In light of the continued need to help students who are having academic troubles in higher education, the primary purpose of this research study was to examine the differences in study skills between those college students enrolled in EDPSY 100 and those not enrolled in EDPSY 100. The overall goal of the "Study Skills for College Students" course is to help students acquire the knowledge and skills they need to take more responsibility for their own learning.In addition, this research study assessed which study strategies the EDPSY 100 students learned during a 15-week study skills course.The study skills' scores came from a self-reported measure, the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI), which was developed by Weinstein, Palmer, and Schulte (1987).For this study, 105 EDPSY 100 students (49 females, 56 males) and 114 non-EDPSY 100 students (94 females, 20 males) were asked to complete the following: a consent form, pre-LASSI, post-LASSI, and demographic questionnaire.A multivariate analysis of variance was used to determine significant gains in learning strategies for EDPSY 100 students following a 15-week course in study skills training. The initial findings of the analysis revealed that the EDPSY 100 and non-EDPSY 100 students significantly differed. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups in their use of study strategies after the EDPSY 100 students completed a one-semester study skills course. / Department of Educational Psychology

The purpose of this research was to develop an updated scale based on the framework that Neugarten, Havighurst and Tobin (1961) used to design the Life Satisfaction Index- Form A (LSI-A). The new instrument, the Life Satisfaction Index for the Third Age (LSITA), was used to assess 654 third age adults in a measurement development process to establish the LSITA's psychometric properties. These individuals were Midwestern United States adults from selected third age learning events, retirement centers, church events, community centers and the general public. The participants were all over fifty years old consistent with the definition of the third age and the sample used in the original LSI-A sample.The arrival of the baby boom generation at the threshold of the third age heightened the need to better understand the barriers and contributors to successful aging. LSI-A had been the result of an effort in the early 1960's to measure the construct of successful aging. It has been the most used instrument in the psychosocial study of aging. The author had been involved in a research study that used LSI-A to explore the effects on participants in learning events on their sense of successful aging. The research project led to an appreciation of the importance of measuring successful aging as well as the need to apply current statistical techniques to a revised instrument based on Neugarten, Havighurst, and Tobin's theoretical framework.The LSITA was designed and its psychometric properties assessed using the eight-step design process from DeVellis (1991). The reliability of the 35-item scale was .93 with satisfactory content, construct and criterion validity. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis was performed using structural equation modeling and a satisfactory goodness of fit was obtained.The five sub-scales were as follows:zest for life without a sense of anxiety,successful resolution of life issues and the fortitude to continue,congruence of achievements with goals,positive self-concept,elevated mood tone.The new instrument has been made available to researchers by contacting the author at andybarrettii@earthlink.net. The expectation is that the researchers will provide the author with an electronic copy of their responses to add to the database. / Department of Educational Studies

Integrity tests are used as a pre-employment screening technique by companies and organizations, and the fakability of such tests remain a concern. The present study used two separate designs to analyze the fakability of the Personnel Reaction Blank (PRB), a covert integrity test, and the personality constructs predictive of honest and fake scores. This study shows that the PRB can be successfully faked. The personality constructs conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism are significantly correlated with honest integrity test scores while conscientiousness and neuroticism are predictors of faking behavior. Finally, the type of design used to examine the fakability of the PRB affects the magnitude of faking found. I conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical uses of the results and directions for future research. / Department of Psychological Science

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of Educational Psychology

The current research was conducted to determine if some social cognitive and psychosocial variables (e.g., maintenance self-efficacy, action planning, & depression) would accurately classify bariatric patients into one of three groups—maintenance, relapse, or recovery—related to adherence to post-surgical nutrition recommendations. One hundred sixty one female bariatric patients aged 18 years or older who had undergone surgery at least six months prior to participation were recruited for this study. Participants completed instruments that assessed social cognitive variables, psychosocial variables, and current nutrition behaviors. In general, it was hypothesized that the combination of the social cognitive and psychosocial variables would predict membership in one of the three groups. Each of the three discriminant analyses performed to test the hypotheses yielded a significant first function. The second function of the first analysis was also significant. The findings of the current study suggested that the social cognitive (54%) and psychosocial (57%) variables as well as a combination of the social cognitive and psychosocial variables (59%) were able to predict a patient's group membership at a rate better than chance. The findings, therefore, revealed that it was possible to predict group membership in terms of adherence to post-surgical nutrition recommendations at a rate better than chance. This study represented a first step toward identifying bariatric patients who were at-risk for non-adherence to nutrition recommendations, which researchers have argued is responsible for poor outcomes after bariatric surgery. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-54). / ix, 120 leaves, bound 29 cm

