M.A. / Research on Type A behaviour has produced many contradictory results. Some studies, for example, have found that Type A individuals experience less work satisfaction, and others that they experience more work satisfaction. In the light of these contradictions, some researchers are of the opinion that Type A behaviour has to be explored as a multidimensional instead of a global construct. Some components of Type A behaviour have been proved to have healthy consequences, while others have been proved to be "toxic" and therefore have different correlations with personality factors. This study explored the differential relationships of I wo components of Type A behaviour, namely -achievement-striving and impatience-irritability, with academic achievement, self concept and preference Ibr sensation, a Jungian personality factor. Two groups of students, in Accounting and Psychology respectively, served as research subjects. Data for 25 men and 24 women taking Accountancy 1, and 19 men and 68 women taking Psychology 1, was gathered with regard to achievement-striving, impatienceirritability, academic aptitude, scholastic achievement, self-concept and preference for sensation. As predicted, achievement-striving correlated positively with academic achievement for - most groups. Impatience-irritability correlated negatively with academic achievement for some groups. Achievement-striving showed a positive relationship and impatienceirritatability a negative relationship with self-concept, also as predicted. Achievementstriving showed a positive relationship with preference for sensation and impatienceirritability correlated negatively with preference for sensation. No prediction was made with regard to the direction of the relationship for preference for sensation, yet the negative correlation found between preference for sensation and impatience-irritability came as a surprise. Attempts have been made to explain this finding. Subject groups were small and the abovementioned relationships were not statistically significant for all groups

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This study examined the role of course engagement in college student success, especially for students who have multiple life commitments and few social supports. Building on previous measurement work and based in self-determination theory, the study was organized in five steps. Relying on information provided by 860 undergraduates from 12 upper and lower division Psychology classes, the first step was to improve the measurement of course engagement, by mapping the increased complexity found in self-reports of college students (by incorporating items capturing engagement in "out-of-classroom" activities and general orientation, to standard items tapping classroom engaged and disaffected behavior and emotion). 12 items were selected to create a brief assessment covering the conceptual scope of this multidimensional construct; its performance was compared to the full scale and found to be nearly identical. Second, the assessment was validated by examining the functioning of course engagement within the classroom model: As predicted, engagement was linked to proposed contextual and personal antecedents as well as course performance, and fully or partially mediated the effects of both context and self-perceptions on actual class grades; findings also indicated the importance of including a marker of perceived course difficulty. Third, the university level model was examined, which postulated key predictors of students' overall academic performance and persistence toward graduation. Unexpectedly, academic identity was found to be the primary driver of persistence and the sole predictor of GPA; moreover, it mediated the effects of learning experiences and course engagement on both outcomes. The fourth and most important step was to integrate the classroom and university models through course engagement, to examine whether students' daily engagement predicted their overall performance and persistence at the university level. As expected, course engagement indeed showed a significant indirect effect (through academic identity) on both success outcomes, and these effects were maintained, even when controlling for the effects of university supports. Finally, student circumstances were added to the integrated model, specifically focusing on whether course engagement buffered cumulative non-academic demands on performance and persistence. Although unexpected, most interesting was the marginal interaction revealing that students whose lives were higher in non-academic demands showed the highest levels of persistence when their course engagement was high (and were the least likely to return next term when their engagement was low). Future measurement work and longitudinal studies are suggested to examine how course engagement cumulatively shapes academic identity, especially for students with differentiated profiles of non-academic demands and supports. Implications of findings are discussed for improving student engagement and success, and for using the brief assessment of course engagement as a tool for instructor professional development, and as part of threshold scores that serve as early warning signs for drop-out and trigger timely and targeted interventions.

This investigation explored relationships between four determinants of first-semester undergraduate academic achievement derived from Holland's (1973) theory of vocational development. Groups of 438 male and 468 female students completed the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and were categorized in terms of congruency, consistency, differentiation, and modal personality type. Undergraduates with congruent college-major choices enjoyed greater academic success than students with incongruent choices. Students with high- and low-consistency personal orientation codes outperformed students with moderately consistent codes. Freshman with clearly differentiated personality profiles outperformed students with nondifferentiated profiles. The order of mean gradepoint averages for the modal personality types was not significantly correlated with Holland's predicted ordering.

