The relationships of cognitive complexity, social perspective taking, and moral reasoning have been primarily examined in children or juveniles. Little work has been done to study their relationships in the late adolescent and young adult college student population. Additionally, the research to date has only examined relationships among pairs of these constructs. There has been no attempt to assess the combined relationship of cognitive complexity and role-taking skills to moral reasoning at any developmental level. Therefore, there are two purposes in this study. First, to test the theory of ego function regression in depression on cognitive developmental concepts related to interpersonal functioning. Second, the study will determine the individual as well as combined relationships of cognitive complexity and social perspective taking to moral judgment in a late adolescent to young adult college student population.

No description available.

No description available.

Career exploration and decision making can be a stressful experience, and is often accompanied by dysfunctional thinking regarding the world of work and one’s place in it. Individuals who are able to modify their negative career thoughts are more likely to navigate career exploration successfully. Factors which may influence a person’s ability to cope with dysfunctional thoughts include cognitive ability (IQ) and the inadequately explored construct of emotional intelligence (EI). Establishing the validity of EI by demonstrating its relationship to important outcomes is necessary. This study sought to determine the extent to which IQ and EI were associated with negative career thoughts and negative career thoughts change as a result of career exploration. This correlational study measured IQ using a standard measure and EI using an ability-based instrument. In addition, negative career thoughts were measured both before and after a career exploration program. One hundred ninety three unemployed adults between the ages of 25 and 60 participated in the study. Significant correlation relationships were found between IQ and aspects of negative career thoughts post program. Only one branch of the EI model, managing emotions, was seen to correlate significantly with all aspects of negative career thoughts, both before and after career exploration. No correlations were found between either IQ or EI with negative career thoughts change. Regression analysis indicated that IQ predicted overall negative career thoughts as well as decision-making confusion, but only after career exploration. Overall EI scores did not predict negative career thoughts. However, among the four branches of EI, managing emotions predicted negative career thoughts both before and after career exploration for all of global negative career thoughts, decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict. Neither IQ nor EI predicted negative career thoughts change. The results show that the ability to manage emotions is associated with reduced dysfunctional thinking both before and after career exploration, suggesting that EI managing may be a psychological resource that individuals use in coping with stress. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Relatively recent federal education initiatives, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB; 2001), have focused on school accountability for student achievement including achievement of traditionally at-risk populations, such as students in special education, students from low-income or high poverty areas, and students who speak English as a new second language. Additionally, these federal initiatives also mandate that all students take the same test measuring grade level standards despite research that has demonstrated that students from at-risk populations are sometimes at a disadvantage on high-stakes tests. Furthermore, initiatives such as NCLB are often at odds with other education initiatives such as IDEA, which states that students in special education should be tested at their respective level. Therefore, the current study proposed to examine the relationship between Cattell-Horn-Carroll cognitive abilities and performance on a state-wide high-stakes achievement test. There currently are no studies examining such a relationship. This study used Multivariate Regression Analysis, in order to investigate the relationship between CHC cognitive and achievement abilities and performance on a state-wide high-stakes achievement test, namely the ISTEP+, with 45 children who had been referred for a psychoeducational evaluation to determine special education eligibility and who had also taken the ISTEP+. No statistically significant result was found between the WJ-III-COG broad CHC abilities and performance on the English/Language Arts and Math performance of the ISTEP+. Furthermore, no statistically significant result was found between the WJ-III-ACH and Math performance on the ISTEP+. However, a statistically significant result was found between the WJ-III-ACH Passage Comprehension subtest and the English/Language Arts portion of the ISTEP+. The results indicated that students who had higher scores on the Passage Comprehension subtest also had higher scores on the English/Language Arts portion of the ISTEP+. The current study took a step forward in the area of the relationship between CHC and academic achievement, particularly state-mandated high-stakes testing given the dearth of research in this area. Given the data from the current study indicating a statistically significant relationship between Passage Comprehension and English/Language Arts from the ISTEP+, the current study has practical implications for school psychologists, especially when school psychologists are being asked to make predictions regarding a student’s academic achievement. Results of the current study might help elucidate reading problems and recommended interventions for those reading problems. / Department of Educational Psychology

abstract: This study investigated the link between the cognitive clusters from the Woodcock–Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ III COG) and Broad Math, Math Calculation Skills, and Math Reasoning clusters of the Woodcock–Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ III ACH) using data collected over seven years by a large elementary school district in the Southwest. The students in this study were all diagnosed with math learning disabilities. Multiple regression analyses were used to predict performance on the Broad Math, Math Calculation Skills, and Math Reasoning clusters from the WJ III ACH. Fluid Reasoning (Gf), Comprehension–Knowledge (Gc), Short–Term Memory (Gsm), and Long–term Retrieval (Glr) demonstrated strong relations with Broad Math and moderate relations with Math Calculation Skills. Auditory Processing (Ga) and Processing Speed (Gs) demonstrated moderate relations with Broad Math and Math Calculation Skills. Visual–Spatial Thinking (Gv) and Processing Speed (Gs) demonstrated moderate to strong relations with the mathematics clusters. The results indicate that the specific cognitive abilities of students with math learning disabilities may differ from their peers. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Educational Psychology 2011

