The personality correlates of job-satisfaction among school teachers

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the identification and prediction of job-satisfaction among school teachers. The primary bases of prediction investigated were teacher personality factors, expressed in terms of the Eysenck and Cattell systems of personality description. Additional bases of prediction were certain factors in the teachers' working environments. The development of two questionnaire scales of measurement of job-satisfaction is described, of which the first is for teachers in training (scale of anticipated job-satisfaction) while the second is for serving school teachers. Research with the first questionnaire,involving a sample of 37 postgraduate trainee teachers revealed no significant relationships between any aspects of their personalities and the degree of job-satisfaction they anticipated experiencing in full-time employment. Research with the second questionnaire, involving 68 serving teachers, revealed significant and substantial associations between teacher job-satisfaction and teacher personality expressed in terms of the Cattell factors A, F, I and Q, (Affectothymia, Surgency, Premsia and Conservatism respectively). It is estimated that these four predictors taken collectively account for 37% of the variance in teacher job-satisfaction in the population represented by the sample.Research with the second questionnaire, involving a further 163 teachers, revealed significant relationships between job-satisfaction and factors such as teacher-specialisation, sex of teacher, ages of children taught, salary scale and degree of involvement in school management. Collectively, these factors accounted for some 25% of the job-satisfaction variance within the sample.The bases of this research and the various findings are interpreted and discussed in the context of job-satisfaction theory,personality theory, and previous cognate research. Several suggestions for development are offered, especially into the influence upon job satisfaction of a teacher's involvement in the decision-making processes within his school.