The Role of Positive Psychological Capital in the Prediction of Teachers’ Well-being Mediated Through Motivation: A Review of Literature

Abstract

Based on the self-determination and positive psychology theory, teachers’ motivation links the relationship between psychological capital and teacher well-being and discusses their theoretical and practical benefits. It is argued that the scientific literature from wide-ranging and diverse studies on teachers’ well-being in elementary and secondary school focused on the pathological lens and healing specific disorders under a variety of life course threatening conditions across cultural contexts. Seligman (2011) criticised that mental health professionals and psychologists gave much prominence to mental disorders and pathologies, overlooking two crucial missions in the field of psychology: (a) helping healthy people to be happier and more productive and (b) actualising human potential. Depending on the current recommendation of positive psychology, and based on the literature gap and relevance of the issues, this study used a theoretical model of self-determination theory of motivation (Ryan and Deci 2017), psychological capital (Luthans et al. 2007a); hedonism well-being (Diener 2009a); and teacher well-being (Collie et al. 2015). Thus, in this review, the operational definition, components and measurements of positive psychological capital, teacher well-being and motivation of teachers and their link strongly supported with scientific literature and a future testing model was proposed. In this study, the links between each construct were addressed, and their educational implications to teachers, students, educational settings and policymakers are presented. Keywords: subjective well-being, teacher well-being, positive psychological capital, motivation