STRATEGIES OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT FOR STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT AGENCY LEVELS

Maralov V.G. Sitarov V.A. Kariyev A.D. Krezhevskikh O.V. Kudaka M.A. Ageyeva L.Y. Agranovich Y.N.
2023 Deniz Publication

Journal Of Organizational Behavior Research
2023 #8 Issue 2 15 - 26 pp.

The relevance of the issue is due to the importance of studying the psychological mechanisms and factors of personal self-development. The goal of this research was to identify factors of students choice of self-improvement strategies: acquisition, rejection, transformation, and restriction, depending on the students’ agency levels. Our study involved students from several universities in Russia and Kazakhstan, with a total of 271 people aged 17 to 27, mostly female, with an average age of 19.5 (SD=1.5) years. As diagnostic tools, we developed an original technique, Square of self-improvement and also used M.A. Shchukina’s questionnaire, “Level of personal autonomy development.” The processing was performed with the φ* criterion (Fishers angular transformation). As a result, it was found that students with high levels of agency prefer three strategies: acquisition, disposal, and transformation. Among students with low levels of agency, fewer participants choose the transformation strategy, whereas the number of students who prefer acquisition increases. The process depends on intrinsic value as an indicator of the agency. We have found that manifestations of the acquisition strategy vary between students with higher and lower agency levels, and these are qualitative differences. The study led us to the conclusion that the choice of self-improvement strategies is largely determined by the person’s level of agency, i.e., their capability to be the masters and shapers of their lives and their self-development. The results obtained can be used in professional training (to plan trajectories of individual self-development) and in psychological consultancy at universities.

Agency , Self-development , Self-improvement , Self-improvement strategies

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Department of Psychology, Cherepovets State University, Cherepovets, Russian Federation
Department of Pedagogy, Moscow City Pedagogical University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Department of Preschool and Primary Education, Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology, Kazakh National Womens Teacher Training University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Department of Preschool and Social Education, Institute of Psychology and Pedagogy, Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Shadrinsk State Pedagogical University, Shadrinsk, Russian Federation

Department of Psychology
Department of Pedagogy
Department of Preschool and Primary Education
Department of Preschool and Social Education

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