INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY (IPA)
Year:2018 | Volume:11 | Issue:1|Papers Count:6

There is no doubt that the educational process consists of more than one or two factors. Several scholars maintain that it is important to put the emphasis on the role of psychological factors on academic performance. This study was an attempt to represent a pattern of correlations, through Structural Equation Modeling, among optimism, locus of control and academic achievement as well as the mediating effect of school satisfaction. Five-hundred and ten students, out a total population of the senior high-school (preuniversity) male students, were selected randomly through cluster sampling. Data was collected through a set of questionnaires including: (1) Life Orientation Test-Revised Scale (Scheier &Carver, 1992), (2) School satisfaction sub-scale adopted from Satisfaction with Life Scale (Huebener, 1994), and (3) Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1966). Data was submitted to a diagrammed structural equation model with its prerequisite exploratory factor analysis. The outcomes indicated that: (a) there is a bidirectional relationship between optimism and locus of control, (b) school satisfaction mediates the relationship between optimism and academic achievement, (c) the direct effect of school satisfaction on students’ academic achievement and the indirect effect of optimism on academic achievement through the mediating effect of school satisfaction was significant, and (4) there is no significant effect of locus of control on academic achievement while the mediating effect of school satisfaction is taken into account. The goodness of fit index indicated that the proposed diagrammed model is appropriate.

The aim of this study was to test the causal relationship between academic motivation and academic engagement with mediating role of achievement emotions and academic hardiness. 280 first year female high school students of Dezful city were selected by multiple stage random sampling. The instruments used in this study was the Revised Academic Hardiness Scale (2005), Tinio's Academic Engagement Scale (2009), Academic Motivation Scale (1989) and Pekrun's Achievement Emotion Questionnaire (2002). The current study plan was descriptive-correlative and the fitness of the proposed model was examined through structural equation modeling. The indirect effects were tested by using bootstrap procedure. The findings indicated that model fitted the data and all the direct paths were significant except external motivation to negative emotions. Also, all the indirect paths were significant.

The current research study aimed at exploring the relationship among self-actualization (SA), creativity, emotional intelligence (EI), language, and academic achievement in gifted high school students. A sample of 77 female students studying at a high school for gifted students was selected to complete three questionnaires about self-actualization, creativity, and emotional intelligence, respectively. To analyze data the Pearson correlation coefficient was applied as a statistical procedure. The analysis of the collected data revealed that firstly, there was a significant positive relationship between the participants’ SA and creativity; the highly self-actualized individuals were highly creative as well. Secondly, there was a significant positive relationship between SA and participants’ EI, i. e., those whose score were high in SA were also highly emotionally intelligent; and lastly, it was revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between creativity of the participants and their EI. This means that the more creative an individual is, the more emotionally intelligent he or she will be. In addition, the results showed that while there was a significant positive relationship between creativity and participants’ language achievement, there was no significant relationship among other variables in relation to participants’ language and academic achievement. This significant positive relationship meant that highly creative participants had better grades in language achievement in comparison with other gifted participants.

The present study aims at examining the effects of moderating variables on the association between extraversion and identity styles. A quantitative research method (descriptive and survey) was employed. The sample included high school students (n=380) aged 17 and 18. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaires. Hierarchical regression analyses were used. In the first stage, the relationship between extraversion and normative style was significantly moderated by the level of education (β =. 10, p<. 05). Additional results also showed that peer group relationship significantly moderates the relationship between extraversion and also diffuses identity style (β =-. 13, p<. 05). The results of the study supported theories like social cognitive theory, General other theory, and the triat approach. The results shed new light on the processes involved in the personality characteristics and moderating variables of adolescents’ styles of identity exploration.

This study examined the relationships between intelligence, moral identity and prosocial moral reasoning with the mediating role of moral identity. From the population of undergraduate university students of Salman Farsi University of Kazerun, 245 students (163 female and others male) were selected by convenience sampling. They completed the questionnaires for the assessment of general intelligence (Cattell, 1957), moral identity (Aquino & Reed, 2002), prosocial moral reasoning (Carlo, Eisenberg, & Knight, 1992) and social desirability (Reynolds, 1982). Lie/nonsense responding and social desirability were controlled from correlations by the partial correlation method. The findings showed that there were positive and significant relationships between intelligence, prosocial moral reasoning and internalization subscale of moral identity (p <. 01, for all). The mediating role of moral identity (internalization) was confirmed for internalized prosocial moral reasoning by the path analysis method. The importance of both rationality and social learning in making the different types of prosocial reasoning was discussed for explanation the findings.

Studies have shown that early life events affect physiological, psychological and social functioning and are related to a wide range of psychological problems in adulthood. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Early Life Events Scale (ELES) based on the Item Response Theory (IRT) and the Classical Theory of Measurement in an Iranian population. The participants consisted of 400 students of universities in Tehran at all academic levels. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were used to assess the construct validity of the ELES. Three factors were extracted from the exploratory factor analysis, and the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the accuracy of the extracted factors. As the Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient always underestimates the reliability value, the ordinal theta and R software were used to assess the reliability of the scale and the results showed that the scale has a good reliability. To evaluate the accuracy of the items, determine their strengths and weaknesses and ultimately assess their quality and remove inappropriate items, the scale items were analyzed based on the IRT and the Classical Theory of Measurement using MULTILOG; the results showed that all the items are of a good quality in terms of threshold values (credibility), informative value and accuracy and that no items need to be changed or removed.