Personal adjustment and prediction of academic achievement.

The hypothesis tested was that "better" adjusted students would be more predictable than maladjusted students. Predictability was determined by correlation coefficients between aptitude test (CEEB-M and CEEB-V) scores and both 1st-quarter and 1st-yr grades. The sample consisted of 188 freshmen male business students who were classified into positive-, average-, and negative- adjustment groups on the basis of the means of the 10 Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey (GZTS) trait raw scores. Comparisons of the adjustment groups on correlations between the mathematics and verbal scores and grade averages indicated that the adjustment groups did not differ in terms of academic predictability. Analysis of differences between the groups on both high school achievement and college achievement revealed, however, that the positive-adjustment group earned significantly higher grades than the negative group. These results indicated that although the adjustment groups did not appear to be significantly different in terms of academic predictability, a definite relationship did exist between the groups on levels of achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure of work values in relation to status, achievement, interests, and adjustment.

The Work Values Inventory (WVI), a 210-item, paired-comparison instrument designed to measure 15 different work values, was administered together with a number of measures of intelligence, interest, adjustment, and achievement to 9th grade boys of the Career Pattern Study (N = 88). The results show no tendency for so-called intrinsic values to be associated, nor for extrinsice values to be more intercorrelated than are values of different types. A centroid factor analysis of the 40 X 40 matrix yielded 10 factors, of which 7 were clearly identifiable. 4 were clearly value factors, 2 could be classified as either values or interests, 3 were personality and adjustment factors, and 1 was an achievement factor. The WVI seemed particularly useful in its measurement of 4 value factors not revealed by interest or adjustment measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An exploration of young adolescents' social achievement goals and social adjustment in middle school.

Two studies investigated the proposition that social achievement goals (different orientations toward social competence) are an important aspect of young adolescents' social motivation. Study 1 (N=153 6th-grade students) established that different orientations toward developing or demonstrating social competence can be seen in young adolescents' responses to open-ended questions about their social goals and social competence. Study 2 (N=217 6th-grade students) evaluated a new survey measure of social achievement goals for young adolescents. Exploratory factor analyses indicated a 3-factor model (social development, demonstration-approach, and demonstration-avoid goals). Different social achievement goals were associated with distinct patterns of subsequent self- and teacher-reported social adjustment (prosocial, aggressive, and anxious solitary behaviors, as well as social worry, best-friend quality, and perceived popularity). Effects for social achievement goals were independent of perceived social competence and gender. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relations of temperamental effortful control and anger/frustration to Chinese children's academic achievement and social adjustment: A longitudinal study.

The prospective relations of temperamental effortful control and anger/frustration to Chinese children's (N = 425, age range = 6.6–9.1 years) academic achievement (grade point average, or GPA) and social adjustment (externalizing problems and social competence) were examined in a 2-wave (3.8 years apart) longitudinal study. Parents and teachers rated children's temperament, and parents, teachers, and/or peers rated children's externalizing problems and social competence. Effortful control positively predicted children's GPA, controlling for prior level of GPA. Analyses examining the potential mechanisms underlying the temperament–achievement associations suggested that effortful control positively predicted social competence, and social competence positively predicted GPA. Moreover, anger/frustration positively predicted externalizing problems, and externalizing problems negatively predicted GPA. Mediational analyses suggested that the relations between temperament and GPA were mediated by social competence and externalizing problems. Evidence for the reciprocal relations between externalizing problems and GPA was also found. The study suggested that there are complex interplays among temperament, academic achievement, and social adjustment for school-age children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal adjustment and academic predictability among college freshmen.

The objective of this study was to investigate whether the prediction of academic achievement is influenced by personal emotional adjustment as found by Hoyt and Norman in 1954. Samples consisted of 1,465 arts college freshmen from which were selected three "adjustment" groups (normal, one-peak, and maladjusted) according to arbitary cut-off points on the clinical scale of the MMPI. Correlations between grade point average (GPA) and predictor variables were determined. For the arts college, no significant differences were found between the adjustment groups for the correlation of GPA with either of the predictors high school rank or the Minnesota Scholastic Aptitude Test. 11 predictor variables were used for the engineering freshmen, only one of which yielded statistically significant differences between the adjustment groups. In contrast to the findings of Hoyt and Norman, it was concluded that the predicton of academic achievement is not influenced by personal adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's social behaviors as predictors of academic achievement: A longitudinal analysis.

