Relationships among teacher personality, pupil control attitudes, and pupil control behavior

This research, conducted in Central Tennessee, examined relationships among three variables—teacher personality, pupil control attitudes, and pupil control behavior—to determine whether teacher personality or pupil control attitudes were the better predictor of pupil control behavior. Subjects were seventh and eighth grade teachers because the literature review revealed that a greater variety and number of student behavior problems occurred in these grades.

A survey which included the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale, the Pupil Control Inventory, and the Behavioral Consequences Preference Scale was mailed to the entire population of seventh and eighth grade teachers in eight county school systems in the chosen study area. Teacher participation was voluntary and anonymity was guaranteed. Some classroom observations, established by teacher invitation, used an observation guide, the Discipline Analysis Instrument, to validate results of the survey.

The major findings of the study were that relationships among all three variables were both positive and significant. The relationship between personality and teacher attitudes toward pupil control was moderately high (.60). Relationships between personality and pupil control behavior and between attitudes toward pupil control and pupil control behavior were positive and moderate .31 and .24 respectively. Although the relationships of both personality and control attitudes to control behavior were close, attitude proved to be a slightly stronger predictor for the respondents in this study. The observations generally confirmed the validity of the observation instrument.

The review of the literature led to an expectation of stronger relationships than were found in this study. The lack of strength in the relationships somewhat limits the use of the results of this study, but the findings could prove helpful in teacher selection and placement and in improving training programs for both pre- and in- service teachers to help them develop more effective disciplinary styles.