The practice of assessing the attributes of people in relation to job and organizational requirements has long been regarded as being central to the profession of Industrial and Organisational Psychology (IO Psychology). Some have argued that it is in the area of individual assessment that the scientific training of IO psychologists is applied most extensively and that it is here where the dual role of the IO psychologist as a scientist-practitioner is most clearly evident. Despite the emphasis on the integration of science and practice in IO Psychology and IOP assessment in particular, there is evidence to suggest that the scientific model that underpins practice does not optimally serve this ideal. It is further apparent that several influential authors within the discipline have identified concerns and dissatisfaction with the status quo in this respect. In this study it is proposed that the existence of such concerns and dissatisfaction points to the need to reflect on the adequacy of the intellectual architecture that guides theory and practice in the field. The aim of this study is to explore the contribution of Action Science to the ideal of integrating theory and practice within the field of Industrial and Organisational Psychological assessment (IOP assessment). It is proposed that action science perspectives are particularly relevant to IOP assessment given its emphasis on the close coupling of thought and action, the enactment of scientific values in practice and the rigorous monitoring of such practice. Given that action science perspectives have not been explored in-depth in relation to IOP assessment, its philosophical and theoretical points of departure are described in detail. From an action science perspective, all deliberate action is based on an underlying theory – a theory of action - that specifies how to achieve intended consequences. The concept of a theory of action therefore serves as a vehicle to capture the integrative nature of thought and action. One of its central premises is that professional effectiveness requires of practitioners not only to become competent in taking action, but also to reflect critically on the theories of action that constitute their practice. As an epistemology of practice, action science provides abstract, normative models of action that guide such a process on the basis of internal criticism. In this process action is evaluated according to the values it claims to serve. At the same time these models identify pathways for transforming practice. In this study these principles are applied to the field of IOP assessment. Detailed attention is devoted to inferring the technical and interpersonal theory of action underlying IOP assessment from the literature in order to subject it to critical analysis. Diagnostic evidence is presented to illustrate the existence of inconsistencies and incongruities in the technical as well as interpersonal theories of action. Given the non-trivial consequences of these limitations, the critique is intentionally not euphemized or softened so as to identify potential sources of ineffectiveness on a rigorous basis. The analysis further shows that if practitioners are not vigilant to the limitations of their technology, they paradoxically run the risk of acting counter to the values they stand for when correctly implementing the prescriptions of the conventional theories of action. Drawing on action science principles as well as contributions from the organizational justice literature, an alternative theory of action for IOP assessment is proposed - the essence of which involves the reframing of validity as an action concept. A model is presented that depicts the various dimensions of validity as an action concept and guidelines are provided for operationalising it. It is argued that such an alternative theory of action provides guidelines for practice at the level of meta-praxis that will enable scientist-practitioners to act more consistently with their espoused values. Implications for practice, education and research are explored. It is concluded that action science offers an alternative, scientifically accountable model for practice that may be more consistent with the scientist-practitioner ideal of IO Psychology than the current scientific model to which it adheres. / Prof. I. v. W. Raubenheimer

Post-traumatic stress in 30 male survivors of an airplane crash-landing was studied through interviews and questionnaires based on a nonpathological model of preventive psychological intervention and monitoring. Five questionnaires were given initially 12 days after the event and repeated at 2, 5, 10, and 12 months. Two of the brief measures were given weekly from 2 to 8 weeks after the event. As a group, the survivors experienced high levels of stress initially, which decreased rapidly and leveled off over time. There was, however, significant variability among individuals in this seemingly homogeneous group of college basketball players and supportive personnel in their experience of stress to the same traumatic event. There was also a marked contrast between group questionnaire results and individual verbal descriptions of their reaction to an unrelated, fatal airplane crash on the campus of the survivors 1 month after their own crash-landing. Questionnaire data are presented descriptively and discussed in relation to other normative data in the literature and to the methods of observation in this study. Recommendations are offered for professionals attempting this type of field study.

No description available.

No description available.