DETERMINANTS OF INTERPERSONAL-TRUST TO A TEACHER - IMPLICIT THEORY OFTRUST, SITUATIONAL PERCEPTION AND TRUST BUILDING OF STUDENTS

An empirical analysis concerning the importance of students' interpers onal trust to a teacher is presented. Support, respect and honesty tur ned out to be the central dimensions of implicit theories of trust, wh ereas in the individual theories they are weightened differently. If t rust will develop in a single interaction with a teacher, is determine d by the congruity between the student's implicit theory of trust and the teacher's perceived behavior. The degree of experienced trust does not depend on objective reality but on the compatibility between norm ative expectancies and subjective reality. Furthermore, an interrelati on of interpersonal trust and the perception of teaching and learning progress is shown: Apart from an enhancement of positive climate in th e instruction process, learning behavior and achievement are as well i nfluenced as the evaluation of the teacher's instruction and the stude nt's own learning success.