The Influence of Social Courage and Personality Traits on Undergraduate Classroom Experience in During COVID-19
Abstract
The present study investigates the relationship of classroom social courage and grade level, classroom modality, as well as Big Five personality traits in undergraduate students. Classroom modality was chosen as an area of interest due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in shifts of teaching modality across the nation. Participants (N = 53) completed an online Qualtrics survey with questions related to demographics and their current frequency of classroom modality for online, blended, and in-person classes. Additionally, participants answered questions related to social courage in the classroom and personality traits. Social courage was not found to significantly increase with grade level nor was it negatively correlated with the number of online classes. The Big Five personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience were found to be significantly related to the reported level of social courage. Future research is needed to refine these results and increase the number of participants across grade levels in order to better understand how social courage develops in college students. Additionally, more research is needed to better understand how social courage in college translates to social courage in the workplace.
The Influence of Social Courage and Personality Traits on Classroom Experience in Undergraduate Students During COVID-19
Previous research has provided empirical support for at least three and possibly four different types of courage: (1) work/employment courage, (2) patriotic, religious, or belief-based physical courage, (3) social-moral courage, and (4) independent courage (Woodard and Pury, 2007). The third type of courage, social courage, has been defined as an act that is intentional, deliberate, altruistic, and may damage the actor’s esteem in the eyes of others (Howard, Farr, Grandey, and Gutwork, 2016). Social courage has been extensively studied in the context of its relationship with the workplace. Howard (2018) found social courage, when analyzed alone, to be significantly related to the workplace outcomes of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), voice, and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Further, social courage had a large, positive relationship with approach motivation and a moderate, negative relationship with avoidance motivation (Howard, 2018). One important aspect of workplace importance is leadership and yet the 2018 Job Outlook Survey reported that employers rated recent graduates as 33% proficient in the realm of leadership while students considered themselves 70.5% proficient (Job Outlook: Fall Recruiting for the Class Of 2018, 2017). In understanding the components of leadership, previous research has defined integrity, courage, and empathy as three leadership essentials (Stefano and Wasylyshyn, 2005). Further, moral courage has been found to have a positive effect on the perception of leadership (Mansur, Sobral, and Islam, 2020).
Despite the evident relevance of studying courage in the workplace, there is a great lack of similar research done in the context of college classrooms. It is evident that there is heightened importance of social-moral courage in the workplace as well as the desire for employers to see greater leadership capabilities in their new hires. However, the drastic difference in the perspective of leadership capabilities is evidence of a clear lack of leadership development during undergraduate studies that successfully prepares students for the workplace. The first and still one of the few attempts to study courage in youth created the Courage Measure for Children (CM-C). Researchers investigated the construct of courage as it relates to Big Five personality traits. Both extraversion and openness to experience were consistently and positively related to CM-C scores while conscientiousness and agreeableness were linked to CM-C scores through simple correlation analysis (Muris, Mayer, and Schubert, 2010). This research suggests that there is a significant relationship between courage in children and their personality traits. However, there are not many papers done investigated courage as it relates to personality in youth beyond this study.
Our study is the first attempt to create a novel measurement scale in an effort to address the construct of social courage in college students. Through our research, we hope that this study will provide relevant findings in understanding social courage in the context of college students as well as provide an understanding of how courage develops over time. First, we hypothesize that social-courage will be positively correlated with grade level (i.e. courage will increase with age). Previous research has found that student comfortability significantly increased across the course of the semester and significantly predicted learning in undergraduate students (Kiener, Green, and Ahuna, 2014). We believe that this increased comfortability is applicable to the broader context of grade level in that students will have increased levels of base-line courage at the start of every new semester that will translate into higher levels of courage in the classroom.
However, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a significant shift in the structure of classrooms. The novelty of COVID-19 creates an additional layer of interest in examining whether or not classroom modality has an effect on courage level in students. Recommendations for higher education institution classrooms during this time include distance learning in addition to in-person classes, smaller classes in larger rooms, and flexible learning sites such as telework or virtual learning (CDC, 2020). A recent study done investigating the impact of COVID-19 on student mental health found that 89% of students have an increased difficulty in concentrating on academic work due to various sources of distraction and 44% of students indicated depressive thoughts during the pandemic (Son, Hegde, Smith, Wang, and Sasangohar, 2020). In considering how these realms will impact courage, we hypothesize that social-courage in students will be negatively correlated to the number of online courses. The higher number of online courses a student points to a higher chance of this increased difficulty in concentration and depressive thoughts, which will likely cause decreased levels of reported courage. Additionally, we hypothesize that extraversion and openness will be correlated with social courage over and above grade level based on the research done by Muris, Mayer, and Schubert (Muris et al., 2010). Through this area of our study, we aim to provide another way to understand the development of social-courage through personality.