We study the role of performance differences in a task requiring cognitive effort on in-group bias. We show that the in-group bias is strong in groups consisting of high-performing members, and it is weak in low-performing groups. This holds although high-performing subjects exhibit no in-group bias as members of minimal groups, whereas low-performing subjects strongly do. We also observe instances of low-performing subjects punishing the in-group favoritism of low-performing peers. The same does not occur in high-performing or minimal groups where subjects generally accept that decisions are in-group biased. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Career exploration and decision making can be a stressful experience, and is often accompanied by dysfunctional thinking regarding the world of work and one’s place in it. Individuals who are able to modify their negative career thoughts are more likely to navigate career exploration successfully. Factors which may influence a person’s ability to cope with dysfunctional thoughts include cognitive ability (IQ) and the inadequately explored construct of emotional intelligence (EI). Establishing the validity of EI by demonstrating its relationship to important outcomes is necessary. This study sought to determine the extent to which IQ and EI were associated with negative career thoughts and negative career thoughts change as a result of career exploration. This correlational study measured IQ using a standard measure and EI using an ability-based instrument. In addition, negative career thoughts were measured both before and after a career exploration program. One hundred ninety three unemployed adults between the ages of 25 and 60 participated in the study. Significant correlation relationships were found between IQ and aspects of negative career thoughts post program. Only one branch of the EI model, managing emotions, was seen to correlate significantly with all aspects of negative career thoughts, both before and after career exploration. No correlations were found between either IQ or EI with negative career thoughts change. Regression analysis indicated that IQ predicted overall negative career thoughts as well as decision-making confusion, but only after career exploration. Overall EI scores did not predict negative career thoughts. However, among the four branches of EI, managing emotions predicted negative career thoughts both before and after career exploration for all of global negative career thoughts, decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict. Neither IQ nor EI predicted negative career thoughts change. The results show that the ability to manage emotions is associated with reduced dysfunctional thinking both before and after career exploration, suggesting that EI managing may be a psychological resource that individuals use in coping with stress. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This dissertation consists of two studies examining the utility and distinctiveness of learning agility in the workplace. The first study examines the nomological networks of two proprietary measures of learning agility in sample of 832 individuals. The learning agility simulation is designed to be an objective measure of learning agility ability. The learning agility indicator is a self-report measure designed to measure the preference towards learning agile behaviors. The results of study one indicate two different nomological networks for the learning agility simulation and the learning agility indicator. Specifically, the learning agility simulation was related to cognitive personality variables (i.e., tolerance for ambiguity and cognitive flexibility) and cognitive ability, and the learning agility indicator was more strongly related to personality variables. The second study explores the work-related outcomes associated with the learning agility simulation, and the incremental validity of the learning agility simulation over traditional predictors of performance (i.e., Big Five personality variables, cognitive ability). The second study was performed with a sample of early career employees with supervisor rated performance/potential measures in a sample of 89 paired responses. The results of study two indicated that the learning agility simulation was significantly related to two areas of employee potential (learning from experience and speed-to-competence) and provided incremental validity over traditional predictors of performance/potential for these areas of performance.

Ett aktuellt debattämne på den politiska agendan är de ökade samhällsklyftorna som till stor del beror på inkomstskillnader i den svenska befolkningen. Det har visat sig finnas svårigheter för människor att ta beslut på en allt mer komplex finansmarknad med många attribut, som ställer högre krav på människors finansiella kunskapsförmåga för att kunna hantera sin egen privatekonomi. Människor med lägre finansiell kunskapsnivå har till stor del uteslutits och detta har varit mer tydligt för samhällsgrupper med sämre sociala och ekonomiska förhållanden. Tidigare forskning har visat att personer med utländsk bakgrund är en samhällsgrupp som denna problematik berör. Genom en kvalitativ fallstudie, med en socialkonstruktivistisk ansats, i form av fokusgruppsintervjuer med personer med utländsk bakgrund, ämnar denna studie bidra med ökad förståelse för hur denna samhällsgrupp ser på och tänker kring finansiella beslut på finansmarknaden. Studiens teoretiska referensram är baserad på tidigare forskning om personer med utländsk bakgrund, kognitiv förmåga, diskriminering samt forskningsfältet ”financial literacy”. Resultatet visade på att det fanns ett behov av ”financial literacy” bland informanterna, då många ansåg att den befintliga informationen som finns på finansmarknaden var svårtolkad och sätter allt högre krav på människans kognitiva förmåga. Det framgick även att många informanter ur den valda samhällsgruppen i studien “personer med utländskbakgrund” valde att avstå från att investera på finansmarknaden på grund av den risk som är associerad med finansiella investeringar. / A current topic of debate on the political agenda are the increased social gaps, which are largely due to income differences within the Swedish population. There have been difficulties for people to make financial decisions in an increasingly complex financial market with many attributes, which places higher demands on people's financial knowledge to manage their own personal finances. People with lower financial knowledge have largely been excluded and this has been more evident for social groups with poorer social and economic conditions. Previous research has shown that people with a foreign background are a social group affected by this problem. Through a qualitative case study, with a socialconstructivist approach, based on focus group interviews with people from foreign background, this study aims to contribute to greater understanding of how this group of people views and thinks about financial decisions in the financial market. This study's theoretical frame of reference is based on past research about people with foreign backgrounds, cognitive ability, discrimination and the research field of “financial literacy”. The results showed that there was a need for financial literacy among the informants, as many considered that the existing information available in the financial market was difficult to interpret and has higher demands on humans cognitive ability. It was also found that many informants from the chosen social group in this study “people with foreign backgrounds” chose to draw back from investing in the financial market because of the risk associated with financial investments.