Creative Education
2013. Vol.4, No.9, 588-591
Published Online September 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.49084
588
The Study of Teachers’ General Cynicism Inclinations in Terms
of Life Satisfaction and Other Variables
Hüseyin Aslan1, Ercan Yilmaz2
1Directorate of Education Inspectors, Sinop National Education Directorate, Sinop, Turkey
2Faculty of Education, Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey
Received July 19th, 2013; revised August 19th, 2013; accepted August 26th, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Hüseyin Aslan, Ercan Yilmaz. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.
This research aims to examine teachers’ general cynicism inclinations in respect to some variables and
life satisfaction level and the relevance of these inclinations with gender, relationship status and member-
ship of a union. Research is carried out using relational inquiry module and the study group of it consti-
tuted of 395 primary school teachers who are working in Ankara during academic year of 2012-2013 and
selected with the help of modeling of inordinate set. The data are collected with “The Scale of Life Satis-
faction” and tested by making use of multiple regression technique. Whether the differentiation levels of
teachers’ general cynicism inclinations are related with their genders, relationship status and their mem-
bership of a union are analyzed using T test. As a result, male teachers have higher degree of cynicism in
cognitive dimension than female teachers. Moreover, these general cynicism inclinations in cognitive, af-
fective and behavioral dimensions do not differ greatly according to teachers’ membership of a union and
relationship status. It is observed that the cognitive and affective dimensions of general cynicism inclina-
tions have negative-sided relation with teachers’ life satisfaction rates.
Keywords: The Cynicism Inclinations of Teachers; Teachers’ Life Satisfaction
Introduction
Recently, various developments and structural renovations
have started to gain importance in education process. The key
factor to have healthy and smooth realization of this process is
teachers. Teachers’ general viewpoint of life may affect their
performance at work. One of their viewpoints towards life is ge-
neral cynicism inclinations.
General cynicism is a person’s negative attitude against
world. The person who always cares about his own stakes and
considers everyone self seeking in this respect is called “cynic”
and the system which tries to explain this kind of thought is
named “cynicism” (Erdost, Karacaoğlu, & Reyhanoğlu, 2007).
In its simplest meaning, cynicism is the act of not liking and
trusting others (Brandes et al., 2008). Person sees the world
negatively and generalizes with false assumptions. In other
words, cynicism is defined as clinical enmity and weakness in
relationship between people. Accordingly, cynic has a deep
disbelief towards others and corporations assuming the world is
full of selfish and insecure people. Cynic thinks he is being
treated unjustly and he has lost his confidence about system and
others. He is jealous of colleagues and this behavior ends up
with making fun of their success (Helvacı, 2010: p. 388). Gen-
eral cynicism is a negative viewpoint of the world seen in hu-
man race. This kind of thought system makes people think that
life is unhappiness, corporations cannot be trusted and some
abuse others (Tokgöz, 2011: p. 364). Cynics generally do not
believe in others, and also consider them liar, dishonest, unso-
cial, immoral. (İnce & Turan, 2011: p. 105). Cynicism is often
misunderstood as skepticism (Helvacı, 2010: p. 386). However,
these two concepts explain two different situations. There is no
certainty in scepticism. In other words, there is as much prob-
ability of something happening as it may not in a doubtful
situation. In contrast, there is absolute certainty in cynicism.
Here, person has unchangeable degree of negative attitude to-
wards people and corporations.
Life satisfaction, a psychological feature composed of peo-
ple’s viewpoints of life, expectations and their compensation
levels, is expected to have impact on organizational aspect of
work life. It is a situation in which a person compares what he
wants and what he gets. It also expresses one’s wellness ac-
cording to happiness, morale etc. (Vara, 1999; Özer & Karabu-
lut, 2003).
Veenhoven (1996) defined life satisfaction as positive im-
provement degree of life quality as a whole. If it really means
that the possibility of affecting someone’s work life which is
inseparable part of life and his loyalty to an organization must
be thought. Christopher (1999) defined life satisfaction as a
process in which someone compares quality of his life in terms
of family, work, school and friendship areas with the criteria he
has already formed about the standards of a good life.