Method
Participants
53 Wake Forest University undergraduate and graduate students were recruited via email and social media (Male = 15, Female = 38). Of the participants, there were 5 first-years, 17 sophomores, 11 juniors, 9 seniors, and 11 graduate students. Graduate students were only included if they completed their undergraduate degree at Wake Forest University. 24 participants were excluded on the basis that their survey responses were only partially completed and 1 participant was excluded on the basis that they were a graduate student who did not complete their undergraduate degree at Wake Forest University.
Procedure
Participants completed the survey via a Qualtrics link provided to them via email or social media. Participants completed the survey on a personal computer at their own discretion. All participants completed the survey on a voluntary basis and were not compensated for their participation in the study. After the conclusion of the study, researchers evaluated the data.
Measures
The first page of the survey contained demographics and background information, including the number of online and in-person classes of the participants for the Fall 2020 semester. Graduate participants were only included if they completed their undergraduate degree at Wake Forest University in an effort to maintain consistency among groups. For the purpose of this study, there were seven variables measured: classroom modality, level of social courage, and the Big Five Traits of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Classroom modality. Classroom modality was measured via three questions during the background information portion of the survey. Participants responded to the questions (1) “How many classes do you currently have fully online?” (2) “How many blended (partially online/partially in-person) classes do you currently have?” and (3) “How many classes do you have face-to-face?” The response options included a drop-down menu that allowed participants to select a number ranging from 0-5.
Classroom Social Courage Scale (CSCS). The novel 14 item Classroom Social Courage Scale was administered and derived from Howard et al’s (2017) Workplace Social Courage Scale. The items were chosen based on their reported reliability from Howard et al’s study as well as their relevant applicability to a classroom setting. Seven items were related to the construct of damaging relationships (DR) and seven items were related to the construct of damaging self-image (DSI). Participants rated their level of agreement on a seven-point scale (1 = strongly agree, 7 = strongly disagree) for items such as “Although it may damage our friendship, I would tell my professor when a student is cheating” (Table 1). Higher scores indicated higher levels of courage. Cronbach's α for this measure was 0.85.
Big Five Inventory. Big Five personality traits were measured using Lang and colleagues’ (2011) 15-item scale. Participants rated their level of agreement on a seven-point scale (1 = strongly agree, 7 = strongly disagree) for items such as “I see myself as someone who worries a lot.” and “I see myself as someone who is considerate and kind to almost everyone.” Items for calm, lazy, reserved, and rude were reverse scored. Cronbach's α for this measure was 0.62. After the items related to calm and reserved were removed, the Cronbach's α for this measure was 0.70.
Results
The current study investigated the relationship between social courage, grade level, and personality traits. Prior to analysis, 25 participants were removed from the study due to missing information in any section of the survey. Participants (N = 53) ranged in class year from first-year students to graduate students. A simple correlation analysis was performed to investigate whether classroom social courage levels would differ across grade levels. Pearson Correlation analyses were performed to investigate if classroom modality and Big Five personality traits affected levels of social courage.
Classroom Social Courage and Grade Level
Our first hypothesis was that level of courage will increase across grade levels. In order to analyze the relationship between classroom social courage and grade level, we conducted a simple correlation analysis. There was no upward significant trend for courage among grade level for first-year students (M = 3.31, SD = 0.98), sophomores (M = 3.14, SD = 1.24), juniors (M = 3.02, SD = 0.55), seniors (M = 3.44, SD = 0.57) and graduate students (M = 2.99, SD = 0.61). Contrary to our hypothesis, these results indicate that students who have spent more time in a college classroom setting do not have significantly different levels of courage when compared to their peers who have spent less time in a college classroom setting.
Classroom Social Courage and Classroom Modality
Our second hypothesis was that level of courage will be significantly negatively correlated with the number of online classes taken. In order to analyze the relationship between classroom social courage and grade level, we conducted a Pearson Correlation analysis. There was no significant relationship between the number of online classes and level of courage, r(51)= -0.08, p = 0.55. Additionally, there was no significant relationship between the number of face-to-face classes and level of courage, r(51) = -0.07, p =0.62. Contrary to our hypothesis, these results indicate that students who have a higher number of online classes will have significantly lower levels of courage.
Classroom Social Courage and Big Five Personality Traits
Our third hypothesis was that the traits of extraversion and openness will be correlated with higher levels of social courage over and above grade level. In order to analyze the relationship between classroom social courage and personality factors, we conducted another Pearson Correlation analysis. Due to the lack of relevance seen in the correlation between courage and grade level, we did not need to perform additional analyses on these dimensions. The traits of agreeableness, r(51) = 0.36, p = < 0.01, conscientiousness, r(51) = 0.27, p < -0.05, extraversion, r(51), p < 0.05, and openness to experience, r(51) = 0.28, p < 0.05, were significantly positively related to social courage. These results support our hypothesis and indicate that every personality trait except neuroticism is positively related to social courage in the classroom.
