Mental states of a university teacher as a predictor of innovative resistance

In the context of socio-economic transformations, the need for psychological and pedagogical support of the professional activities of a university teacher is becoming more urgent in order to overcome psychotraumatic events that determine emotional stress in conditions of high intensity of pedagogical work. The purpose of the study is to identify the relationship between the indicators of the psychological state and the level of pedagogical conservatism of a university teacher. The respondents of the study were 1,754 university teachers from Samara, Ulyanovsk, Yekaterinburg, Bashkortostan aged 25 to 65 years, of which 70 % were women, 30 % were men with teaching experience from 10 to 40 years (average age M = 42,3; SD = 8,7). A correlation relationship was found between the indicators of pedagogical conservatism and the psychological state of a university teacher. Factors (asthenic states, professional failure, professional stagnation) contributing to the emergence of pedagogical conservatism were discovered. A linear relationship was established between the indicators of psychological state and the level of pedagogical conservatism of a university teacher. A statistically significant Cohen’s d-coefficient of indicators (gender, age, length of service, anxiety, frustration, aggression, rigidity) for the levels of pedagogical conservatism was revealed. The results of the empirical study can be used in the process of psychological support of the professional activities of a university teacher to develop a program for the prevention of negative mental states as a condition for overcoming pedagogical conservatism.