Life satisfaction, thought as cognitive receptions and evalua-
tions related with life as a whole (Yetim, 2001) falls into three
parts. First one is the state of well being in which one compares
his life with exterior criteria. Second one is a condition of fac-
ulty formed by someone judging his own life. Finally, third part
is the condition of satisfaction occurring in the wake of daily
relationships (Serin & Özbulak, 2006). It is also considered

H. ASLAN, E. YILMAZ
important indicator of comprehensive happiness (Diener et al.,
1986).
In a broad meaning, life satisfaction can be defined as one’s
emotional reaction to work life, and leisure time (Sung-Mook,
1994). People’s life satisfaction may be affected by a lot of
variables. Some of these are happiness in daily life, the mean-
ing of life, harmony to reach goals, positive personal identity,
social relationship, economical safety and person’s well being
physically (Schmitter, 2003).
Life satisfaction, a psychological feature which can affect all
areas of daily life, is also important in terms of teaching profes-
sion because it is a job that requires relationship and interaction
with a wide group of people (Sisman, 2000). Besides, another
feature that makes it different from other jobs is its power of
impression on people around. This puts psychological features
of teachers forefront. Teacher’s personal quality is a psycho-
logical power which affects students’ cognitive, sensual and
social development (Sünbül, 2002).
Educational organizations have a dynamic structure. Teach-
ers, school managers and other workers’ interests, life styles,
attitudes, cultures, belief and moral systems, characteristics in
the organization are affected by a lot of factors. In this sense,
negative attitude consisting of behavioral inclinations occurs
towards the organization. This attitude highlights cynicism re-
sulting from both one’s personal features and working condi-
tions (Kalağan & Güzeller, 2010).
To reach organizational culture and develop efficiency-cen-
tered new applications is dependent on teachers’ attitude to-
wards their own organization (Ercan, 2006). Vance, Brooks and
Tesluk (1997) point out that if people have little faith in their
organizations in terms of the probability of doing better, organ-
izational cynicism will emerge (Kalağan & Güzeller, 2010). As
a result, teacher, having organizational cynicism, may feel that
others ignore his struggle for the improvement in school condi-
tions, stop giving advices for development, think that his ad-
vices are not taken into considerations and his actions remain
unknown, believe that other teachers will not do their best to
contribute to the process and nobody will get what he deserves
but wrong person or behavior will be awarded in the end.
Moreover, a cynic teacher may not believe that everything will
be better and for him and he is hard to be hopeful about the
future.
As it can be inferred from the explanations, teachers’ per-
sonal characteristics and his psychological condition are very
important concepts. Being one of the psychological conditions,
life satisfaction can affect teachers’ general cynicism inclina-
tions. The aim of this research is to determine teachers’ general
cynicism inclinations according to their life satisfaction levels,
membership of a union, relationship status and sex.
Questions to be answered at the end of the research are:
1) Do teachers’ general cynicism inclinations vary according
to their life satisfaction levels, membership of a union, rela-
tionship status and sex?
2) To what degree do teachers’ life satisfaction levels explain
cognitive, sensual and behavioral aspects of their general cyni-
cism inclinations?
Research Model
The research has relational scanning model and tries to find
out levels of teachers’ life satisfaction and their speaking of
loneliness in the workplace. At the same time, it aims to reveal
the differentiation levels of their life satisfaction levels and
loneliness in the workplace with regard to membership of a
union, relationship status and sex.
Research Group
Research group consists of 395 primary and secondary
school teachers in Ankara chosen with the help of concidential
cluster sample method. There are 191 male and 203 female
teachers in the study group. While 72% of them is married, the
other 28% is single. Moreover, 164 of them are form tutors and
231 are teachers of different branches.
Data Collection Tools
General Cynicism Scale
In the study, the scale, developed by Wrightman and adapted
into Turkish by Arslan (2012) is used in order to determine the
level of general cynicism.
Life Satisfaction Scale
During the process of collecting data, Life Satisfaction Scale
is used to determine the teachers’ life satisfaction level. The
Scale which was developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, Grif-
fen (1995), adapted into Turkish by Köker (1991). Life Satis-
faction Scale consists of five items, each of which is evaluated
in terms of seven options. As a result of scale’s accountability
test, test-repeat-test accountability is found as r = .85 and item-
test correlation level is calculated between .71 and .80.
