Dissertations / Theses on the topic '170109 Personality, Abilities and Assessment'

This research set out to determine factors associated with text bullying. It examined the relationship between personality traits and the level of hostility expressed by students in reaction to sample text messages. One hundred and ninety eight girls aged 13 and 14 in Canada and New Zealand volunteered to complete a questionnaire consisting of four personality measures - the impulsivity subscale of the PRF-E, cynical distrust scale (revised), needs for power scale (revised), and the rejection sensitivity scale (adult, short). The survey also rated their proposed likely response to eight sample text messages that covered four themes and to two levels of intensity. Results using Pearson’s r correlation of .01 demonstrated a significant relationship between hostility and impulsivity. There was no significant difference in either the results of the personality measures or their level of hostility between the results of the Canadian and New Zealand participants. How these findings contribute to the current theoretical knowledge of adolescent bullying and the practical application of these findings for schools are also discussed.

Do Christian missionaries who exhibit good person-job fit, (‘aligned’ with host nation colleagues and ‘in harmony’ with expatriate colleagues), experience more positive work attitudes? Personjob fit was conceptualized in terms of competencies. Perspectives on what competencies the role of missionary requires were obtained from 3 groups of subject matter experts: host nation colleagues, missionaries, and mission agency leaders. In Study I, subject matter experts (host nation colleagues, n=22, missionaries, n=25, and agency leaders, n=23) rated the ‘Universal Competency Framework’ (SHL) 20-level competencies. Host nation colleagues differed significantly on 3 of the competencies, suggesting that in this sample, the perspective of expatriates on the role of a missionary was not fully aligned with that of host nation colleagues. In Study 2, a sample of 130 current overseas missionaries self-assessed their performance and provided their own ratings of the importance of the competencies used in Study 1. Measures of Person-Job fit (Demands-Abilities fit, Supplies-Values fit and Perceived Performance) were regressed against outcome variables (job satisfaction, work engagement and satisfaction with life). Results indicated that a person’s fit with the job as described by both host nation colleagues (Alignment) and other expatriates (Harmonization) is positively associated with job satisfaction, work engagement and satisfaction with life. These results offer support for competencies as an effective method of describing missionary roles. Possible implications for enhancing the effectiveness and well-being of missionaries, and other aid and development workers, are discussed.

This thesis explores the relevance of Bio Data verses Personality for predicting Cultural Competence among Industrial and Organisational Psychology and Human Resource Management professionals and students in New Zealand. It also explores the relevance of the model (D.W. Sue, 2001) of Cultural Competence currently in use by the New Zealand Psychologists board and also the relevance of a four factor model of Cultural Intelligence (Early & Ang, 2003). The sample consisted of 113 participants drawn from a population of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, and Human Resource Management professionals and students. A questionnaire which measures the predictors of the Big Five Personality Factors (Goldberg, 1999), and Bio Data, and the criterion variables of Cultural Intelligence (Earley & Ang, 2003) and questions constructed specifically for this thesis was distributed online. The criterion variables were based on an existing three part (Awareness, Knowledge and Skills) Multidimensional Model for Developing Cultural Competence by D.W. Sue (2001). The results of this research were obtained through exploratory factor analysis and subsequent multiple regression analysis. A new model was constructed to represent the tested predictor and criterion relationship. Results suggest that overall Personality is a better predictor of Cultural Competence, with the Personality Factor of Agreeableness being the highest weighted Personality Factor. D.W Sue’s (2001) Multidimensional Model for Developing Cultural Competence maintained its three part structure in the analysis and consequently seems relevant to the unique socio-cultural, organisational and professional setting of the tested group. Ang and colleagues (Ang, Van Dyne, Koh, Ng, Templer, Tay & Chandraseker, 2007) Cultural Intelligence Scale maintained its four part factor structure and was reliable for this thesis.

