Effects of a Metacognitive Awareness Program on High School Students' Decision-making Styles and Emotion Regulation

Authors
University of Tabriz
Abstract
This research aimed to investigate the effect of metacognitive awareness on decision-making styles and emotion regulation in female high school students during 2016 in Tabriz, Iran. We conducted a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental research design with a control group. Two classes were selected by cluster sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental (n=19) and control (n=19) groups. A metacognitive awareness intervention program was performed in eight sessions (once a week in 90-minutes) for the experimental group but the control group did not receive any intervention and served as the benchmarking point of the comparison. The Decision Styles Questionnaire (Leykin & DeRubeis, 2010) and Regulation of Emotion Questionnaire (Phillips & Power, 2007) were administered. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). The result showed a significant decrease in the score of the avoidant, anxious, intuitive, and spontaneous dimensions as well as a significant increase in the score of the dependent dimension of decision-making styles in the experimental group compared with the control group. Moreover, the scores of the dysfunction dimension of emotion regulation decreased significantly in the experimental group, while, the scores of the function dimension increased significantly.
Keywords

Albion, M. J., & Fogarty, G. J. (2002). Factors influencing career decision making in adolescents and adults. Journal of Career Assessment, 10(1), 91-126. doi: 10.1177/1069072702010001006
Baiocco, R., Laghi, F., & D’Alessio, M. (2009). Decision-making style among adolescents: Relationship with sensation seeking and locus of control. Journal of Adolescence, 32, 963-976.
Batha, K., & Carroll, M. (2007). Metacognitive training aids decision making. Australian Journal of Psychology, 59(2), 64-69.
Bavoľár, J., & Orosová, O. (2015). Decision-making styles and their associations with decision-making competencies and mental health. Judgment and Decision Making, 10 (1), 115-122.
Brown, A. L. (1987). Metacognition, executive control, self-regulation, and other more mysterious mechanisms. In F. E. Weinert & R. H. Kluwe (Eds.), Metacognition, motivation, and understanding (pp. 65-116). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Buckholdt, K. E., Weiss, N. H., Young, J., & Gratz, K. L. (2015). Exposure to violence, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and borderline personality pathology among adolescents in residential psychiatric treatment: The influence of emotion dysregulation. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 46, 884–892. doi: 10.1007/s10578-014-0528-5
Cockcroft, R. (2014). Enhancing reading comprehension through metacognitive instruction for English second language (ESL) learners in the FET band (Master’s thesis, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa). Retrieved from http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/86593
Cole, P. M., Michel, M. K., & Teti, L. O. (1994). The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation: A clinical perspective. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2–3), 73–100.
Cubukcu, F. (2009). Metacognition in the classroom. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1, 559–563.
Dansereau, D. F., Knight, D. K., & Flynn, P. M. (2013). Improving adolescent judgment and decision making. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 44(4), 274-282. doi: 10.1037/a0032495.
Davis, E. L., Levine, L. J., Lench, H. C., & Quas, J. A. (2010). Metacognitive emotion regulation: children's awareness that changing thoughts and goals can alleviate negative emotions. Emotion, 10(4), 498-510. doi: 10.1037/a0018428
Delahaij, R. & Van Dam, K. (2016). Coping style development: The role of learning goal orientation and metacognitive awareness. Personality and individual Differences, 92, 57-62.
Demiraslan Cevik, Y. (2011). Examining preservice teachers’ reasoning and decision making in three case-based approaches (Doctoral dissertation, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa). Retrieved from http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1033&context=etd
Diamond, L. M, & Aspinwall, L. G. (2003). Emotion regulation across the life span: An integrative perspective emphasizing self-Regulation, positive affect, and dyadic processes. Motivation and Emotion, 27(2), 125-156.
Eastbrook, J. M. (2013). Emotional awareness and alexithymia: Emotional processing and regulation in adolescence (Doctoral dissertation, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada). Retrieved from https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/bitstream/1974/8061/1/Eastabrook_Jennifer_M_201305_PHD.pdf
Fischhoff, B. (2008). Assessing adolescent decision-making competence. Developmental Review, 28(1), 12-28. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.001
Fisher, R. (1998).Thinking about thinking: Developing metacognition in children. Early Child Development and Care, 141(1), 1-15.
Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34(10), 906-911.
Glöckner, A., & Witteman, C. (2010). Beyond dual-process models: A categorization of processes underlying intuitive judgement and decision making. Thinking & Reasoning, 16 (1), 1–25. doi: 10.1080/13546780903395748
Gold, M. (2014). Exploring metacognitive development in the context of peer assisted writing using on-line and off-line methods (Doctoral dissertation, Newcastle University, Newcastle, England). Retrieved from https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/10443/2640/1/Gold,%20M.%202014.pdf
Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26(1), 41-54.
Jekel, M., Glöckner, A., Fiedler, S., & Bröder, A. (2012). The rationality of different kinds of intuitive decision processes. Synthese, 189, 147-160. doi: 10.1007/s11229-012-0126-7
John, O. P., & Gross, J. J. (2004). Healthy and unhealthy emotion regulation: Personality processes, individual differences, and lifespan development. Journal of Personality, 72(6), 1301–1334.
Joseph, N. (2006). Strategies for success: Teaching metacognitive skills to adolescent learners. The new England Reading Association Journal, 42(1), 33- 39.
