The Strong Interest Inventory (SII; Donnay, Morris, Schaubhut, & Thompson, 2005) has a broad research base commonly comprised of vocationally-relevant constructs such as career satisfaction (Hees, 2010), self-efficacy (Betz & Borgen, 2000), and educational aspirations (Rottinghaus, Lindley, Green, & Borgen, 2002). The present study aimed to expand the research base on the SII by linking the fields of vocational and positive psychology by examining the relationships between vocational interests, personal styles, and subjective well-being. This study focused specifically on the General Occupational Themes (GOTs) and Personal Style Scales (PSSs) of the SII by exploring the relationship between these scales and subjective well-being across a sample of 4945 working adults in eight occupations, including administrative assistant, a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields composite, realtor, elementary school teacher, sales manager, graphic designer, attorney, and automobile mechanic. Regression analyses demonstrated that the GOTs and PSSs individually explain a significant portion of variance in subjective well-being, as well as that the PSSs explain a significant amount of variance in subjective well-being above and beyond the GOTs. Occupation-specific hypotheses for GOTs and PSSs were also supported for 4 of the 8 occupations. This study provides further validation for the 2005 SII, specifically the newest PSS, Team Orientation. Future research, theory, and practice implications are discussed herein.

Despite emergent attempts to connect temperament to a neurobiological etiology there has been little research that focuses on the relationship between temperament and character and neuropsychological test performance. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the relationship between temperament, character and performance on neuropsychological tests of executive functioning. Temperament and character dimensions were operationalized according to the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), a 240-item measure that is based on the psychobiological theory of personality. Neuropsychological performance was measured on the University of Pennsylvania Computerized Neuropsychological Test Battery (PennCNP), which is a test of executive functioning and abstract reasoning. The PennCNP comprised a test of Motor Praxis (MPRAXIS), the Penn Abstraction, Inhibition and Working Memory Task (AIM), the Letter-N-Back (LNB2), the Penn Conditional Exclusion Task (PCET), the Penn Short Logical Reasoning Task (SPVRT) and the Short Raven’s Progressive Matrices (SRAVEN). The sample comprised 422 first year psychology students at a residential university in South Africa. The results from this explorative study showed a moderate relationship between temperament, character and executive functioning. The temperament dimensions Novelty Seeking and Reward Dependence were positively related to AIM-NM, AIM and SPVRT, and inversely related to MPRAXIS. These results validate the importance of research that investigates the relationship between temperament and character dimensions and neuropsychological performance. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted

The current investigation supports the objectives of Project GEMS (Roberts, 2008), a grant funded program whose objectives include the development and validation of a protocol to identify students from underrepresented and diverse populations as gifted in the content areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Identification of students from low-income and diverse populations as gifted has been a struggle with current assessment techniques (Baldwin, 2005). Project GEMS aims to address this problem through development of interest measures specific to the STEM areas for use within an identification protocol. The current project developed a measure to assess interest in mathematics. The construct of interest was targeted as it is correlated with many positive factors in education that lead to increased academic performance (Schunk, Pintrich, & Meece, 2008). Existing math interest inventories are designed for older populations, lack good psychometric properties and are atheoretical. To improve upon existing interest measures, Hidi and Renninger’s (2006) four-phase model of interest served as the theoretical basis to inform and guide the process of development and validation of a math interest inventory. A twenty-seven item self-report math interest measure was designed to assess the four phases of Hidi and Renninger’s interest model (emotion, value, knowledge, and engagement; 2006). Pilot and field testing of the measure were conducted in elementary schools selected on the basis of a high proportion of low-income students in a south central Kentucky school district. The sample consists of 1,429,429 students in grades two through six. The measure was hypothesized to evidence good internal consistency, a four-factor structure, and a significant and positive correlations between the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the composite and subscales of the math interest inventory. The first hypothesis found support with an internal consistency reliability coefficient of .916 for the overall score. Results of confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure resembling Hidi and Renninger’s (2006) four phase model of interest and including the four components emotion, value, knowledge, and engagement. The correlations between the math scores from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the math interest inventory total score and scales partially supported the last hypothesis. The correlations were small and positive for the Values and Knowledge scales but small and negative for the Emotion and Engagement scales. The correlations for the total score of the math interest inventory were significant; however, their values had little practical significance. While the math interest measure evidences good reliability and support for the structure of the scales through confirmatory factor analysis, the current study did not provide evidence for a significant relationship with math achievement as measured by a standardized group administered math achievement test. These results are discussed in relation to limitations of the current study and recommendations for further investigation.

This study investigated the link between creative thought and intuition. These concepts were defined in terms of two psychometric tests used to measure personality and interest. The two tests used were the 19 Field Interest Inventory (19FII) and the Jung Personality Questionnaire (JPQ). Intuition was measured on a continuum in terms of Jung’s conceptualisation of intuition- sensation. Creative thought was conceived as both a cognitive and an unconscious process. The research was quantitative in nature. A comparison was done between the scores obtained on the personality questionnaire (JPQ) and the interest inventory (19FII) in order to determine if there was a link between intuition and creative thought. These results were inconclusive. Thereafter the study investigated whether the subjects enrolled for an engineering degree who used intuition as their dominant auxiliary function performed well in a course designed to promote creative thought. The results were inconclusive and this might be due to the small sample group and numerous variables that were not controlled. / Dissertation (MA (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Psychology / unrestricted