Fairness, forgiveness and grudge-holding are concepts which underlie many aspects of our interpersonal relationships. Fairness is the foundation of our day-to-day communication with others and forgiveness is concerned with a positive strategy used to manage negative emotional experiences of underserved [i.e. undeserved] unfair treatment. Grudge-holding results as an accumulation of negative feelings, which are associated with the original experience of unfairness. Two experimental studies investigated children’s perceptions of, feelings about, and reactions towards the unfair behaviour of a mother and a friend, by individually inviting the children to scenario-based interview sessions, which included three imaginary tasks. The children were asked to judge the fairness of a mother and a best friend’s treatment towards a child protagonist and to report their associated feelings, after listening to a scenario that described an interaction between a child and a mother and an interaction between a child and a friend. They further responded to three scenario-based experimental tasks, regarding their willingness to grant forgiveness, as opposed to expressions of hostility. In the first study, the children’s willingness to forgive, as a result of unfairness, was explored with 82 local primary school children in Palmerston North, New Zealand, whose ages ranged from 8- to 11-years-old, in addition to 50 parents of these participating children. The parents also completed a questionnaire about their approaches to their children’s common misbehaviours. The study found that the children were typically willing to grant forgiveness to a mother, even though she had been unfair. Their forgiveness tendencies were not related to aspects of parental disciplinary behaviour. However, an examination of the children’s verbatim responses through the use of thematic analysis revealed the complex nature of the relationship between parent and child concerning tolerance for mistakes. In the second study, I explored on whether the children’s repeated exposure to unfairness would contribute to their display of grudge-holding against a mother or a best friend in the scenarios and this investigation involved 55 local primary children, whose ages ranged from 8- to 12-years-old, in Wellington, New Zealand. The children participated in individual scenario-based interview sessions, which included three imaginary tasks over the two time periods, one week apart from each other. The children’s levels of grudge-holding was measured by analysing the possible increase in hostility, which the children expressed from Time 1 to Time 2. The study showed that a repeated experience of unfairness had a noticeable effect on the children’s level of hostility towards the person who was unfair and especially towards the best friend. The children’s verbatim comments also suggested some evidence of accumulated negativity in their responses to an unfairness experience. Thus, this study proved to be a suitable paradigm for operationalising grudge-holding in children.

An understanding of how objective situational features are construed by individuals is essential to uncovering the dynamic process through which the “situation” (e.g., specific work events) interacts with personality in shaping behavior in the workplace. The current study aims to illuminate 1) how personality influences the way employees typically perceive work contexts (i.e., being at work), in general; 2) the role of personality in shaping employee’s unique construal of specific work situations; and 3) the effect of personality-driven situation perception on extra-role behaviors. I used the recently developed CAPTION framework of psychological situational characteristics that define 7 dimensions of situation perception to examine how personality traits influence the perception of being at work, in general. Then, to address Research Question 2, I mapped frequently occurring types of work situations (coded for objective descriptors; e.g., “who,” “when,” “what,” “where”) onto the CAPTION dimensions to investigate whether and how personality traits explain systematic differences in the psychological situational characteristics ascribed to specific types of commonly occurring situations. Finally, to address Research Question 3, I examined how personality-driven situation perception predicted individual differences in work behaviors, specifically personality-relevant behaviors, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive behavior. I then discuss implications for theoretical perspectives that discuss the person-situation effect, as well as insights for how organizations may improve work outcomes through organizational context.

