Theses/Dissertations - Educational Psychology
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Browsing Theses/Dissertations - Educational Psychology by Author "Beaujean, A. Alexander."
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Item Antecedents to turnover intention : examining organizational learning culture and leader member exchange.(2016-04-04) Parker, Sonia Lee.; Beaujean, A. Alexander.Turnover intention is an important variable for organizations seeking to retain employees and reduce costs associated with hiring and training new employees. While variables such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and to a lesser extent, leader member exchange, have been studied in conjunction with turnover intention, organizational learning culture has not been a prominent within the human resources management literature. I found an existing model of turnover intention which examined organizational learning culture, leader member exchange, and organizational commitment. The extant model had been created and previously validated with populations from Korea and Malaysia. Using path analysis, I sought to determine whether the model would fit a sample (n= 192) from the United States. The model fit was not acceptable and results were interpreted with caution. Next, I extended the model by adding the variable of job satisfaction. The Parker model of turnover intention was tested with the same sample. LMX quality and organizational learning culture explained 18% of the variance in organizational commitment and 32% of the variance in job satisfaction. Overall, 54% of the variance of turnover intention was explained by this model of turnover intention and the overall model fit was deemed acceptable. I discuss the implications of the results and conclude with a discussion on the cultural considerations of the models of turnover intention, limitations on the study, and ideas for future research.Item An examination of the Flynn effect in the National Intelligence Test in Estonia.(2013-05-15) Shiu, William.; Beaujean, A. Alexander.; Educational Psychology.; Baylor University. Dept. of Educational Psychology.This study examined the Flynn Effect (FE; i.e., the rise in IQ scores over time) in Estonia from Scale B of the National Intelligence Test using both classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT) methods. Secondary data from two cohorts (1934, n = 890 and 2006, n = 913) of students were analyzed, using both classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT) methods. CTT analysis compared the summed score for each subtest between the cohorts. IRT analysis examined item invariance across the time period and then, for each subtest, linked the latent variable scores between the two cohorts using the invariant items. IRT analyses revealed that each subtest displayed invariance on over 50% of the items (i.e., partial measurement invariance). Additionally, results from the current study found positive score gains but also revealed reverse FEs. CTT analysis showed three subtests had a FE (Vocabulary [.74], Analogies [1.09], and Comparisons [1.71]), while two subtests had a reverse FE (Computation [-.33] and Information [-.03]). The IRT analysis found that four subtests had a positive FE (Information [.44], Vocabulary [.79], Analogies [1.02], and Comparisons [1.51]), with only the Computation (-.10) subtest displaying a negative FE. The results con rm previous research that the FE continues in Estonia. Using CTT methods, Must, te Nijenhuis, Must, and van Vianen (2009) found positive gains on the Estonian NIT subtests Computation (.15), Information (.94), Vocabulary (.65), Analogies (1.81), and Comparison (2.34). An implication of the current study shows the viability of IRT to supplement CTT when analyzing the FE. The IRT procedures demonstrated in the current study provides a counter argument that the rise in IQ scores is a psychometric artifact, at least in the domains of Comprehension-Knowledge, Fluid Reasoning, and Visual Processing. As this study was unable to examine causative factors involved in the FE, future studies should examine if the score gains might be attributed to some environmental cause (e.g., nutrition, education) or biological cause (e.g., heterosis).Item Individual differences and cognitive complexity investigated in community college writing.(2014-09-05) Thomson, David E.; Beaujean, A. Alexander.; Educational Psychology.; Baylor University. Dept. of Educational Psychology.Synthesizing empirical findings about lifelong writing development, I tested a measurement of cognitive complexity (CC) toward understanding how the language of affect may interact with that language associated with acts of thinking. A community college in central Texas was the site of the study where I analyzed the essays of basic (n= 134) and advanced (n =89) composition students. Since vocational-track students make up about half of the enrollment, I compared those students' (n= 27) performance with traditional associate-degree seeking students (n =134). Additionally, I collected personality profiles from many of those students (n= 145) to explore any possible interaction of Neuroticism (N) on the affect component of the measure under investigation. Results showed small relations between CC and sex (Cohen's d} =.24), CC and course level (d =.18), and CC and N (r =.1). Just as women tended to outscore men on CC, so did basic composition students in comparison to their advanced peers. There was almost no difference between vocational and traditional college track students. Overall, this study may present evidence of a natural-word-usage ceiling evident in the automated textual analysis software used to measure CC. More clearly it showed that CC as measured in the present study negatively correlates with standardized reading (r =-0.14) and writing (r =-0.28) scores. I conclude by discussing the need to gather a broader lifespan sampling of whatever ability and trait characteristics detail CC as that realized in an academic community valuing the free and tolerant exchange of ideas.Item Individual differences as predictors of accidents in early adulthood.(2009-04-01T12:08:29Z) Young, J. Kenneth.; Beaujean, A. Alexander.; Educational Psychology.; Baylor University. Dept. of Educational Psychology.Within the last decade, researchers within the field of epidemiology have begun to use measures of intelligence to predict health-related outcomes in the emerging sub-field of cognitive epidemiology (CE). Researchers within CE have been successful in demonstrating that intelligence is a significant predictor of important heath-related outcomes ranging from mortality to dementia (Batty, Deary, & Gottfredson, 2007; Snowdon, et al., 1996), often independent of potentially confounding variables (e.g., socioeconomic status). One health outcome that has not been thoroughly explored in the CE literature is accidents and unintentional injuries. Such health impairments pose a significant health threat for adults and children, due to their long term sequelae, both individually (Berger & Mohan, 1996), and at the public health level (Segui-Gomez & Mackenzie, 2003). Subsequently, their investigation and, ultimately, prevention appears to be a fruitful area of inquiry. One potentially confounding variable that has not been investigated extensively in the study of accidents, as well as CE literature in general is personality--despite a literature that suggests certain personality measures predict important life outcomes (Roberts, et al., 2007). The current study used probit regression with unobserved latent variables to investigate the relationship between cognitive ability (as measured during early adolescence) and personality traits in predicting accident incidence in early adulthood using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health dataset. Childhood socioeconomic status and adulthood physical activities were used as covariates. Findings suggest that neither childhood IQ nor personality proved to be meaningful predictors of accidents in early adulthood, but physical activity in adulthood was a consistent and meaningful predictor. Discussion, limitations, and suggestions for future research conclude the study.Item The effectiveness of Team-Based Learning : a meta-analysis.(2016-07-28) Liu, Sin-Ning Cindy.; Beaujean, A. Alexander.Team Based Learning (TBL) is a pedagogical method developed by Larry K. Michaelsen as a response to the problems of large classes (e.g., low student motivation, low levels of student participation, low class attendance) (Parmelee, 2010). Since its development, TBL has been widely used by educators in many fields and in many countries (Parmelee, 2010; Sweet & Michaelsen, 2007). In this study, a meta-analysis was conducted on existing TBL research. The hypothesis of the study was that the use of TBL will have some effect on student academic outcomes. The moderating effects of country of origin, outcome measure type, education level, and course subject were analyzed. On average, across all studies, TBL seemed to produce better academic outcomes than the comparison pedagogical methods.