Cynicism
Analysis of Dat a
The relationship between the extent of general cynicism ten-
dency of teachers and their life satisfaction is tested with the
Pearson product moment correlation coefficient method. The
level of affection that the extent of general cynicism tendency
of teachers has on life satisfaction is tested with Regression
Technique. How much the general cynicism tendency of teach-
ers differs according to their sexuality, marital status or whether
they are a member of any syndicate is examined with T test. In
education researches, level of meaning in analysis of data is
mostly accepted as .05 (Balcı, 2004). For this reason, the ac-
cepted leve of meaning in this research is .05’dir.
According to the results of T test as shown in the Table 1
below, (in the level of p > .005) it is understood that there is not
a direct relationship between general cynicism tendency of
teachers in terms of cognitive and behavioral level and the
sexuality of participants. A large difference is observed in gen-
eral cynicism tendency in terms of sensual level between male
and female teachers. Cynicism tendency of male teachers is
very high in comparison with females.
When the Table 2 below is examined, it can be inferred that
average points of general cynicism inclinations do not differ
greatly in cognitive, behavioral and sensual dimensions ac-
cording to teachers’ union membership variable.
Table 3 shows that average points of general cynicism incli-
nations do not differ greatly in cognitive, behavioral and sen-
sual dimensions according to teachers’ marital status vari-
able.
Table 4 shows that there is meaningful but in a negative way

H. ASLAN, E. YILMAZ
590
Table 1.
The findings related to comparisons of life satisfaction of teachers and
their general cynicism tendency according to their sexuality.
GENERAL
CYNICISM Sex N
X
Ss t p
Cognitive M
F
191
203
12.50
11.92
3.33
3.24 1.754.050
Behavioral M
F
191
203
8.51
8.46
2.39
2.24 .214 .831
Sensual M
F
191
203
8.80
8.60
2.55
2.60 .730 .453
Table 2.
The findings related to t-test comparison between general cynicism
inclinations’ sub-dimensions and life satisfaction points according to
teachers’ union membership variable.
GENERAL
CYNICISM Union
Membership N
X
Ss t p
Cognitive Yes
No
279
115
12.279
12.03
3.34
3.19 .677 .449
Behavioral Yes
No
279
115
8.53
8.53
2.36
2.19 .805 .422
Sensual Yes
No
279
115
8.67
8.77
2.58
2.53 −.382 .703
Table 3.
The findings related to t-test comparison between sub-dimensions of
the loneliness in the workplace and life satisfaction points according to
teachers’ marital status variable.
GENERAL
CYNICISM Marital
Status N
X
Ss t p
Cognitive Married
Single
286
109
12.24
12.12
3.343
3.19 .327 .744
Behavioral Married
Single
286
109
8.46
8.55
2.25
2.49 −.232 .760
Sensual Married
Single
286
109
8.64
8.85
2.55
2.65 −.696 .487
Table 4.
The correlation between teachers’ life satisfaction levels and general
cynicism inclinations’ dimensions.
General Cynicism Dimensions
GENERAL
CYNICISM Cognitive Behavioral Sensual
−.176** −.018 .122*
LIFE
SATISFACTION .000 .720 .014
**p < .01; *p < .05.
corelation between life satisfaction points and conginitive, sen-
sual dimensions of general cynicism inclinations. Hovewer, no
meaningful correlation can be found between teachers’ life
satisfaction points and behavioral dimension points of general
cynicism inclinations.
As shown in Table 5 teachers’ life satisfaction explains only
3.1% of the variability in cognitive dimension of general cyni-
cism inclinations.
According to Table 6, teachers’ life satisfaction explains
only 1.5% of the variability in sensual dimension of general
cynicism inclinations.
Discussion, Results and Advices
According to findings, while there is not a direct relationship
between general cynicism tendency of teachers in terms of
cognitive and behavioral level and the sexuality of participants,
a large difference is observed in general cynicism tendency in
terms of sensual level between male and female teachers.
Cynicism tendecy of male teachers is very high in comparasion
with females. Cognitively, cynicism is the belief that indivi-
duals are bereaved of honesty and important morals. Men’s
having this kind of thought can be caused by the expectations.
What are expected from men by the public are behaving
independently, representing the family and being competitive
(Temel & Aksoy, 2001). Life may not present equal conditions
to the individuals to make these expectations real. Therefore
male teachers may have negative beliefs about life. According
to Kanter and Mirvis (1991) it is found out that men are more
sinic in comparison with women. Whether teachers are male or
female does not affect sense of cynicism behaviorally or sen-
sually. In most of organizational cynicism researches related to
general cynicism tendecy it is pointed out that sexuality does
not affect cynicism. (Anderson & Bateman 1997; Erdost et al.