The first objective of this research was to investigate the predictive validity of the learning potential as measured by Ability, Processing of Information and Learning Potential Short Version (APIL SV) in predicting work performance. The second objective was to investigate the predictive validity of personality as measured by the Occupational Personality Questionnaire Ipsative (OPQ32i) in predicting work performance. The sample consisted of 104 employees of a public sector department. Learning potential and personality were the predictor/independent variables; work performance as measured by supervisory rating was the only criterion/dependent variable of the study. The results revealed that both the APIL SV and the OPQ 32i dimensions did not correlate significantly with work performance as measured by supervisor rating.
Industrial and Organisational Psychology
M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This research involved an examination of Beck's congruency hypothesis (1983). There were three studies, each examining an assumption that underpins the congruency hypothesis. There were two groups of participants: 61 remitted depressives and 61 university student controls, who were followed for a 1-year period. The first study stemmed from Blatt's theory that interpersonal and achievement-oriented personality styles are independent and enduring, arising from different early childhood experiences. It investigated individuals' perceptions of the parenting style they had experienced in the first 16 years of their life and how these related to their current personality style. Overall, an achievement-oriented personality style (self-criticism) was predicted by maternal protectiveness in the university student sample and by a lack of maternal warmth in the clinical sample. No relationship between perceptions of early parenting and an interpersonal personality (dependency) was found. The second study comprised two parts. The first examined the stability of personality over the 1-year examination period. This was seen as an important test. For personality to be a vulnerability factor or diathesis in terms of the congruency hypothesis, it must be stable over time. The second part of this study investigated whether any significant changes in personality over time were predicted by recent negative life events that had been experienced. The results showed that all of the personality constructs investigated (sociotropy, autonomy (solitude, independence), dependency, self-criticism) were stable over the 6-month period. However, during the 12-month period, there was a significant decrease in mean scores on sociotropy for the university students group and a significant decrease in mean scores on sociotropy and dependency for the remitted depressives group. For the remitted depressives group, change in dependency was predicted by stress resulting from negative life events as rated by an independent research team (objective stress) but not by participants' own ratings of the stressfulness of these events (subjective stress). In research testing the congruency hypothesis, life events are routinely classified as being either sociotropic or autonomous. The third study investigated the validity of this practice. The results of this study demonstrated only partial support for the a priori procedure for classifying events in this way. Across samples (university students and remitted depressives) and measures (self-reported and interview measures of life events), participants did not consistently rate events as sociotropic or autonomous in line with their own personality styles. Throughout the research, many of the methodological shortfalls that were identified as being present in prior research on the congruency hypothesis were addressed. Notably, comparisons were made between the different samples (student versus clinical) and measures (self-report versus interview) used. The results of the current research differed depending on the choice of sample and the type of measures used. For example, in some instances, significant results were found only when the stressfulness of an event was rated by the research team (objective stress) rather than by the participants themselves (subjective stress). However, it is subjective stress that is most commonly used in previous research on the congruency hypothesis. This choice could well contribute to the many non-significant results found in this area of study. These and other methodological issues are taken into account, examined, discussed, and recommendations for future research are made.

In recent years research has recognised that notions of body image, body image ideals and body dissatisfaction develop much earlier than was once thought. However, the growing body of evidence in this area of research is predominantly quantitative. This study was designed to engage children in the five to six year age group using qualitative methods and present their notions of body image through the looking glass of the children's own eyes. Children's voices have not often found their way into research. Concerns about their powers of communication, cognitive abilities and the ethical difficulties inherent when working with children have restricted their participation. Objective, empirical evidence suggests that if one engages children in research appropriately they are able to make a significant contribution. Forty-seven children (25=m; 22=f) aged between five and six years were interviewed on three occasions over 12 months regarding their perceptions of body image. Seven schools from the Independent school system were involved. Interviews were conducted on school sites in public, easily observable locations. The study focused on three aspects. That is, how these children perceived their own body, the bodies of other people and their notions of health in respect to body image. These interviews revealed that the girls in this age group had developed an understanding of body image that valued thinness. However, their preference for a thinner body did not negatively impact on their sense of identity or self-worth. Boys preferred larger bodies and correlated increased body size with competence and physical aptitude. The concept of 'large' was linked to height for some or to a mesomorphic body for other boys. By the final interview all the children revealed strong negative perceptions of fatness. These perceptions were more apparent at each successive interview. An obese or extremely thin body was not always correlated with being unhealthy. Depending on the perspective of the child, even the largest of images was nominated the 'healthiest body' by some children. Health was overwhelmingly linked to food intake with few children associating health with exercise. The playground and the home, where most notably mothers, were important in the development of body image conceptions. Children were acutely aware of the dietary practices of their parents and associated diets with losing weight.
PhD Doctorate

The way in which we perceive and interpret the causes of situations is likely to have a profound influence on our subsequent behaviour. It has been well established that the experience of anger is likely to systematically influence the cognitive processing style and cognitive skills that the individual will use in understanding, and responding to, interpersonal situations. One important process that may be affected by the regular experience of intense anger (trait anger), is the dispositional propensity to attempt to understand the thoughts, feelings, and point of view of another person in an interpersonal interaction (i.e., perspective taking). A study was conducted to test this theoretical hypothesis. In addition, the study attempted to examine the influence of perspective taking on anger experience, control, and expression.

