| A great deal of previous research has been conducted on human defence and coping mechanisms,and work in this area has covered evolutionary and coping perspectives,as well as work on cognitive assessment,self-regulation,resilience and flexibility.Relative to work on dealing with adversity,little research has explored the personal resources that individuals may use when attempting to navigate uncertainty and novelty,i.e.,adaptability.Adaptability is a construct that has been developed in recent years and is different from both adaptation,which is a process or a state of being,whereas adaptability is the psychological ability of individuals to respond to new situations and problems.The study of adaptability among university students is not only an academic need to promote youth development research,but also a development demand to enhance the psychological ability of contemporary young students,and a practical need to cultivate a well-adapted social mentality and promote harmonious social development.The aim of this study is to explore the structure,characteristics and interventions of adaptability among university students.9489 valid college student subjects were selected to participate in this study,using questionnaires,ERP experiments,f NIRS experiments,behavioural experiments,intervention experiments and qualitative research.This study contains four parts with a total of seven studies,which are as follows: Part I explores the structure and measurement of adaptability among university students.Based on the literature review,the definition and dimensions of adaptability as a psychological competency were constructed and the “University students Adaptability Questionnaire”was developed(Study 1).The second part explores the characteristics of university students' adaptability and its relationship with mental health,using the self-administered“University students Adaptability Questionnaire” with 7,751 valid subjects,to examine the current situation and characteristics of university students' adaptability(Study 2)and to explore the relationship between university students' adaptability and mental health and depression(Study 3),aiming to clarify whether university students' adaptability is a predictor of mental health outcomes and to explore whether depression has a mediating effect between the two.The third section explores the cognitive,neurological and behavioural characteristics of adaptability in university students.Cognitive,neural activity,and behavioural characteristics of university students' adaptability are explored through the event-related potentials(ERPs)technique(Study 4),the functional nearinfrared spectroscopy(f NIRS)technique(Study 5),and behavioural experimental evidence(Study 6).The fourth part is an intervention study of low adaptability university students.A Gestalt group counseling for low adaptability university students(Study 7)was conducted to intervene with low adaptability university students in order to improve their psychological adaptability,relieve depression,and enhance mental health.As a result of the above study,the main findings are as follows.1.This study constructs adaptability as a psychological ability.Adaptability of university students is a three-dimensional conceptual structure,including emotional adaptability,interpersonal adaptability and learning adaptability.The "College Student Adaptability Questionnaire" developed includes 15 items,and the overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.93,and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the three dimensions ranged from 0.81 to 0.89;the synthetic reliability of the questionnaire was 0.95,and the synthetic reliability of the three dimensions ranged from0.82 to 0.90;the retest reliability of the total questionnaire(4-week interval)was 0.93,and the retest reliability of the three dimensions(4-week interval)ranged from 0.77 to0.90;the adaptability of university students is significantly positively correlated with depression and mental health,and has a good correlation validity of the criterion;The results of the exploratory and validation factor analyses indicated that the questionnaire had good structural validity.The results of the equivalence tests in different subgroups indicated that the three-factor model of university students' adaptability had strict equivalence across gender,ethnicity,only child or not,family location and education.2.The adaptability of university students during the normalized prevention and control period of the COVID-19 was at a medium to high level,and did not suffer from poor adaptability due to some management measures during the normalized prevention and control period of the COVID-19,the adaptability characteristics of university students were as follows: the adaptability level of male students was significantly higher than that of female students;the adaptability level of postgraduates was significantly higher than that of undergraduates;the adaptability level of only-children was significantly higher than that of non-only-child university students;university students with urban family location had the highest adaptability level;During the emergency state period and the normalized prevention and control period,the adaptability of university students with different subjective feelings affected by the epidemic varies significantly,and the adaptability level of university students with the best subjective feeling was the best.3.Adaptability had a significant effect on depression and mental health: adaptability was a significant positive predictor of depression and mental health,and adaptability was not only a direct positive predictor of mental health,but also influenced mental health through the mediating effect of depression.In addition,there were significant differences in the levels of adaptability,depression and mental health among university students with different subjective perceptions of the impact of the epidemic during the emergency and regular prevention and control periods.Specifically,university students with the worst subjective feelings had the lowest level of adaptability,the highest level of depression,and more pronounced mental health problems after returning to school.4.The cognitive characteristics of university students at different levels of emotional adaptability were explored through event-related potentials techniques(ERPs).There were no significant differences in the behavioral performance of recognition memory among university students with different levels of emotional adaptability,but all subjects showed a behavioural tendency to pay attention to positive and old pictures.During the rapid scanning phase of the cognitive process,low emotional adaptability university students invested more cognitive resources in both the learning and recognition phases,and low emotional adaptability university students were more sensitive to both positive and negative emotional pictures.During the conscious processing stage of cognition,university