2007; Efilti et al. 2008; Güzeller & Kalağan 2008; James, 2005;
Tokgöz & Yılmaz, 2008).
It is observed that average points of general cynicism
inclinations do not differ greatly in cognitive, behavioral and
sensual dimensions according to teachers’ union membership
variable. Hovewer, teachers’ general cynicism inclinations of
whom is a member of a union may be expected to be higher.
These kind of unions must aim to help teachers to have a life of
good quality and create a school environment where they can
work much more efficiently (Acansoy, 2005). Workers are
given the opportunity of being a union membership to protect
their economic, social rights and freedom (Constitution, 1982).
It is obvious that the main reason of union membership is to
provide assistance in the name of problem solving and watch
Table 5.
Teachers’ life satisfaction’s prediction level of general cynicism incli-
nations’ cognitive dimension.
GENERAL
CYNICISM R2 F p t p
Life Satisfaction
(Independent Variable).031 12.31 .000 −3.558.000
Dependent Variable: Cognitive Dimension of General Cynicism
Table 6.
Teachers’ life satisfaction’s prediction level of general cynicism incli-
nations’ sensual dimension.
GENERAL
CYNICISM R2 F p t p
Life Satisfaction
(Independent Variable).015 6.084 .014 −2.467.014
Dependent Variable: Sensual Dimension of General Cynicism

H. ASLAN, E. YILMAZ
the working place in an inquiring manner. Taking the infe-
rences into consideration, teachers who have higher general
cynicism inclinations may be expected to be member of a
unioun.
It can be seen that average points of general cynicism
inclinations do not differ greatly in cognitive, behavioral and
sensual dimensions according to teachers’ relationship status
variable. Different research findings are (elde etmek) about the
relationship between martial status and organizational cynicism.
For instance, Kanter and Mirvis (1989) find out that people
who are divorced or living apart from their partners have higher
cynicism levels than married or single ones. Efilti et al. (2008)
and Erdost et al. (2007) can not find a correlation between
martial status and cynicism.
It is observed that there is meaningful but in a negative way
corelation between life satisfaction points and conginitive,
sensual dimensions of general cynicism inclinations. However,
no meaningful correlation can be found between teachers’ life
satisfaction points and behavioral dimension points of general
cynicism inclinations. Teachers’ life satisfaction explains 3.1%
of the variability in cognitive dimension and 1.5% of the varia-
bility in sensual dimension of general cynicism inclinations.
The act of meeting teachers’ expectations related with life can
help to reduce their cynic thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
Veenhoven (1996) defined life satisfaction as positive improve-
ment degree of life quality as a whole. The emergence of nega-
tive way related between life satisfaction and general cynicism
inclinations can be expected due to the positive perception of
development in a person’s each part of life.
REFERENCES
Acansoy, U. (2005). Yönetim öğretmeni sendika üyesi olma konusunda
rahatlatmali. Yeni Eğitim, 3, 12.
Arslan, E. T. (2012). Süleyman demirel üniversitesi iktisadi ve idari
bilimler fakültesi akademik personelinin genel ve örgütsel sinizm
düzeyi. Doğuş Üniversitesi Dergisi, 13, 12-27.
Balcı, A. (2004). Sosyal bilimlerde araştirma. Ankara: Pegem Yayın-
cılık.
Christopher, J. C. (1999). Situating psychological well-being: Explor-
ing the cultural roots of its theory and research. Journal of Counsel-
ing & Development, 77, 141-153.
doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.1999.tb02434.x
Diener, E., & Diener, M. (1995). Cross-cultural correlates of life satis-
faction and self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychol-
ogy, 68, 653-663. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.68.4.653
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1995). The satis-
faction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.
doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13
Efilti, S., Gönen, Y., & Öztürk, F. (2008). Örgütsel sinizm: Akdeniz üni-
versitesinde görev yapan yönetici sekreterleri üzerinde bir alan
araştirmasi. Ulusal büro yönetimi ve sekreterlik kongresi (pp. 1-14).
Trabzon: Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi.
