Satisfaction with Relationship with Supervisor among Students with Different Academic Motivation: Case of Students Majoring in Psychology and Pedagogy

Satisfaction with the relationship with the academic supervisor is a significant factor in students’ academic success; however, its motivational determinants, which may significantly contribute to students’ expectations of interaction with their supervisor, remain understudied. The purpose of this study was to analyze satisfaction with the relationship with the supervisor among students with different academic motivations in the context of modern Russian higher education. The study involved 192 final-year undergraduate and graduate students majoring in psychology and pedagogy (average age = 26.5 years, females = 85.4%). The empirical data were collected using a short version of the questionnaire “Scales of Academic Motivation” by T.O. Gordeeva, O.A. Sychev, & E.N. Osin, the authors’ questionnaire for assessing student satisfaction with the relationship with the supervisor and the questionnaire on supervisor-doctoral student interaction (QSDI) by T. Mainhard, R. van der Rijst, J. van Tartwijk, & T. Wubbels, translated into Russian with acceptable indicators of structural validity and scale consistency. The results showed that the students with autonomous academic motivation, regardless of their educational level, were more satisfied with the relationship with their supervisor than the students with controlled motivation and, in addition, characterized their supervisor as more collaborative. The predictors of satisfaction with this relationship were leadership, friendly help and, negatively, unpredictability for the students with autonomous academic motivation, but only friendly help for the students with controlled motivation. The motivation indicators were not significant predictors of satisfaction for the undergraduate students, although they made a significant contribution to it in the sample of the graduate students. In addition, the authors discuss the possibilities of applying the research results in the practice of scientific supervision of students majoring in psychology and pedagogy, the limitations of the study, as well as the prospects for overcoming them.