This study was an investigation of the relationships among 139 third- and fourth-grade elementary students' social skills, problem behaviors, academic competence, and academic achievement. The primary research question addressed the relationship between social behaviors and academic achievement. All data were collected and examined at 2 time points in the school year, which allowed for a replication of the relationships among the variables and an investigation of the predictive relationships over time. The results from this study indicated that (1) social skills are positively predictive of concurrent academic achievement and (2) problem behaviors are negatively predictive of concurrent academic achievement. Only social skills were a significant predictor of future academic functioning. The linkage between problem behaviors and future academic performance may vary as a function of ethnic or cultural membership status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fantasy need achievement as a motivational construct.

The McClelland-Atkinson theory that arousal of achievement fantasy depends upon arousal of the achievement motive is examined critically in light of accrued empirical evidence. The effects of achievement-arousal conditions on fantasy n Ach are shown to be probably nonmotivational. n Ach scores are shown to be correlated with performance measures in about ? of the studies reported, but the pattern of hypothesis confirmation presents the theory with difficulties. The addition of perceptual and cognitive situational and developmental variables appears to render the empirical evidence theoretically more tractable. It is argued that motivation influences fantasy by processes more complex and less direct than originally thought. (3 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological adjustment and the worker role: An analysis of occupational differences.

How does the place of worker role on his personal adjustment vary from nonmanual to manual type of employment? "301 Ss, all between the ages of 55 and 65, were divided into two occupational statuses, nonmanual and manual workers. The former status included 116 of the managerial, supervisory, professional-technical, and clerical-sales personnel of a Midwestern oil refinery, while the latter status contained 185 of that company's skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled laborers. Both groups were then treated as separate populations in an analysis of the worker role as it related to personal adjustment, social adjustment, and job satisfaction… . the personal adjustment of nonmanual employees was not significantly related with their work-role competency, while the personal adjustment of manual employees showed a significant correlation with the worker role variable… . It was therefore concluded that the degree to which personal adjustment is related with the worker role depends to some extent upon an employee's occupational status." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of chronic achievement motivation and achievement primes on the activation of achievement and fun goals.

This research examined the hypothesis that situational achievement cues can elicit achievement or fun goals depending on chronic differences in achievement motivation. In 4 studies, chronic differences in achievement motivation were measured, and achievement-denoting words were used to influence behavior. The effects of these variables were assessed on self-report inventories, task performance, task resumption following an interruption, and the pursuit of means relevant to achieving or having fun. Findings indicated that achievement priming (vs. control priming) activated a goal to achieve and inhibited a goal to have fun in individuals with chronically high-achievement motivation but activated a goal to have fun and inhibited a goal to achieve in individuals with chronically low-achievement motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of experimentally aroused achievement motivation to academic achievement anxiety.

180 Ss, balanced for sex, were administered the Achievement Anxiety Test (AAT) under experimental conditions producing either minimal or high arousal of achievement motivation. Regression of scholastic aptitude and AAT scores on grade-point average (GPA) showed both AAT scales accounting for the same variance in GPA. Analyses of variance of AAT scores showed no sex differences, but highly significant main effects for experimental condition and level of scholastic aptitude. It was concluded that test anxiety is a unidimensional construct, and that the AAT is a measure of anxiety aroused by stress cues present during test taking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability and validity of achievement fantasy.

"Although projective and fantasy instruments have been widely used both in clinical and research settings the reliability and validity of many fantasy variables still remains in question. This paper is the first in a series of reports dealing with the stability and validation of fantasy variables from the TAT and Rorschach and deals specifically with achievement fantasy on the TAT… . (a) its stability over time, (b) its relation to certain antecedent conditions, and (c) its prediction of overt achievement behavior… . It was suggested that achievement fantasy is an index of the strength of the subject's behavioral tendency to seek achievement goals and that achievement concern on the part of the same-sex parent has a special influence on the child's achievement strivings. Specific methodological and theoretical problems with respect to measurement and interpretation of achievement fantasy were discussed." 19 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social risk and protective factors for African American children's academic achievement and adjustment during the transition to middle school.

The transition to middle school is often marked by decreased academic achievement and increased emotional stress, and African American children exposed to social risk may be especially vulnerable during this transition. To identify mediators and protective factors, the authors related severity and timing of risk exposure to academic achievement and adjustment between 4th and 6th grade in 74 African American children. Longitudinal analyses indicated that severity more than timing of risk exposure was negatively related to all outcomes and that language skills mediated the pathway from risk for most outcomes. Transition to middle school was related to lower math scores and to more externalizing problems when children experienced higher levels of social risk. Language skills and parenting served as protective factors, whereas expectations of racial discrimination was a vulnerability factor. Results imply that promoting parenting and, especially, language skills, and decreasing expectations of racial discrimination provide pathways to academic success for African American children during the transition from elementary to middle school, especially those exposed to adversity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal analysis of achievement goals: From affective antecedents to emotional effects and achievement outcomes.