Erdost, H. E., Karacaoğlu, K., & Reyhanoğlu, M. (2007). Örgütsel
sinizm kavrami ve ilgili ölçeklerin türkiye’deki bir firmada test edil-
mesi. Ulusal yönetim ve organizasyon kongresi bildiriler kitabi (pp.
514-524). Sakarya: Sakarya Üniversitesi.
Güzeller, C. O., & ve Kalağan, G. (2008). Örgütsel sinizm ölçeğinin
türkçeye uyarlamasi ve çeşitli değişkenler açisindan eğitim örgütler-
inde incelenmesi. Yönetim ve organizasyon kongresi bildiriler kitabi
(pp. 87-94). Antalya: İstanbul Kültür Üniversitesi.
Helvacı, M. A. (2010). Örgütsel sinizm. Yönetimde yeni yaklaşimlar.
In H. B. Memduhoğlu ve K. Yılmaz (Eds.), Ankara: Pegem Akademi
Yayınları.
İnce, M., & Turan, Ş. (2011). Organizational cynicism as a factor that
affects the organizational change in the process of globalization and
an application in Karaman’s public institutions. European Journal of
Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences, 37, 104-121.
James, M. S. L. (2005). Antecedents and consequences of cynicism in
organizations: An examination of the potential positive and negative
effects on school systems. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Talla-
hassee: The Florida State University.
Kalağan, G., & Ve Güzeller, C. O. (2010). Öğretmenlerin örgütsel
sinizm düzeylerinin incelenmesi. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Eğitim Fa-
kültesi Dergisi, 27, 83-97.
Kanter, D. L., & Mirvis, P. H. (1989). The cynical Americans: Living
and working in an age of discontent and disillusion. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Köker, S. (1991). Normal ve sorunlu ergenlerin yaşam doyumu düzey-
lerinin karşılaştırılması. (yayinlanmamiş yüksek lisans tezi). Ankara:
A. Ü. Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü.
Özer, M., & Karabulut, Ö. Ö. (2003). Yaşlılarda yaşam doyumu. Geri-
atri, 6, 72-74.
Serin, N. G., & Özbulak, B. (2006). Okul idarecilerinin duygusal zeka
beceri düzeyleri ile yaşam doyumunu yönetcilik deneyimleri ve cin-
siyet açısından incelenmesi. Uluslar arası Duygusal Zeka ve İlet-
işim Sempozyum Bildiri Kitabı, İzmir Ege Üniversitesi, İletişim
Fakültesi, ss. 23-30.
Sisman, M. (2002). Öğretmenlik Mesleğine Giriş. Ankara: Pegem A
Yayıncılık.
Sünbül, A. M. (2002). Bir meslek olarak öğretmenlik. Öğretmenlik
mesleğine giriş. Ankara: Pegem Yayıncılık.
Sung-Mook, H. and Giannakopoulos, E. (1994). The relationship of
satisfaction with life to personality characteristics. Journal of Psy-
chology Interdisciplinary & Applied, 128, 547.
doi:10.1080/00223980.1994.9914912
Temel, Z. F., & Aksoy, A. B. (2001). Ergen ve gelişimi: Yetişkinliğe
ilk adim. Ankara: Nobel Yayın Dağıtım.
Tokgöz, N. (2011). Örgütsel sinisizm, örgütsel destek ve örgütsel adalet
ilişkisi: Elektrik dağitim işletmesi çalişanlari örneği. Eskişehir Os-
mangazi Üniversitesi İİBF Dergisi, 6, 363-387.
Tokgöz, N., & Yılmaz, H. (2008). Örgütsel sinizm: Eskişehir ve
Alanya’daki otel işletmelerinde bir uygulama. Anadolu Üniversitesi
Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 8, 238-305.
Vara, Ş. (1999). Yoğun bakim hemşirelerinde iş doyumu ve genel
yaşam doyumu arasindaki ilişkilerin incelenmesi. Yayınlanmamış
yüksek lisan tezi. İzmir: E. Ü. Sağlık Bilimleri Enstitüsü.
Veenhoven, R. (1996). The study of life satisfaction. In: W. E. Saris, R.
Veenhoven, A. C. Scherpenzeel, & B. Bunting (Eds). A comparative
study of satisfaction with life in Europe (pp. 11-48). Budapest: Eöt-
vös University Press.
Yetim, Ü. (2001). Toplumdan bireye mutluluk resimleri. Istanbul: Bağ-
lam Yayinlari.