Britta Kilian

A Test of the Factor Structure Equivalence of the 50-Item IPIP Five-Factor Model Measure Across Gender and Ethnic Groups

Personality is frequently assessed in research and applied settings, in part due to evidence that scores on measures of the Five-factor model (FFM) of personality show predictive validity for a variety of outcomes. Although researchers are increasingly using the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 1999; International Personality Item Pool, 2007b) FFM measures, investigations of the psychometric properties of these measures are unfortunately sparse. The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure equivalence of the 50-item IPIP FFM measure across gender and ethnic groups (i.e., Whites, Latinos, Asian Americans) using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Results from a sample of 1,727 college students generally support the invariance of the factor structure across groups, although there was some evidence of differences across gender and ethnic groups for model parameters. We discuss these findings and their implications.

Can Test Preparation Help to Reduce the Black—White Test Performance Gap?

Using a field sample, the authors examined the extent to which race is related to test preparation and whether test preparation is related to test performance. They found that African Americans reported more self-initiated test preparation than Caucasians did and that tutorial attendance and self-initiated test preparation were related to test performance. Moreover, the authors found that only self-initiated test preparation mediated the race—performance relationship. Last, the hypothesis that the Matthew Effect (defined as the amplification of any initial advantage that leads to cumulative effects) would hold in an employment setting was not supported. The implications of test preparation are discussed.

Students' Value Orientations, Intuitive Decision Making, and Motivational Interference, and Their Relations to Regret.

Students’ learning activities frequently compete with their leisure options, leading to regret after decisions to study. Using a sample of 233 German and 194 Australian undergraduate students, the authors explored possible determinants of the personality construct regret. They investigated whether the level to which students rely on intuition in decision making is negatively connected to the tendency to regret a decision and whether the degree to which during studying students are distracted by leisure incentives (motivational interference) is positively related to regret. Students’ achievement and well-being value orientations are expected to be linked to intuition and interference. In both samples, interference was positively related to regret whereas intuition was negatively related to regret only in the German sample. The authors did not find the expected link between intuition and interference. In both samples, value orientations were related, as expected, to intuition and interference. Regret could possibly be reduced if motivational interference is avoided.

Ein Vorschlag zur Erweiterung des Leistungsbegriffs angesichts multipler Ziele im Jugendalter

Der Aufschwung der deutschen Bildungsforschung in den letzten Jahren wird unter anderem in grosen Anstrengungen der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, des Bundes und der Lander sichtbar. Im Kern geht es darum, das Lernen in verschiedenen Schulformen, in verschiedenen Fachern oder facherubergreifend und in verschiedenen Altersgruppen zu untersuchen und den Lernerfolg genauer messbar zu machen. Hinter diesen Anstrengungen steht als zentrales Ziel die Verbesserung der durchschnittlichen Schulerleistungen. Auch die bundesweite Einfuhrung von „Bildungsstandards“ mit „Kompetenzniveaus“ und „Vergleichsarbeiten“ zeigt, wie intensiv auf eine Verbesserung des Unterrichts durch Lehrer und eine Leistungssteigerung der Schuler hingearbeitet wird, deren Erfolge man in dem neuen PISA-Bericht (OECD 2010) ablesen zu konnen glaubt.