This paper explores socio-cultural factors which lead to group performance differences on IQ tests and learning tasks in an attempt to determine empirically if the Cultural-Distance Approach hypothesis is useful in accounting for these differences. The Cultural-Distance Approach, briefly stated, suggests that a sub-culture's distance from the major culture on which questions of a test are based and validated will determine that sub-culture's sub-score pattern. Results of the present study indicate that although Blacks and Whites perform similarly on-learning tasks, they perform differently on standardized IQ tests, possibly because of the loading of cultural influences on the latter measures. When cultural influences are controlled for, differences in IQ performance are minimized (i.e., statistically non-significant). The present investigation was a follow-up of the author's previous work in this area (Master‘s thesis; Grubb, 1983), and consisted of two studies. One was a reanalysis of the data obtained in the original study with the addition of college entrance exam scores (SAT) and college grade point averages on the 80 original students. The second study consisted of a replication of the original work with 40-Black and 40-White undergraduates at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. New variables, and their correlation to intelligence, were investigated and included; personality characteristics, racial/ethnic identification, and social adjustment to college. In addition to the previously stated relationships between intelligence, race, and cultural-distance, new information was obtained which indicates: (1) a positive correlation between a conservative, compliant personality and academic ascendancy; (2) a significant correspondence between college involvement (social adaptation or the reduction of cultural-distance) and grade-rated academic performance; and (3) a hypothesized process of supra-cultural (university) adaptation for both Black and White students which has a limiting effect on their sub-culturally based self-esteem. In all, and from all the various sources, this paper tends to support the Cultural-Distance Hypothesis and its influence on group IQ performance. / Ph. D.

To determine correlates of better academic performance, a scale was devised for this study to measure children's attributions to ability and effort in academic success and failure situations. These measures as well as measures of locus of control an d perceived contingency of teacher rewards and punishments were related to achievement test scores, grades, and a teacher's ratings of the helplessness or competence of classroom behaviors. Subjects were 137 sixth-graders (66 girls and 71 boys). Intercorrelations of the variables show consistent relationships between attributions to lack of effort in failure situations and to ability in success situations and better academic performance. Locus of control was only weakly related to academic achievement measures. The contingency measures, also devised for this study, were disappointingly unreliable.

The research attempts to find the relationship between self-concept, academic achievement and peer counselling among students of the University of North West in South Africa. The study covered the following: Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Diplomas. The following questions are the focus of the research: Do you accept criticism objectively?; Do you reward yourself when YSU study?; and Are you comfortable working in a group?. Data for the research were collected by means of questionnaires. Facts, opinions and information were obtained from 100 respondents. An analysis of data revealed some interesting results. Though self-concept, academic achievement and peer counselling were in a way related, it is crucial for all stakeholders to make coherent efforts to assist students to improve drastically in their academic performance. / Thesis (M. Ed.) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2003

Ever since the earliest times much emphasis has been placed on the physical appearance of women. Particularly in western cultures idealized images of perfection are constantly promoted and the message that comes across in various media outlets is that a woman ought to have a 'perfect' appearance in order to be competent and desirable. This puts a great deal of stress on women and particularly on adolescent girls who are going through a phase of increased sensitivity about their appearance. The literature suggests that people, and women in particular, are fundamentally affected by the way they view their bodies. The body image furthermore has a strong relationship with the self concept, which affects other areas of a person's life such as her academic achievement and her social 'life. Against this background an attempt was made in this study to determine the relationship between the body image of adolescent girls and their academic achievement, their sport participation and their social involvement. The subjects were 180 girls drawn from two rural secondary schools. The survey involved the completion of two questionnaires, namely an adapted form of the Physical Self Subscale of the Tenessee Self Concept Scale (used to determine a score for body image) and a questionnaire on social involvement and sport participation, which was drawn up by the researcher. Biographic data as well as academic scores were gathered from school records. Data was analysed statistically by means of the BMDP Software Version 1990: programme (Sun Unix). Pearson's chi square tests of independence, as well as a one-way analysis of variance with co-variate were carried out. The results reveal that the body image and academic achievement of this group of girls are not significantly correlated. There are, however, significant correlations between the body image and social involvement of these girls, between their body image and sport participation, as well as between their social involvement and sport participation. iv These findings have important implications for"'e"ducation and consideration is given to addressing these issues in schools.

The purpose of the study is to make a comparison of the achievement and personality traits of a selected group of pupils to determine differences and relationships existing between these important factors, and to study their significance for the classroom teacher.