A Study On The Relationship Between Repentance, Responsibility, Cognitive Style And Personality Traits Of Students In Different Development Stages

Regrets (or being regretting) is one of the most popular human emotions. Usually we regard regrets as a kind of remorse after we have done something wrong. At first regrets was regarded as a negative emotion by the psychologists, and the research on the degree of regrets was carried out with the method of counterfactual thinking. Later some researchers thought that regrets was also a kind of higher emotional state including cognitive function which is able to promote the development and improvement of the individual personality. Therefore, regrets has a positive influence on the individual’s self-cognition and personal development, it is not only a kind of negative emotion. Recently the research of regrets was carried out with the perspective of personality trend by some scholars. From the result they thought that regrets might be a kind of stable personality trend, accordingly regret could be grouped into two parts:regret tendency and regret reaction.However whether regrets is a kind of emotional state of a kind personality trend is still controversial. In my thesis regrets was divided into two components:regret trait and selective regrets. By regret trait I refer to those who are inclined to be convinced of or perceived of the better results if other measures were taken, so regret trait is a kind of lasting and stable psychological trait accompanied by negative emotions. Selective regrets is a kind of regrets reaction toward some particular situations. Upon my study this thesis has revised the regret scale and responsibility questionnaire, in order to make them suitable for the Chinese subjects. Then the relations of regrets with responsibility, the way of cognitions and personality trait was examined with the revised the regret scale and responsibility questionnaire.The2034subjects (858males and1176females) of this thesis are mainly high-school students, undergraduates and graduate students from Guizhou, Shaanxi, and Henan. Of which there are. The survey data was analyzed with the SSPS11.5. This thesis has mainly, first revised the regret scale and responsibility questionnaire, and secondly examined the regrets and responsibility of the students from different stages. The thesis attempts also to explore the relations between responsibility, the way of cognition and personality trait, which are the main elements that impact regrets. In the first part of the thesis, item analysis and exploratory factor analysis were carried out to the revised regret scale and responsibility questionnaire. The items that influenced the credit validity of the regret scale and responsibility questionnaire were deleted from the original scale and questionnaire. The revised regret scale and responsibility questionnaire are more reliable, therefore, they are suitable for Chinese students of different stages.The following results were found from the formal testing:the significant gender difference and grade difference were indicated in terms of the regrets, responsibility, the way of cognition, and the personality trait of the students from different stages. In other words, the scores of the female students are dramatically higher than the males in terms of regrets (trait regret:t=-2.00, p<0.01; selective regret:t=-2.15, p<0.05). The average score of the males are dramatically higher than the females in terms of responsibility (t=3.24,p<0.001). The score of the males are dramatically higher than the females in the intuitive analysis dimension (t=2.85, p<0.01) as well as in the verbal image dimension (t=-5.17, p<0.01) in terms of the way of cognition. The score of the males are dramatically higher than the females in the dimension of extraversion-introversion and Psychoticism (t=5.17,p<0.01; t=2.47,p<0.05), while the score of the females are higher than the males in the dimension of Neuroticism (t=-3.51, p<0.01) in terms of the personality trait. In terms of the grade, the trait regret and selective regret are of significant difference (F (5,2028)=3.6000, F (5,2028)=4.464, p<0.01), the individual responsibility is of great difference (F (5,2028)=4.429, p<0.01). The regrets and the personality trait, responsibility, the way of cognition of the students from different stages are of significant correlation; personal responsibility, psychoticism, and the Neurotic personality traits have great predictive effect on the regret trait and selective regrets.The conclusion of the thesis:1) Females are more likely to appear to have regret reaction. And the regret reaction is likely to develop into a kind of stable tendency, that is, the regret trait, after a long period accumulation.2) Among the regrets, the more the individuals realized their responsibility, the more the regret reaction intends to be intensified.3) The individuals who have intuitive cognitions are inclined to be impulsive when they make choice or decisions; accordingly, they are inclined to have selective regrets. 4) The individual’s personality trait could predict their selective regret. And when an individual is reflecting on the events of regret reaction, regrets can promote his/her personality trait to be matured and improved.