Insights Into Instructors’ Verbal Aggressiveness and Students’ Machiavellianism Through Leadership Style and Motivational Climate

Abstract

The aim of the present study was threefold: a) to explore the relationship between perceived instructor verbal aggressiveness, leadership style, motivational climate and student Machiavellianism, b) to investigate the influence of instructor verbal aggressiveness on their leadership style, motivational climate and student Machiavellianism in physical education context and c) to propose students’ and instructors’ typology. The sample consisted of 247 Greek students (128 males, 119 females) aged 14-17 years old (M=15.4, SD=.49) from secondary schools who completed four types of questionnaires during physical education classes. The results supported the internal consistency of the instruments. Statistically significant differences were observed in instructors’ verbal aggressiveness, autocratic leadership teaching style, democratic leadership style and students’ Machiavellianism between the two genders of the students. Perceived instructors’ verbal aggressiveness was negatively related to their democratic teaching style and mastery climate. Also, there was a positive significant relationship between instructors’ verbal aggressiveness and autocratic teaching style, performance climate and students’ Machiavellianism. The results of regression analysis revealed that perceived instructors’ verbal aggressiveness could significantly predict the variables of leadership teaching style, motivational climate and students’ Machiavellianism. Distinct types of relations between students and instructors may be distinguished: the “insurrection”, the “acceptance of authoritarianism” and the “effective democracy”. The findings and the effects of the instructors’ verbal aggressiveness on leadership style, motivational climate and students’ Machiavellianism are further discussed and future research issues are suggested.

Instructors and Students Relations: Argumentativeness, Leadership and Goal Orientations

“…It has been supported that the way of instructors' communication in classroom noticeably determines the learning process [1]- [19]. Argumentativeness is an important parameter of modern time [20] [21] [22].…”

“…A shorter version of the Leadership Scale for Sports [49], adapted in Greek population [1] [61], was used in order to measure perceived instructors' leadership style. This short version consisted of 6 items describing autocratic leadership (e.g., "The instructor decides alone what to do regarding the organization and operation of the school") and 5 items describing democratic leadership teaching style (e.g., "The instructor allows students to set their own goals") only two of the five dimensions were used.…”

Verbal Aggressiveness and Argumentativeness in Physical Education: Perceptions of Teachers and Students in Qualitative and Quantitative Exploration

“…More precisely these are, "high argumentativeness-low verbal aggressiveness" "moderate argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness", "moderate argumentativeness-low verbal aggressiveness", "low argumentativeness-high verbal aggressiveness", "low argumentativeness-moderate verbal aggressiveness", as presented in previous research (Infante & Rancer, 1982, 1996. According to the emerging profiles when PE teachers approach arguments and are capable of arguing, they are less likely to expose a verbally aggressive behavior (Bekiari, 2016;Infante & Rancer, 1996;Infante et al, 1984;. Conditions in which argumentativeness is expressed are students' behaviors, attitudes and any disagreements or conflicts developed among them.…”

Verbally Aggressive Instructors and Machiavellian Students: Is the Socio-Communicative Style an Over-Bridging?

“…This concurs with the tenor of previous research revealing that teenagers with Machiavellian behavior show weak communication within family and less satisfaction with family life (Láng & Birkás, 2015;Olson, 2000;Ryumshina, 2013). Other analyses have shown that the appearance of Machiavellianism is related with the instructors' behavior (Martin, Myers, & Mottet, 2006), since the verbal aggressiveness seems to indicate trai-Psychology A. Bekiari nees' Machiavellian (Bekiari, 2016), as Machiavellians use dishonest and offensive means (Christie & Geis, 1970) and tend to practice divergent behaviors (Zagenczyk et al, 2014), cheating and dominating (Talwar & Lee, 2011), as Machiavellianism can be seen as a reaction to aggressive behavior by educators (McDonald, Donnellan, & Navarrete, 2012). Finally, results are in accordance with other studies supporting that verbal aggressiveness is negatively related with students' intrinsic motivation and instructors' responsiveness (Bekiari, 2012(Bekiari, , 2014Bekiari, Perkos, & Gerodimos, 2015;Hamilton & Hample, 2011) and positively related with assertiveness (Bekiari & Pylarinou, 2017).…”

“…Apparently, instructors' verbal aggressiveness decreases students' participativeness (Myers, Edwards, Wahl, & Martin, 2007;Rocca, 2004), motivation and satisfaction or learning outcome (Bekiari, 2014;Bekiari & Hasanagas, 2016 a, b;Bekiari, Kokaridas, & Sakellariou, 2005;Bekiari, Koustelios, & Sakellariou, 2000;Manoli & Bekiari, 2015;Myers, 2002;Teven, 2007;Teven & McCroskey, 1997;Thweatt & McCroskey, 1998), affection in learning (Bekiari, 2012;Bekiari & Manoli, 2016;Bekiari & Tsaggopoulou, 2016;Myers et al, 2007;Schrodt, 2003;Wrench & Punyanunt-Carter, 2005), attractiveness (Bekiari & Petanidis, 2016;, communicative competence 2016 c;Bekiari & Sakellariou, 2003;Buford, 2010;Rocca & McCroskey, 1999), prosocial fairness (Hassandra, Bekiari, & Sakellariou, 2007), Machiavellianism (Bekiari, 2016(Bekiari, , 2017, intrinsic discipline Bekiari & Pylarinou, 2017;Bekiari & Tsiana, 2016), bullying (Bekiari, Pachi, & Hasanagas, 2017) and climate in class Myers & Rocca, 2000). In physical education, instructors' verbal aggressiveness is perceived as less favorable for the students and restricts sportsmanship (Kassing & Infante, 1999) and credibility (Mazer, Barnes, Grevious, & Boger, 2013) and feel less motivated (Bekiari, Perkos, & Gerodimos, 2015).…”