Research On Reflection, Coping Style, And Automatic Thoughts Of Middle School Teachers

In this study, questionnaires were group administered to 520 middle school teachers to explore the characteristics of reflection, coping style, automatic thoughts and their relations. Results indicated that there were gender differences in reflection. Male teachers displayed lower reflective level than did female teachers. Grade differences were also found in male teachers. The senior high school teachers in the first and second grade displayed the lowest reflective level among male teachers; In general, the coping style of middle school teachers was positive, and the most frequently used coping styles were problem-solving style as well as help-seeking style. However, their coping styles varied substantially by length of teaching. Those with longer teaching years were more likely to use negative coping styles and were less likely to use help-seeking style. Meanwhile, female teachers reported greater use of help-seeking style than male teachers did; There exited remarkable relations among reflection, coping style, and automatic thoughts. Problem-solving style, rationalization style, and avoidance style were significant predictors of reflection. Self-condemned style, problem-solving style, and fantastic style were significant predictors of automatic thoughts. The relation between reflection and automatic thoughts was unexpected. Although reflection was strongly related to automatic thoughts, it failed to predict automatic thoughts directly.