Perspective taking, the main cognitive component of empathy, is considered within the psychological literature to be a significant part of human interaction. Despite extensive investigation into the outcomes of this construct, the process by which people take another's psychological point of view has received comparatively little attention. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate in three studies what the individual does when attempting to take the perspective of another person. The first study investigated the particular strategies which individuals use when engaging in perspective-taking behaviours. Dominant themes to emerge from this qualitative assessment of the perspective-taking process were the use of self- (e.g., switching places) and other-information (e.g., targets personal characteristics), of which the former appears to play the central role. Further elements of the perspective-taking process were also identified with the self-information theme. Of these, having experienced a situation similar to that of a target (similar past experience) was found to be a particularly strong aspect of the perspective-taking process and subsequently informed the rationale for the remaining two studies. In view of the findings from Study 1, the second study tested whether past experiences made it easier for participants to take the perspective of another person in a new, but similar situation and the extent to which other aspects, such as switching places with the target, made the perspective-taking process less effortful. Results revealed that similar past experience was the strongest predictor of the ease of the perspective-taking task. Moreover, the extent to which similar past experience increased ease of the perspective-taking process was moderated by the extent to which the participant reflected on that past experience. The final study in this thesis picked up the notion of reflection and examined whether increasing the extent to which an individual engages in self-reflection leads to a concomitant increase in the tendency to take another perspective and the ease with which this can be accomplished. After completion of an intervention program which had a strong focus on self-reflection and understanding of self, there was a noticeable trend for participants to improve on their capacity for self-reflection. The findings also revealed that individuals with a tendency to self-reflect in an insightful and non-ruminative manner demonstrated a similarly high level of general perspective-taking propensity and ease of perspective taking. The studies support the vital role of reflection on similar past experience to that of a target when engaging in perspective taking. This research underscores the importance of examining perspective taking as a process.

Self-control theory of crime has had considerable impact on mainstream criminology since it was first published in 1990 by Gottfredson and Hirschi. It is regarded as the most parsimonious criminological theory currently available and has been empirically tested across diverse populations and behaviours. Considerable empirical evidence supports the generality of self-control in predicting crime and analogous behaviours, with low self-control ranked as one of the strongest risk factors for crime. Of substantive concern however is a lack of explanatory power in the theory, a problem that besets criminological theorising in general. This study attempted to integrate self-control theory with theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Whilst self-control provides a stable-dispositional explanation for propensity to crime, TPB is interested in the decision-making processes related to involvement in crime. As such, the study examined the relationship between time-stable self-control and the mediating role of situational-specific factors in the causation of crime. The purpose of the study is twofold. Firstly to investigate the underlying mechanism by which a person with low self-control may have greater propensity to crime and secondly to increase the explanatory value of self-control theory. Three disparate groups were used to explore the single theories and the integrated theory; female students, male students, and prison inmates. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were conducted to examine the sufficiency of the theories to explain intention to commit crime across three groups. Low self-control was unable to explain behavioural intentions for students but was successful in explaining intentions to do crime in a prison population. The motivational elements of TPB, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control, were shown to exert considerable influence on intention to do crime across the three samples but not attitude. The integrated theory increased the explanatory value of self-control theory for prison inmates over and above its constituent theories. These findings were not replicated with male and female students, raising questions about the generality of self-control theory. Implications for self-control theory are discussed, especially the need to include significant others and behavioural control variables in understanding the causes of crime

A large body of literature suggests that cognitive abilities are important determinants for training and job performance, including flight performance. The associations between measures of ability tests and job performance have been the focus of many empirical studies, resulting in an overall conclusion that general mental ability, g, is the main source of prediction, while other narrower abilities have limited power for predicting job performance. Despite the attention given to cognitive ability-flight performance relationships, their associations have not been fully understood at the broad construct level, and most extant literature focused on the relations at the observed scores level. Thus, the present dissertation study was designed to contribute to the progression of this understanding by examining the relations between cognitive abilities and flight training performance, using data from four U.S. Air Force (USAF) pilot samples. For comparison, one navigator and one air battle manager sample were also analyzed. The data were obtained from correlation matrices of prior investigations and analyzed via structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures.