Discussion
It was hypothesized that classroom social courage would positively increase across grade level and that classroom social courage would be negatively correlated with the number of online classes. Additionally, we hypothesized that the personality traits of extraversion and openness would be significantly correlated with higher levels of social courage over and above grade level. The research found no significant trend for social courage across grade levels. There was no significant relationship between classroom modality and social courage. However, there were significant correlations between the personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience with social courage.
Ultimately our research successfully created a reliable scale to measure social courage in the classroom and provides a new way for researchers to investigate courage in the future. Through our novel study, we are one of the first papers to conduct investigatory research on the impacts of a shift in classroom learning due to COVID-19. Furthermore, we have created a design for additional research to utilize in hopes that researchers will begin to investigate the importance of understanding trends in courage during an individual’s undergraduate studies as an implication for the current knowledge on workplace social courage.
Limitations
Before addressing future directions for considerations, it is necessary to discuss the limitations of our research. First, the number of participants across grade level was not equally distributed. This could have impacted the average scores in each grade level for social courage which would contribute to the lack of significant findings. Additionally, there were more than double the amount of female participants than male participants. In order to adequately address courage in college students, it would be of benefit if the gender distribution were more equal in order to resemble the typical makeup of a student population. Second, although the difference in course modality was of interest due to the novel student experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many mediating factors that could play a role in the relationship between modality and courage. Thirdly, the measures of social courage and personality traits were conducted through self-reporting measures. This method of reporting is vulnerable to selective memory (remembering or not remembering experiences/events that occurred at some point in the past), telescoping (recalling events that occurred at one time as if they occurred at another time), and/or exaggeration (the act of representing outcomes or embellishing events as more significant than would be suggested from other data) (Labaree, 2020). Due to the scenario-based nature of the questions related to social courage, there is a relatively high possibility that some of these consequences affected the responses of participants. Finally, in order to ensure the highest Cronbach's α possible for the Big Five measure, two questions were removed from the analyses. Although this improved our scale’s reliability, it resulted in further shortening an already modified questionnaire.
Future Directions
Although our results were not significant for our first two hypotheses we still believe that there may be relationships between social courage, grade level, and classroom modality. Future studies should continue to implement these considerations into their research in order to further our work and provide additional data on the significance of these relationships. Additionally, our sample size did not contain an equal distribution of participants across grade levels. Future studies should expand the number of participants and ensure that the number of participants in each grade level is more equal.
Our study created a novel scale of classroom social courage that indicated high reliability. However, it would be of benefit to have additional questions for analysis if future researchers would like to expand on this scale. Due to the time constraints of our study, we were not able to analyze the differences between scores for DR and DSI constructs or their relationship to personality. Future studies should conduct deeper analyses on their research to expand upon the current interests discussed in this paper and provide more data on the intricacies of social courage as it relates to college students. Research of this nature would create a great bridge between the current interest of undergraduate social courage and workplace social courage.
Furthermore, this study should be expanded to other regions of the United States to ensure that the data compiled is representative of the entire population of students. Due to the nature of our study, in that we were the pilots of investigating social courage in college students as well as the first to develop a relevant CSCS scale, our research was confined to the campus where we work. Long term, expanding to other regions could create a great opportunity for researchers to provide analyses on how to improve courage during undergraduate studies in such a way that would prepare students for leadership in the workplace. Additionally, a longitudinal study that follows students from their first year of college to their final year would create more reliable data for understanding the progression of social courage in the classroom. It would also be of great interest for future researchers to further this type of longitudinal study into the first few years of work as well. Ultimately, this type of research would be of great benefit to colleges in understanding ways that targeted programming can improve social-courage and leadership in students so that they are prepared to enter the workforce as dynamic leaders.
Table 1. Classroom Social Courage Scale (CSCS)
1. Although it may damage our friendship, I would tell my professor when a student is cheating. (DR)
2. Although my classmate may become offended, I would suggest to him/her better ways to do things. (DR)
3. If I thought a question was dumb, I would still ask it if I didn’t understand something in class. (DSI)
4. Even if my peers could think less of me, I’d lead a project for class with a chance of failure. (DSI)
5. I would not tolerate when a classmate is rude to someone, even if I make him/her upset. (DR)
6. Despite a student in a grade below me disliking me, I would tell him/her when they’re doing something against university policy. (DR)
7. I would let my classmates know when I am concerned about something, even if they’d think I am too negative. (DSI)
8. Even if it may damage our relationship, I would confront a student who had been disrupting their workgroup for class. (DR)
9. Although it makes me look incompetent, I would tell my group members when I’ve made a mistake. (DSI)
10. Despite appearing dumb in front of an audience, I would volunteer to give a presentation in class. (DSI)
11. Although it may completely ruin our friendship, I would give a peer an honest performance appraisal for an in-class presentation. (DR)
12. Despite making my classmate angry, I would tell them what they need to hear. (DR)
13. Although my classmates may notice my mistakes and judge me for them, I would let them look over my work. (DSI)
14. Although it makes me seem like a ‘‘goodie-goodie,’’ I would publicly acknowledge someone for doing a good job. (DSI)
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