The ability of psychological flexibility to predict study success and its relations to cognitive attributional strategies and academic emotions

Abstract

The present study combines two separate research traditions that have been found to explain the way students deal with their university study and other challenges: psychological flexibility and cognitive-attributional strategies. The aim of this study is to explore the interrelationships between students’ psychological flexibility, cognitive-attributional strategies and academic emotions, and their relationship to study success. Further, the study compares students with low, middle and high scores on psychological flexibility. A total of 247 arts students participated in the study. The interrelationships between psychological flexibility, cognitive-attributional strategies, academic emotions, study success and study pace were analysed with correlational analyses and structural equation modelling. Comparisons of different score groups were analysed with one-way ANOVA and Tukeýs tests. The results showed that psychological flexibility, cognitive-attributional strategies and academic emotions are closely related to each other. Psychological flexibility was positively related to success expectations and positive emotions and negatively related to task avoidance and negative emotions.