find courage within oneself? Where to seek the words of wisdom in a solitary journey through “books of knowledge”? Answers should be sought in educating and improving employees in helping social professions for practice. For today, it is not enough simply “to be”; one still has to do a lot. The best place to start is with oneself, with building the foundation of one’s own worth. It is not regulations, declarations, or programs that can contain the truth. They represent a model, and the truth is the human being who can get to know oneself through striving for new goals, who can find within oneself the courage that does not remain only in creative supervision but translates into one’s actions.
American psychologist Martin Seligman, with his student Steven Maier (Sędek G., p.51), initiated in the 1960s research on the phenomenon of learned helplessness. Lack of expectation of one’s own efficacy equals helplessness, and helplessness leads to passivity (R. Dilts, p.25). A feeling of helplessness is a kind of internal judgment of one’s situation in the world. It can appear not only because of a lack of possibilities for acting and controlling the course of events, but also in relation to our subjective evaluation of those possibilities. Interpretation of a situation depends on the mood currently experienced and the overall orientation toward the world. Helplessness leads to disruptions in decision making, negatively affecting the motivational sphere and worsening functioning (R. Cibor, p.91). A cause of occupational burnout is also helplessness regarding one’s own professional situation, passivity toward encountered difficulties, and lack of skill in taking responsibility for one’s action. Those at risk of slipping into learned helplessness in the professional work area are clearly the broadest category. Learned helplessness is a concept inseparably linked to Julian B. Rotter’s theory and his concept of locus of control over reinforcements. The term “sense of control” is not fully accurate, because here it is not about “feeling,” but conscious belief and not about “control,” but about steering (Kozielecki J., p.293). A sense of control is the belief that there is a relationship between action and occurrence of certain events, e.g. success or failure. By locus of control we mean a belief system concerning what determines the results of an individual’s actions (Maciuszek J., p.2). J. Rotter noticed that people have different ways of interpreting events.
People with an internal sense of control are convinced that their successes and failures at work depend primarily on themselves, on their competencies, intelligence, and conscientious performance of tasks. They are characterized by higher self-esteem and self-acceptance. They have high aspirations and strong motivation to achieve, hence they work better and obtain greater success in their professional careers. They are more effective in seeking information needed to resolve difficult and problematic situations and cope much better with negative effects of stress (Kozielecki J., p.293). People with an internal locus of control become more resistant to social influence; they base their actions on their own skills, and failures are not attributed to fate, but through an optimistic explanatory style for failures as a condition of success in professional work and personal life they strive to solve problems. People with a external locus of control have a completely different approach to professional work. They succumb more easily to pressure and are more sensitive to criticism, more quickly giving up in resignation. They believe that events of everyday life are the result of a coincidence of circumstances, chance, the actions of other people, and do not fall under their control.
Let us also note the importance of possessed beliefs about other people for carrying out actions in the field of professional help. For this I refer here to an experiment concerning a teacher’s attitude toward students (Aronson E., et al. 1997; Skarżyńska K. 1981). The mechanism of the self-fulfilling prophecy described here can lead to the main symptoms of occupational burnout. If within the teacher’s belief system generalized negative judgments about the students they work with dominate, such as: “I have exceptionally difficult youth,” “they are all unable,” then—according to the discussed mechanism—the teacher will find confirmation of these beliefs. As a result, they will experience burnout symptoms such as lowered motivation and involvement in work and the accompanying lack of satisfaction from performing their profession. That is how the mechanism of a self-fulfilling prophecy works—the expectations a person has of other people influence (often unconsciously) how that person behaves toward them, and this behavior in turn influences people’s reactions, so that those expectations are then confirmed.
Very important in the process of “becoming” are external factors as well: the work environment, organizations, etc. How often can these factors deprive a person of all creative possibilities. Intimidation, lack of faith in one’s own strength, and fear of being judged kill initiative, leading rather to listening passively. Overcoming this state—and in another way, strengthening social workers—is the pursuit of mastery in interpersonal communication. Mastery that allows one to move freely toward self-definition and to formulate an ideal of oneself. It can therefore be assumed that fostering belief in one’s own effectiveness of action can be developed through participation in interpersonal communication trainings and forms of development. These are not only factors supporting self-realization, but also an encounter with another person. Being in dialogue with another person we learn mutually the art of taking increasingly ambitious tasks. Contacts with other people play a special role in auto-creation. However, the subject of reflection in this article is not presenting research tools, procedures, methods, or techniques, but directing the reader’s attention to this form of education/development that allows one to release courage to create, courage to be creative—a task that is not simple, especially for social workers who carry out their professional duties in correlation with functions of social work, that is, in specific helping activities for clients—individuals, groups, communities—while solving their problems (Machalova M., p.10). Maria Machalova, in her text The Road to Interpersonal Communication in Helping Professions, raises the issue of interpersonal communication as an element of professional competencies in helping professions. A particularly important issue in promoting actions for building competencies for dialogue with Others, and also due to the significance of education in the demanding contemporary reality of a modern state. The communicative character of work is activity subject to imperatives of communicative rationality, referring to ethics and the logic of dialogue (Kwaśnica R., p.11). In communicative action, the goal is mutual understanding. For that reason, internal conviction is so important—that “undertaking active effort is very clearly linked to a critical awareness of the extent to which one’s different competencies and personal needs in this area have developed, as well as one’s own need to go beyond the conventional ‘recipe’ of the adopted role” (Żechowska B., p.56). A. Sajkiewicz assumes that competencies include knowledge used at work, experience, abilities and predispositions for joint action in achieving the aims of the organization, professional action skills, ethical cultural values (Sajkiewicz A., p.46). Such a definitional approach to the concept of competence is especially applicable to acquiring competencies of students during studies, especially in pedagogical and social work programmes. A graduate must be prepared to make an objective assessment of the source of change as well as his or her own responsibilities in relation to it. One can say that the person finds themselves in a situation that demands a specific way of behaving, reaction, which is possible only with internal permission for change. Therefore, the most important and core task of education is to provide participants with competencies, that is, complex higher-order skills. Particularly priority and valuable competencies are: independence, activity, preparation for life in a democratic society, and a focus on one’s own future in development. Knowledge fulfills regulatory functions and becomes a tool of action. Encouraging understanding, it stimulates human beings toward creative actions. One condition for taking such actions is knowledge about oneself. This knowledge is reflected in a specific level of self-esteem forming a person’s “self-image.” It is formed on the basis of continuous searching, awareness of deficits and achievements, one’s own possibilities and limitations. This is the shaping of interpretive competence based on knowledge about the world around us and knowledge about oneself. Developing the ability to understand and interpret, and self-reflection that leads to reflection on oneself, builds belief in an internal sense of locus of control.
