Features of Teachers’ Meaning-based Regulation Under Conditions of Information Uncertainty

Abstract

Introduction. Meaning-in-life orientations and self-reflection are important indicators of the regulation of personal meanings. In a modern rapidly changing society, individuals do not fully manage their lives due to the influence of various uncertainty factors. The COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 and swept across the world is considered a global factor of uncertainty. The increased uncertainty of life associated with the pandemic is an additional stressor. This paper represents a first effort in obtaining empirical data on gender characteristics of teachers’ meaning-based regulation in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. This paper reports the results of an empirical study of differences in meaning-in-life orientations and self-reflection among teachers before and during the pandemic as different conditions of information uncertainty in their lives. Methods. The study was conducted among female teachers of secondary schools in the Rostov region in March 2017 (n = 53) and in October 2020 (n = 43), i.e. before and during the pandemic, which can be considered different conditions of information uncertainty in their lives. We used the following psychological assessment tools: (a) the Meaning-in-Life Orientations test by D. A. Leont'ev and (b) the Self-reflection Questionnaire by I. A. Stetsenko. Results. We observed an increase in all means of both tests during the pandemic, compared to the pre-pandemic values. Differences in all parameters are statistically significant (according to the Mann–Whitney U test). Discussion. Our findings indicate that the pandemic represents a surmountable stressor for the homogeneous acmeological category of female teachers surveyed in this study. Information uncertainty contributes to constructive restructuring of the processes of meaning-based regulation and psychological adaptation, which leads to an increase in the level of meaningfulness of life orientations and self-reflection among the respondents.

Keywords

• meaning
• meaning-based regulation
• meaning-in-life orientation
• meaningfulness of life
• self-reflection
• information uncertainty
• stressor
• coronavirus infection
• pandemic
• female teacher