Keith, N., & Frese, M. (2005). Self-Regulation in error management training: Emotion control and metacognition as mediators of performance effects. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4), 677-691. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.90.4.677
Kelly, K. J., & Metcalfe, J. (2011). Metacognition of emotional face recognition. Emotion, 11(4), 896-906. doi: 10.1037/a0023746
Kim, H. J., & Pedersen, S. J. (2010). Young adolescents' metacognition and domain knowledge as predictors of hypothesis‐development performance in a computer‐supported context. Educational Psychology, 30(5), 565-582.
Lai, E. R. (2011). Metacognition: A literature review. Pearson Assessments Research Reports. Retrieved from http://images.pearsonassessments.com/images/tmrs/metacognition_literature_ review_final.pdf
Lee, Ch. B., Teo, T., & Bergin, D. (2009). Children’s use of metacognition in solving everyday problems: An initial study from an Asian context. The Australian Educational Researcher, 36(3), 89-102.
Leykin, Y., & DeRubeis R. J. (2010). Decision-making styles and depressive symptomatology: Development of the decision styles questionnaire. Judgment and Decision Making, 5, 506–515.
Mata, A., & Almeida, T. (2014). Using metacognitive cues to infer others’ thinking. Judgment and Decision Making, 9(4), 349–359.
Narang, D., & Saini, S. (2013). Metacognition and academic performance of rural adolescents. Studies on Home and Community Science, 7(3), 167-175.
Newell, B., R., Lagnado, D., A., & Shanks, D., R. (2007). Straight Choices: The Psychology of Decision Making. Psychology Press.
Ormond, C., Luszcz, M. A., Mann, L., & Beswick, G. (1991). A metacognitive analysis of decision making in adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 14, 275 -291.
Perfect, T. J., & Schwartz, B. L. (2002). Applied metacognition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam033/2002024499.pdf
Phillips, K. F. V., & Power, M. J. (2007). A new self-report measure of emotion regulation in adolescents: The regulation of emotion questionnaire. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 14, 145-156. doi: 10.1002/cpp.523
Rezvan, S., Ahmadi, A., & Abedi, R. (2006). The effects of metacognitive training on the academic achievement and happiness of Esfahan University conditional students. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 19(4), 415-428.
Rudolph, K. D. (2002). Gender differences in emotional responses to interpersonal stress during adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Health, 30, 3–13.
Sart, G. (2014).The effects of the development of metacognition on project-based learning. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 152, 131-136.
Schraw, G. (1998). Promoting general metacognitive awareness. Instructional Science, 26(1), 113-125. doi: 10.1023/A:1003044231033
Schraw, G., & Dennison, R. S. (1994). Assessing metacognitive awareness. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 19, 460-475.
Schraw, G., & Moshman, D. (1995). Metacognitive theories. Educational Psychology Review, 7(4), 351-371.
Schraw, G., Crippen, K. J., & Hartley, K. (2006). Promoting self-regulation in science education: Metacognition as part of a broader perspective on learning. Research in Science Education, 36, 111-139. doi: 10.1007/s11165-005-3917-8
Scott, S. G., & Bruce, R. A. (1995). Decision making style: the development and assessment of a new measure. Educational and Psychological Measures. 55(5), 818-831.
Shaffer, D. R., & Kipp, K. (2009). Developmental Psychology: Childhood and Adolescence. 8th edition, Wadsworth Publishing.
Shetty, G. (2014). A study of the metacognition levels of student teachers on the basis of their learning styles. IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education, 4(1), 43-51.
Southam-Gerow, M. A., & Kendall, P. C. (2002). Emotion regulation and understanding. Implications for child psychopathology and therapy. Clinical Psychology Review, 22, 189–222.
Steinberg, L. (2008). A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking. Developmental review, 28(1), 78–106. doi: 10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.002.
Thunholm, P. (2004). Decision-making style: Habit, style, or both? Individual and Personality Differences, 36, 931-944.
Trout, D. K. (2009). Learning strategy preferences, decision-making styles, ways of knowing, and cultural awareness of members of the national academic advising association (Doctoral dissertation, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma). Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.633.7579&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Viner, R. M., Ozer, E. M., Denny, S., Marmot, M., Resnick, M., Fatusi, A., & Currie, C. (2012). Adolescence and the social determinants of health. The Lancet, 379(9826), 1641–1652. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60149-4
Weil, L. G., Fleming, S. M., Dumontheil, I., Kilford, E. J., Weil, R. S., Rees, G., Dolan, R. J., & Blakemore, S. J. (2013). The development of metacognitive ability in adolescence. Consciousness and Cognition, 22, 264–271.
Wiswall, L. (2011). Mindful Emotion Regulation: A theoretical and empirical review (Master's thesis, Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon,). Retrieved from http://commons.pacificu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1349&context=spp
Wolff, J. M. (2012). Adolescent Decision Making and Risk Behavior: A Neurobiological Approach (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, United States). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=psychdiss
Wong, B. Sh. (2012). Metacognitive awareness, procrastination and academic performance of university students in Hong Kong (Doctoral dissertation, University of Leicester, Leicester, England). Retrieved from https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/27621/1/2012WongbscEDd%20.pdf
Wood, N. L. (2012). Individual differences in decision-making styles as predictors of good decision making (Master’s thesis, College of Bowling Green State University, Ohio). Retrieved from https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/bgsu1326823601/inline
Yoo, S. H., Matsumoto, D., & LeRoux, J. A. (2006). The influence of emotion recognition and emotion regulation on intercultural adjustment. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30, 345–363.