Academic buoyancy,academic motivation,and academic achievement among filipino high school students

Academic buoyancy refers to students’ capability of dealing with day-to-day obstacles in the school contexts. Previous studies have demonstrated that academic buoyancy is linked to optimal outcomes. However, limited research has been conducted to explore why academic buoyancy can predict positive academic functioning. This research examined the association of academic buoyancy with academic motivational dimensions and achievement among 393 Filipino high school students. The indirect effects of academic buoyancy on achievement via the intermediate variable - academic motivational orientations were explored. Findings showed that academic buoyancy was associated with higher levels of academic achievement as well as controlled and autonomous motivational orientations. Academic buoyancy had indirect effects on achievement via autonomous motivation. This means that intrinsic motivation serves as a potential mechanism through which academic buoyancy may be associated with perceived academic achievement. Findings of this research emphasize the academic benefits of cultivating students’ capability to deal with daily academic hassles.

     

Psychological capital bolsters motivation,engagement, and achievement: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies

Psychological capital (PsyCap) has been widely investigated in the organizational context. However, limited attention has been given to the role of PsyCap in the academic setting. The primary objective of this study was to examine how PsyCap is associated with academic motivation, engagement, and achievement using both cross-sectional (Study 1) and longitudinal (Study 2) approaches. Study 1 revealed that PsyCap was associated with higher autonomous motivation and controlled motivation even after controlling for relevant demographic variables. PsyCap was also associated with lower levels of amotivation. Study 2 showed that PsyCap was both a concurrent and prospective predictor of autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, academic engagement, and academic achievement even after controlling for their respective autoregressors and other relevant covariates. Mediational analyses indicated that the effects of T1 PsyCap on T2 achievement and T2 engagement were mediated by T2 autonomous motivation. The theoretical and practical implications are elucidated.     

Perseverance Counts but Consistency Does Not! Validating the Short Grit Scale in a Collectivist Setting

The present research aims to validate the Short Grit Scale (Duckworth et al. Journal of Personality Assessment 91:166–174, 2009) among a sample of university (n?=?220) and high school students (n?=?606) from a collectivist culture (i.e., the Philippines) using both within-network and between-network approaches to construct validation. Our results revealed interesting cross-cultural differences in grit. First, grit was comprised of two distinct dimensions rather than as a hierarchical construct. Only the perseverance of effort dimension loaded onto the higher-order grit factor. Second, perseverance of effort was more salient in predicting key psychological outcomes (i.e., academic engagement and subjective well-being) compared to consistency of interests. This suggests that in collectivist cultures, the perseverance of effort dimension of grit is more relevant compared to the consistency of interest. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Core self‐evaluations and subjective well‐being in the U.S. and the Philippines: The moderating role of self‐construal

Extant literature has shown that the compound personality variable core self‐evaluations (CSE) is associated with various psychological outcomes. However, there is a dearth of research on CSE across cultures. Consistent with self‐construal theory, because there can be differences in self‐construals within and between cultures, the present study examined the moderating role of culture on the relation between CSE and subjective well‐being while also allowing for individual differences in self‐construal in the US and the Philippines. In both countries, CSE positively predicted subjective well‐being. Notably, the association between CSE and subjective well‐being was stronger in the US than in the Philippines. In addition, independent self‐construal strengthened the positive impact of CSE on subjective well‐being especially in the US. Overall, CSE positively predicts subjective well‐being; however, the relationship depends on not only the cultural context, but also on individual differences in self‐construal.     

Psychometric Properties of a Structured Behavioral Interview to Hire Private Security Personnel

This paper reports on a study about the reliability and validity of a structured behavioral interview to assess private security personnel. Reliability was estimated using interrater coefficients. Two independent interviewers were used to rate each interviewee. Results show a reliability coefficient of .81 (N = 43) and .89 with Spearman-Brown correction for two raters. Validity was estimated using a content validation approach. This strategy was suggested by Lawshe (1975) to estimate the content validity of selection tests. So far, only two studies carried out by Schmitt and Ostroff (1986) and Carrier et al. (1990) have used Lawshe's strategy in the structured behavioral interview case. The interview consisted of seven questions and each was rated by 11 experts in the job. Results show a significant content validity ratio (CVR) for majority of the questions in the interview and a content validity index (CVI) of .89. Implications of these findings for the practice of the structured behavioral interview are discussed and future research is suggested.     

Scientific productivity and Hirsch's h index of Spanish social psychology: convergence between productivity indexes and comparison with other areas

This article describes Hirsch's h index as a measure of researchers' scientific productivity and quality, examining its convergent validity with other productivity and quality measures (total citations, maximum citation, sexennials, years since earning Ph.D., and years as a full professor). It shows the distribution of the index among Spanish Social Psychology professors, and a comparison is made among the ten professors with highest h index of the six knowledge areas into which academic Psychology is divided in Spain. The results show that the index largely correlates with the citations but only very modestly with the number of sexennial investigations. The distributions by areas show that Psychobiology and Basic Psychology, as a whole, have a higher h index than the other areas, with Social Psychology in fourth place. Lastly, we discuss the implications of these results and we offer some recommendations for using the index in academic and research decision making.     

Individual and social risk factors related to overt victimization in a sample of Spanish adolescents

This study analyzes the role of adolescents' self-esteem, loneliness, sociometric status, and perceptions of family and classroom environment on overt vicitimization by peers in a sample of 1319 Spanish adolescents (48% boys and 52% girls), ages 11 to 16 years (M=13.7, SD=1.5). The findings from structural equation modeling suggest that adolescents' self-esteem, loneliness, and sociometric status had a significant direct effect on overt victimization by peers, and adolescents' perceptions of family and classroom environment had a significant indirect effect on peer overt victimization mediated by self-esteem, loneliness, and sociometric status. The findings are discussed with the consideration of these variables as individual and social risk factors for overt victimization by peers.     

Estimating Coefficients of Equivalence and Stability for Job Performance Ratings: The importance of controlling for transient error on criterion measurement

Previous research on measurement error in job performance ratings estimated reliability using coefficients: alpha, test–retest, and interrater correlation. None of these three coefficients control for the four main sources of error in performance ratings. For this reason, coefficient of equivalence and stability (CES) has been suggested as the ideal estimate of reliability. This article presents the estimates of CES for a time interval of 1, 2, and 3 years. The values obtained for a single rater were .51, .48, and .44, respectively. For two raters, the values were .59, .55, and .51. The findings suggest that previous reliability estimates based on alpha, test–retest, and interrater coefficients overestimated the reliability of job performance ratings. In the present study, the interrater coefficient overestimates reliability by 13.6–25.4% for an interval time of 1–3 years, as it does not control for transient error. Results also showed that the importance of transient error increases as the length of the interval between the measures increases. Based on the results, it is suggested that corrected validities based on interrater reliability underestimate the magnitude of the validity. The implications of these findings for future efforts to estimate criterion reliability and predictor validity are discussed.