Glennelle Halpin

Teacher Stress as Related to Locus of Control, Sex, and Age

AbstractThis study was designed to test the hypothesis that a feeling of being in control will make potentially stressful environmental events less so. Subjects were practicing teachers about whom little was known regarding the relationship between locus of control and stress. They responded to the Teacher Locus of Control Scale and the Teacher Occupational Stress Factor Questionnaire. Multivariate and bivariate analyses of their responses showed that locus of control was related to teacher stress. As hypothesized, teachers who felt that they were in control reported less stress in their world of work than did those who did not feel influential in their educational environment. Neither sex nor age moderated this relationship.

Relationships Between Creative Thinking Abilities and a Measure of the Creative Personality

Persons with creative abilities might be expected to have creative personality characteristics. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the relationships between a creative personality measure, What Kind of Person Are You? Test, and three verbal and four figural creative ability measures derived from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. The subjects were 65 males and 164 female undergraduates enrolled in the introductory course in educational psychology at the University of Georgia. For the males, multiple coefficients of correlation were .57 for all seven creative ability measures, .42 for the three verbal measures, and .51 for the four figural measures (all significant at the .01 level). For the females, multiple coefficients of correlation were .33 for all seven measures, .22 for the three verbal measures, and .30 for the four figural measures (all significant at or beyond the .05 level).

The Adult Career Concerns Inventory: Validity and Reliability.

The validity and reliability of the Adult Career Concerns Inventory were explored based on data provided by 104 graduate nursing students.

Personality Characteristics and Self-Concept of Preservice Teachers Related to Their Pupil Control Orientation.

The personality characteristics and self-concept of teachers-in-training related to their pupil control orientation were investigated. The humanistically oriented educators tended to be emotionally stable, expedient, happy-go-lucky, imaginative, venture-some, outgoing, relaxed, self-assured, and have a high self-concept. The authoritarian educators were more affected by feelings, conscientious, sober, practical, shy, reserved, tense, apprehensive, and had a low self-concept.

Relative Effectiveness of the California Achievement Tests in Comparison With the Act Assessment, College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test, and High School Grade Point Average in Predicting College Grade Point Average

Studied was the relative effectiveness of the. California Achievement Tests (CAT), the ACT Assessment (Academic Tests) of the American College Testing Program (ACT), the College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and high school grade point average (GPA) in predicting college freshman GPA. The incremental and differential incremental effectiveness of the CAT, ACT, and SAT in addition to high school GPA were also studied. Although high school GPA was the best single predictor, the CAT was as effective a predictor as was the ACT or the SAT. Use of either the ACT, SAT, or CAT resulted in an 18.47% increase in predictive etBciency over that obtained by using high school GPA alone. As the increase in predictive efficiency was very nearly the same (within rounding error) for the three tests (ACT, SAT, and CAT), they failed to demonstrate differential incremental validity.

Special Paper for Beginning Handwriting: An Unjustified Practice?.

AbstractA comparison was made of the handwriting of kindergarten children who used four different kinds of paper for handwriting lessons. Results indicated that the width of the writing space lone inch or Vi inch) had no differential effect on the quality of beginning handwriting. Furthermore, paper with writing spaces with closed ends did not improve the placement of letters in the writing space. This study gives no justification for requiring beginners in handwriting to use paper which is different from the kind they will use as adults.

Locus of Control and Self-Esteem among American Indians and Whites: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Compared in this study were the locus of control and self-esteem of American Indians (n = 97) and whites (n = 128). Contrary to previous research and theory, the two groups did not differ in locus of control as measured by the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire. However, they did differ in self-esteem as measured by the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory. The whites reported a significantly more positive view of the self than did the Indians.

Development and Validation of the Factors Influencing Pursuit of Higher Education Questionnaire

This article addresses the development and validation of the Factors Influencing Pursuit of Higher Education (FIPHE) Questionnaire, a 92-item self-report measure that investigates factors that influence individuals to pursue higher education. Reliability estimates for the nine FIPHE scale scores ranged from .66 to .90. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on data from a sample (N = 509) of college students enrolled in two south-eastern universities. The data were subjected to principal components analysis with varimax rotation. Although the researchers hypothesized 10 scales for the questionnaire, the results revealed that a nine-factor solution produced the most interpretable factor patterns. The nine-factor solution accounted for 43% of the common variance. Limitations of the research and implications for future research are discussed.

Accommodating Instruction to Learners' Field Independence/Dependence: A Study of Effects on Achievement and Attitudes:

Subjects (N = 221 undergraduate and graduate students) were randomly assigned printed study materials matched/mismatched with their cognitive style. Field independence and field dependence were the stylistic dimensions considered. Multivariate and univariate analyses yielded significant differences in achievement and attitudes as a function of cognitive style and college status but not of matching/mismatching instruction to cognitive style. Educational implications are discussed.

Effects of Number and Type of Response Choices on Internal Consistency Reliability

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects on Cronbach coefficient alpha, an estimate of internal consistency reliability, of altering the number and type of item-response choices on measures administered to two independent samples (ns, 492 and 730). An increase in the number and type of response choices (from true/false format to four-choice Likert-type format) significantly increased the internal consistency reliability estimate.