The Contribution of Personality Traits,Motivation, Academic Risk-Taking and Metacognition to the Creative Ability in Mathematics

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which personality traits, motivation, academic risk-taking, and metacognition explain the mathematical creative ability of high school students. The participants were 217 9th-grade students that were exceptionally high achievers. The participants responded to a set of measures about personality traits, motivation, academic risk-taking, metacognition, and creative ability in mathematics. The results revealed that although openness to experience and consciousness were significantly correlated with creative ability in mathematics, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism were not correlated with the creativity scores. Moreover, intrinsic goal orientation followed by openness to experience was the most significant predictor of mathematical creative ability. Academic risk-taking was not significantly correlated with creative ability. Although knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition showed moderate correlations with creative ability in mathematics, they failed to predict creative ability.     

A multigroup multitrait-multimethod study in two countries supports the validity of a two-factor higher order model of personality

This study examined the factor structure of the Big Five Inventory and tested the hypothesis that the five personality dimensions could be summarized by two higher order factors, namely, plasticity and stability, using multigroup multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analyses. We tested the higher order model in two young adult samples drawn from Germany and Turkey. Adequate inter-rater agreement between self- and informant reports was obtained. Among the models tested, a two-factor model was the most parsimonious model in which the first factor included Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and low Neuroticism; and the second factor included Extraversion and Openness to Experience. Invariance of this model was supported by multiple-group analyses, suggesting a lack of variability across samples.     

State and Trait Anxiety Levels of Adolescents in a Changing Society, Kirikkale City, Turkey

Adolescents face rapidly changing challenges. Psychosocial health problems during adolescence are relatively common in all cultures. This study was designed to evaluate the state and trait anxiety status and influencing sociodemographic and other factors, thought to pertain to youth, on anxiety among school children in Kirikkale. It was carried out at three public primary and two high schools representative of two different socioeconomic statuses. 430 Turkish school children (246 girls, 184 boys) were asked voluntarily to answer a set of questionnaires in their classrooms at the beginning of a training programme. Then the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children was administered. Mean age of the students was 14.16 ± 1.87 years. The mean total STAI-CS and STAI-CT scores were 40.24 ± 11.64, and 44.71 ± 9.64, respectively. There were no differences in STAI-CS and STAI-CT scores between boys and girls in both schools and in all age groups. Among girls, a positive body image had a significant effect on state anxiety scores. There was a positive correlation between age and anxiety scores (r = .17, F:12.176, p < .001). Students identifying their families SES as bad and/or moderate scored significantly higher in comparison to the other groups (p < .05). STAI-CS scores were higher for lower educational grade, higher body weight and sleep problems. In Kirikkale, a city faced with substantial changes in cultural and traditional norms, adolescents could be expected to be under stress and appear to be responding to stress with anxiety.