Jackson, Ian Alan Rundell (1979) Undergraduate personality and achievement: an empirical study of anxiety-stability, introversion-extraversion, and organizational study behaviour as components of an A.T.I. system, and notes towards some epistemological issues. PhD thesis, James Cook University of North Queensland.

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Abstract

The differentiation of task performance as a function of relevant personality and study strategy dimensions was explored in the present study within a broadly conceived Aptitude-Treatment-Interaction system. Following an inspection of research findings pertinent to undergraduate academic achievement, Anxiety-Stability, Introversion-Extraversion, and an Organizational Study Behaviour scale were entered as aptitudes, and the prescribed assessment tasks in a course of study in Education at the James Cook University of North Queensland were entered as treatments~ The personality domain was structured via factor analyses of items drawn from relevant aspects of research into student achievement, and the Study Behaviour scale was taken directly from the work of Biggs (1973). Performance domain variables were subjected to task analysis in order to devise appropriate predictions relating each performance task to the system of reference variables.

The Aptitude-Treatment-Interaction model was applied using well established procedures, except for a systematic confounding of the dependent variable set with the treatments used. Differentiations of performance were studied both within tasks and in contrasts involving two levels of inter-task analysis; at the first level each task was compared with all other tasks taken together, and at the second level comparisons were made task by task. Throughout these analyses the specific role of a three-way compound involving the Anxiety-Stability/Introversion-Extraversion/Study Behaviour variable set was under close scrutiny as a particular reflection of the essential characteristics of an Aptitude-Treatment-Interaction research model.

The results of the study provided clear, though somewhat uneven, support for the interactive system that had been formulated; however this support was only evident in those cases where inter-task comparisons were made. There was no indication that the three-way compound of specific interest in the analyses was relevant across subjects within tasks.

Where detailed analytic competencies were identified as task infraskills, and in the case of performance in small group tutorial settings, relative success was characterized by low Anxiety, moderate levels of Extraversion, and well organized Study Behaviour. By contrast, relative success on more conventionally defined Essay tasks was characterized by higher levels of Anxiety and Introversion, with Study Behaviour evidently having little impact. The results consistently pointed up the importance of Anxiety-Stability in the differentiations studied.

These findings were interpreted with special reference to the need for a content-based articulation of undergraduate assessment programmes and the significance of a non-unitary concept of academic achievement. Within the broader philosophical arena, the results were considered to offer support for the substantial dominance of subject matter over more radically individualistic orientations in the acquisition of knowledge.

Item ID:	44365
Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Keywords:	academic achievement; academic performance; academic success; anxiety; anxiety-stability; apprehension; aptitude-treatment-interaction; ATI; calmness; extraversion; extraverts; introversion; introverts; nervousness; personalities; personality; psychology; stress; undergraduate students; undergraduates
Date Deposited:	14 Jun 2016 01:59
FoR Codes:	17 PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES > 1701 Psychology > 170103 Educational Psychology @ 100%
SEO Codes:	93 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 9301 Learner and Learning > 930101 Learner and Learning Achievement @ 100%
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