As marked earlier, beliefs and their formation are also accompanied by feelings and emotions. They are an important component of the ability to coexist coherently in society. Therefore, an important element in educating future educators and social workers is developing emotional-social competencies, as well as the ability to manage emotions. One can assume that professional success depends on emotional awareness and emotion regulation. Experiencing positive emotions strengthens a prosocial orientation, which is closely related to an optimistic belief pattern. Empathy also raises moral competence, whose basis is self-reflection on the moral validity of one’s own behaviours. The innovative model of human emotionality by Richard Davidson should be emphasized here (R. Davidson 2014, p.18). He distinguished six emotional styles: resilience, orientation, social intuition, context sensitivity, self-awareness, and courage, suggesting that the prefrontal cortex is responsible for emotions. It seems appropriate to introduce into study curricula a subject based on R. Davidson’s theory, particularly with regard to shaping beliefs in the spirit of self-fulfilling prophecy, learned helplessness, and patterns of beliefs about one’s own efficacy of action.
Both individual human traits such as high ambitions and expectations of oneself, perfectionism, high self-esteem and confidence, and also a person’s belief system, especially elements such as an optimistic explanatory style of failure, internal control locus, a positive view of the self-fulfilling prophecy, have a huge influence on the effectiveness of educators and social workers in helping professions. This process can be initiated and also strengthened by reflection on one’s image of oneself, impact on others, rational beliefs, and occupational expectations. I will conclude the considerations in this article with a short saying I once heard: “Once fear knocked at the door. Courage opened it and it turned out that there was no one outside the door.”
Author: dr Lucyna Skorecka Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna im. Janusza Korczaka w Warszawie Wydział Nauk Społeczno-Pedagogicznych w Katowicach References 1. Aronson E., Wilson T., Akert R., Psychologia społeczna. Serce i rozum, Wydawnictwo Zysk i S-ka, Poznań 1997 2. Cisłak A., Henne K., Skarżyńska K., Przekonania w życiu jednostek, grup, społeczności, Warszawa 2009 3. Dilts R., Smith S., Hallbom T., Przekonania, Ścieżki do zdrowia i dobrobycia, Wydawnictwo METAmorfoza, Wrocław 2005 4. Gajdzica Z., Rembierz M.(red.), Bezradność. Interdyscyplinarne studium zjawiska w kontekście zmiany społecznej i edukacyjnej. Wydawnictwo UŚ, Katowice 2005 5. Kozielecki J., Psychologiczna teoria samowiedzy, PWN, Warszawa 1986 6. Kwaśnica R. ; Wprowadzenie do myślenia o wspomaganiu nauczycieli w rozwoju, Oficyna Nauczycielska, Wrocław, 1994 7. Machalova M.: Droga do komunikacji interpersonalnej w zawodach pomagających, Gorlice 2013, 8. Moczydłowska J., Poziom poczucia kontroli jako psychologiczna determinanta funkcjonowania w środowisku pracy [w:] Zarządzanie i Edukacja nr 4-5, Kraków1998 9. Raudner J. C., Myśli. Emocje. Przekonania, International Institute for NLP & MORE, Kraków 1998 10. Sajkiewicz A., Kompetencje menedżerów w organizacji uczącej się, Difin, Warszawa 2008 11. Sędek G., Kofta M., W poszukiwaniu uniwersalnych wyznaczników zjawiska wyuczonej bezradności: przegląd klasycznych wyników eksperymentalnych i test empiryczny koncepcji egotystycznej [w:] Psychologia aktywności: zaangażowanie, sprawstwo, bezradność, red. Kofta M., Poznań 1993 12. Sęk H.(red.) Uwarunkowania i mechanizmy wypalenia zawodowego w modelu społecznej psychologii poznawczej. W: Sęk, H. (red.) Wypalenie zawodowe. Przyczyny i zapobieganie, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 2004 13. Skarżyńska K.; Spostrzeganie ludzi, Wydawnictwo Instytutu Psychologii PAN, Warszawa 1981 14. Szaciło T.; O istocie o podstawach przekonań, , Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 1966 15. Żechowska B.; O twórczym rozwoju nauczycieli. Refleksji kilka. [W] S. Juszczyk (red): Twórczy rozwój nauczyciela. Impuls, Kraków 1996