Four studies are reported in the thesis: (1) preliminary study, (2) primary validation study, (3) cross-validation study, and (4) cross-occupation validation study. The preliminary study assessed the test battery used in the subsequent predictive studies. The primary validation study introduced a bifactor predictive SEM model for testing the influence of cognitive abilities in predicting pilot performance. The cross-validation study assessed the consistency of the predictive model suggested in the primary validation study, using three additional pilots’ samples. The cross-occupation validation study compared the predictive model using data from three aviation-related occupations (flying, navigation, air battle management). Ability factors were extracted from scores of pilot applicants on the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT), the USAF officers’ primary selection test battery, whereas the flight performance scores were obtained from pilot records during the flight training program.

In addition to the g factor, verbal ability, quantitative ability, spatial ability, perceptual speed ability, and aviation-related acquired knowledge are the six latent cognitive ability factors investigated in the reported studies. Pilot performance measures were modeled either as observed or latent variables covering ratings of academic and hands-on flying performance in different phases of the training program. The studies of this thesis established that (1) general ability contributes substantially to the prediction models; however, it is not the only important predictor, (2) aviation-related acquired knowledge is the most robust predictor of pilot performance among the abilities examined, with a role even exceeding that of g, (3) perceptual speed predicted pilot performance uniquely in several occasions, while verbal, spatial, and quantitative abilities demonstrated trivial incremental validity for hands-on pilot performance beyond that provided by the g measure, and (4) the relative importance of cognitive abilities tends to vary across aviation occupations.

Recent research has challenged the way in which personality and attitude constructs are measured. Alternatives have been offered as to how non-cognitive responses are modeled, the mode of delivery used when administrating such scales, and the impact of technology in measuring personality. Thus, the major purpose of the studies in this thesis concerns two interrelated issues of personality research, namely the way personality responses are best modeled, and the most optimal mode by which personality items are presented and associated modal issues. Three studies are presented. First, recent developments using an ideal point approach to scale construction are outlined, and an empirical study compares modeling personality items based on an ideal point approach (generalized graded unfolding model; GGUM) and a dominance approach (graded response model: GRM). Second, an extensive review of literature pertaining to the mode effect when transferring paper-and-pencil measures to screen was conducted, in addition to a review of the various types of computerized and innovative items and their associated psychometric information. Finally, nine innovative items were developed using various multimedia features (e.g., video, graphics, and audio) to ascertain the advantages of these methods to present items constructed to elicit response behavior underlying ideal point approaches, namely, typical response behavior. It was found that the dominance IRT model continued to produce superior model-data fit for most items, more attention needs to be placed on developing principles for constructing ideal point type items, the web-based version supplied 20% more construct information than the paper version, and innovative items seem to provide more data-model fit for students with lower personality attributes. While the innovative items may require more initial outlay in terms of time and development costs, they have the capacity to provide more information regarding test-takers’ personality levels, potentially using fewer items.

This thesis deals with one of the most debated topics of the Personnel Psychology - the personnel selection. The aim of the thesis is to provide an exhaustive overview of the designing process of the selection procedures with special attention being paid to the various methods of selecting employees. Attention was primarily paid to the effort that the knowledge of the otherwise common methods of selecting employees be put in the new framework and the latest ways of their application. Particular emphasis has been put upon the new approaches to the method of interview, cognitive abilities testing, detection of individual personality at work and new methods in designing assessment centers. An interesting chapter is the use of emotional factors as selection criteria and the application of the attachment theory to work. Considerable extent of the thesis is also devoted to the methods of job analysis and competency modeling, their comparison and applications. Based on the previous theoretical treatise the empirical part attempts at creating a competency model for senior executives in the hotel industry and proposes possible ways of its practical use.