The effects of positive psychology on the efficacy beliefs of school staff

Efficacy beliefs have been found to have significant influence on effort and persistence, and are associated with protective factors such as resilience, personal well-being and achievement (Bandura, 1997). The effects of positive psychology in schools have received little attention to date. However, since positive psychology offers a focus on the positive aspects of human experience (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) we theorised that it could effect positive changes in teachers’ efficacy beliefs. A mixed-methods approach was used in a small-scale study of staff in two primary schools. Interview and focus group data informed the development of a questionnaire that was subsequently used to gather pre- and post-intervention data. Staff in one school were introduced to aspects of positive psychology and participated in an intervention designed to cause reflection on ‘good things’. Staff in a second school acted as a control group. Findings suggest that efficacy beliefs had been enhanced for staff who had participated in the intervention, but not in the comparable school where staff had acted as a control group. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed and suggestions made for future research.