A meta-analytic investigation of conscientiousness in the prediction of job performance: examining the intercorrelations and the incremental validity of narrow traits

Researchers of broad and narrow traits have debated whether narrow traits are important to consider in the prediction of job performance. Because personality-performance relationship meta-analyses have focused almost exclusively on the Big Five, the predictive power of narrow traits has not been adequately examined. In this study, the authors address this question by meta-analytically examining the degree to which the narrow traits of conscientiousness predict above and beyond global conscientiousness. Results suggest that narrow traits do incrementally predict performance above and beyond global conscientiousness, yet the degree to which they contribute depends on the particular performance criterion and occupation in question. Overall, the results of this study suggest that there are benefits to considering the narrow traits of conscientiousness in the prediction of performance.     

Perceptions of autonomy support,parent attachment,competence and self-worth as predictors of motivational orientation and academic achievement: an examination of sixth- and ninth-grade regular education students

This project examined the hypothesis that students' perceptions of teacher autonomy support, parent attachment, competence, and self-worth would predict motivational orientation and achievement test performance. Participants were 135 sixth-grade and 91 ninth-grade regular education students from a large, ethnically diverse school district. Stepwise regression analyses indicated that autonomy support, parent attachment, scholastic competence, and self-worth predicted the academic criterion variables. Interestingly, scholastic competence was a significant predictor in all of the regression models. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of classroom practices.     

Student's metamemory knowledge about the impact of stereoscopic three‐dimensional presentations of science content

We investigated students' knowledge and beliefs about the impact of using three‐dimensional (3D) multimedia presentations. Students listened to a lecture about the ventricular system, which was presented alone (Experiment 1 only) or with a 3D or a 2D video illustrating the system. Afterwards, students judged how well they would perform on a criterion test. In Experiment 1, students judged that the 3D presentation would be superior to listening to the lecture alone (d = 0.81). Mean judgments were higher for the 3D than 2D presentation (d = 0.24), but this difference was not significant, so we estimated the effect size again. In Experiment 2, judgments were significantly higher after the 3D than 2D presentations (d = 0.40). Test performance was not significantly greater after the 3D than 2D presentations. A survey study again revealed that students believe 3D presentations are superior, and most students reported preferring them to 2D presentations.