students with high emotional adaptability invested more cognitive resources in the recognition stage than those with low emotional adaptability,and both university students with high and low emotional adaptability showed an attentional bias towards positive pictures.During the memory stage of the cognitive process,low emotional adaptability university students performed worse in working memory compared to high emotional adaptability university students.5.Functional near-infrared spectroscopy(f NIRS)was used to explore the neural activity of university students with different levels of interpersonal adaptability.In terms of behavioural research,when faced with a socially aversive rejection situation,high interpersonal adaptability university students felt significantly less rejected than low interpersonal adaptability university students;high interpersonal adaptability university students were significantly more emotionally happy than low interpersonal adaptability university students;and high interpersonal adaptability university students were more inclined to respond with positive behaviours,while low interpersonal adaptability university students chose positive and negative behavioural responses There was no significant difference in the choice of positive and negative behavioural responses between low interpersonal adaptability university students.In terms of brain neural activity,there were significant differences in the activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and frontopolar regions of the brain when university students faced different social aversion and rejection situations.First,the emotions of high interpersonal adaptability university students mainly relied on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,while the brain areas responsible for emotion regulation of low interpersonal adaptability university students might have shifted.At the same time,when high interpersonal adaptability university students felt social distress,they established corresponding defense mechanisms through emotion regulation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to reduce the feeling of social distress.Secondly,when faced with stranger aversion and rejection,university students with high interpersonal adaptability tended to focus on information related to themselves,while university students with low interpersonal adaptability tended to focus on others.In addition,low interpersonal adaptability university students showed greater activation of the frontal pole area when facing roommate,group and authority situations,probably because they were thinking about how to deal with roommates,group and authority,and coping with various interpersonal relationships was challenging for low interpersonal adaptability university students;high interpersonal adaptability university students did not have such distress and their frontal pole area was less activated.6.A behavioural experiment was conducted to explore the self-directed learning behaviour of university students with different levels of learning adaptability.College student adaptability can positively predicted university students' self-directed learning behaviour.Specifically,in terms of attention to learning,the attention to learning of university students with different levels of learning adaptability differed significantly and positively predicted the level of attention to learning,and the stability of attention to learning of university students with high learning adaptability was slightly higher than that of university students with low learning adaptability.In terms of independent time planning,there was a significant difference in the independent time planning of university students with different levels of learning adaptability,and it was positively predicted that university students with high learning adaptability choose to devote more time to study and less time to recreation than university students with low learning adaptability,but there was no significant difference in the rest time.In terms of planning confidence,there was a significant difference in planning confidence among university students with different levels of learning adaptability and positively predicted planning confidence,with university students with high learning adaptability being more confident in overall time planning and more confident in planning study time than university students with low learning adaptability,but there was no significant difference in confidence in planning recreation time.7.The effectiveness of group counselling on adaptability,depression and mental health was assessed through a Gestalt group intervention for low adaptability university students.Based on quantitative data analysis,it was demonstrated that Gestalt group counseling was effective in increasing the adaptability level of members,relieving and improving depression,and improving mental health.The results of the qualitative study showed that members who participated in the Gestalt group counselling experiment showed positive changes in five areas.In terms of ideas.Group members had positive changes in their thinking and were more able to think in a positive and constructive way.In terms of emotions,group members felt supported in their emotions,with an increase in positive and active emotions and a decrease in sadness and depression due to poor adaptability.In terms of body perception,group members felt more relaxed about body parts and body movements.In terms of interpersonal interactions,group members felt more bounded and had improved relationships with friends and family.In terms of behavioural performance,group members were better able to take care of themselves and take responsibility for their own decisions or choices.In conclusion,the Gestalt group counseling has helped most group members to make positive changes in the above five areas,increase their level of adaptability,effectively relieve depression,and improve their mental health.In conclusion,this study shows that the self-administered “University students Adaptability Questionnaire” has good reliability and validity,and can be used in studies related to the adaptability of university students;the adaptability of university students during the regular control period of the COVID-19 is at a moderate to high level,and does not result in poor adaptability due to some management measures during the regular control period of the epidemic;the adaptability of university students has a significant impact on mental health,and depression plays a mediating role between the two;the difference in adaptability of university students is not only reflected in differences in behavioural tendencies,but also in cognitive and neurological characteristics;the Gestalt group intervention was effective in improving the level of adaptability of university students,relieving and improving depression,and improving their mental health,helping them move from loss to recovery. |
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