Advisor
Johnson, Brian
Committee Member
Gonzalez, David
Committee Member
Wright, Stephen
Committee Member
Mundform, Daniel
Department
Applied Psychology & Counselor Education
Institution
University of Northern Colorado
Type of Resources
Text
Place of Publication
Greeley (Colo.)
Publisher
University of Northern Colorado
Date Created
8-1-2011
Genre
Thesis
Extent
161 pages
Digital Origin
Born digital
Description
The prediction of success in graduate education is of growing interest in the field of professional psychology. Large scale studies and meta-analyses have established that cognitive and personality variables do provide increments of validity in the prediction of individual differences in academic outcomes. However, there continues to be debate regarding the most effective variables to build predictive models and how to define success in graduate school. This dissertation analyzed whether the prediction of performance in a professional counseling masters program (PCMP) using undergraduate grade point average and Pre-Admissions Workshop rating scores could be incremented by adding personality traits, as measured by the MMPI-2. Graduate grade point average (GGPA) and internship evaluation ratings (IER) were both used as success criteria in order to investigate whether a stronger predictive model could be built using a traditional outcome variable or a criterion more in line with the training objective of a professional program. The two hierarchical regression analyses produced a number of key findings. Across both analyses, the MMPI-2 independently accounted for the most variance in performance outcome, after controlling for the traditional admissions variables. The final model accounted for 24.4% of the variance in GGPA and of that, the MMPI-2 uniquely explained 17.7%. When IER was used as the criterion, the final model accounted for 15.6% of the variance, and 14.5% of that variance was uniquely explained by the MMPI-2. Scales 9 (Hypomania), 2 (Depression) and F (Infrequency) on the MMPI-2 were the most significant contributors to the prediction of performance. Overall, these findings provided empirical support for the inclusion of an objective, valid personality instrument in PCMP admissions procedures and suggest that personality characteristics are veritably relevant to academic performance. Likewise, the use of IER as a criterion of success in a PCMP demonstrated potential as a variable that could overcome the limitations of using GGPA. Suggestions as to how to build on these results, through future research, are provided.
Degree type
PhD
Degree Name
Doctoral
Language
English
Local Identifiers
Bethune_unco_0161D_10082
Rights Statement
Copyright is held by author.