Affect and emotions are frequently seen as outcomes of mastery and performance goals, but affective experiences may also predict goal adoption. In a predictive study (N = 669 first-year college students), the authors used structural equation modeling to estimate relationships from 2 initial affective experiences to mastery and performance-approach goals, from goals to discrete emotions, and from discrete emotions to final grades in a university course while controlling for prior achievement. Representing initial affective experiences, hopefulness positively predicted mastery and performance goals, whereas helplessness negatively predicted mastery goals. Mastery goals positively predicted enjoyment, which in turn positively predicted achievement, and negatively predicted boredom, which in turn negatively predicted achievement. Anxiety was negatively predicted by mastery goals, positively predicted by performance goals, and exerted a negative predictive influence on achievement. The findings suggest that predictive relationships between goals and achievement are mediated by students’ emotions. Results are discussed with regard to the importance of affect and emotions for achievement goal theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A personal adjustment television program.

"This article describes some of our experiences in presenting a television program on personal adjustment on a commercial station over a period of one year. It is also an announcement of the availability of 13 half-hour kinescope recordings of these programs through the Educational TV and Radio Center." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cross-cultural study of achievement motivation.

The CPI has shown promise in American studies of scholastic achievement, contrasting with typical findings in predicting achievement from personality appraisals. A theoretical issue concerns choice of concepts, whether these should reflect states of distress and disturbance or differential components of interpersonal adequacy. In the latter vein, the CPI emphasizes positive variables of presumably universal relevance. A study of academic achievement in Italy was undertaken, testing 204 males and 137 females from 4 high schools in 3 cities. The achievement motive scales of the CPI (Ac and Ai) correlated +.32 and +.35 with grades for males and +.33 and +.29 for females. A multiple regression equation including Ac, Ai, and Fx gave predictive validities of +.43 and +.45. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A study of anxiety and academic achievement.

Testing the clinical impression that academic achievement is frequently the result of neurotic striving, it was hypothesized that students achieving academic honors and having lower academic ability would give more evidence of anxiety and other neurotic traits than such students having higher academic ability. The additional hypothesis was made that students achieving academic honors would give more evidence of anxiety and other neurotic traits than the general student population. Definite support was found for the 1st and major hypothesis, and some degree of support was found for the 2nd hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model of statistics performance based on achievement goal theory.

Structural equation modeling techniques were used to test a model of statistics performance based on achievement goal theory. Data were collected after the midterm and final examinations in an introductory statistics course, and models were fit at each time point. Learning goals were positively related to the use of deep-processing strategies and to self-efficacy and were negatively related to test anxiety. Performance goals were positively related to disorganization in study strategies and to test anxiety. Both learning and performance goals affected achievement indirectly through study strategies, self-efficacy, and test anxiety. Use of deep-processing strategies was positively related to effort but displayed an unexpected negative relationship to achievement. Disorganization was a positive predictor of test anxiety. Implications of these findings for teaching and learning statistics are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic and environmental influences on academic achievement trajectories during adolescence.

Most studies have considered the effects of particular characteristics on academic achievement individually, which means that little is known about how they function together. Using the population-based Minnesota Twin Family Study, the authors investigated the effects of child academic engagement (interest, involvement, effort), IQ, depression, externalizing behavior, and family environmental risk on academic achievement (reported school grades) from ages 11 through 17. Hierarchical linear growth curve modeling showed main effects on initial reported Grades for all variables, and IQ mitigated the deleterious effects of family risk and externalizing. Only engagement affected change in Grades through adolescence. Influences on initial Grades were strongly genetically influenced, associated primarily with IQ, engagement, and externalizing behavior. Shared environmental influences on initial Grades linked engagement, IQ, and family risk. Genetic influences on change in Grades were substantial, but they were not associated with the academic, family risk, and mental health covarying factors. These results indicate that age 11 achievement and change in achievement through adolescence show systematic patterns and document the existence of individual differences in the commonly shared developmental experience of adapting to the school environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A motion picture test of achievement in psychology.

It is concluded from the results of an investigation into "… the advantages and disadvantages of motion pictures for measuring achievement in a beginning psychology course" that "… performance on the motion picture test is not greatly improved by the beginning psychology course." Scores on multiple choice items relating to the motion picture were obtained as part of the final examination for one proup of students and during the first week of class for another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-ideal congruence as an index of adjustment.

"A test of the theoretical assumptions and the methods upon which the conventional Q sort tests was made using several criteria of adjustment. The results tended to support the theoretical assumptions underlying the Q sort as currently utilized. Although certain criticisms of the procedures involved are not thereby completely invalidated, it would appear that they are not sufficiently serious to justify abandoning either the method or the assumptions supporting the method." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)