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An Investigation of the Relationship Between Personality and the Use of Learning During the Life Transitions of Adults

In a three stage investigation the relationship between personality type and the use of learning as a coping device during the life transitions of adults was studied. Based on the assumption that a paper and pencil device could be constructed to achieve the same or nearly the same results that have been achieved through interviews with adult learners, the first two stages of this investigation involved the construction and validation of an instrument, the Adult Development Learning Inventory (ADLI), to measure the use of learning during life transitions of adults. The inventory has five subsections: a demographic profile, Life Events, Coping Strategies, Learning Activities, and Adulthood Tasks.
Content validity of the ADLI was established through both the theory based in adult learning and developmental psychology and the panel of experts. Construct validation tools included principal component factor analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA with age as the variable of discrimination. The instrument was capable of differentiating among age groups' perception of the tasks in the adult life cycle. For internal consistency, reliability estimates ranged from .83 to .94 for the subsections of the ADLI.
Stage III of the investigation explored the relationship between the ADLI and personality as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which was based on the typology suggested by Carl Jung. The findings suggested only limited relationships between personality and the extent of learning activities. Specifically adults with the dominant function of Intuition can be categorized as high activity learners. The results of limited relationships between learning and personality type can perhaps be attributed to the fact that overwhelmingly (98%) these adult samples were involved in some type of learning not in spite of their life circumstances but because of them.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc331609
Date12 1900
CreatorsWatson, Jackie R. (Jackie Rieves)
ContributorsNewsome, Ron, Hays, Henry, Thomas, L. Fred (Lawrence Fred), Brookshire, William K.
PublisherNorth Texas State University
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatviii, 254 leaves : ill., Text
RightsPublic, Watson, Jackie R. (Jackie Rieves), Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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