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The sleep habits, personality and academic performance of medical students.

The academic performance of 104 fourth-year medical students was assessed in relation to their sleep habits reported in a questionary and their scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Poorer academic performance was related significantly to later times of waking up in the morning, particularly at weekends, and to subjectively poorer quality sleep, but not to the amount of sleep usually obtained. Poor academic performance was related also to scores on scales 3 (hysteria), 4 (psychopathic deviate) and 8 (schizophrenia) of the MMPI. Simple enquiries about sleep habits may make it easier for students who are at greatest risk of academic failure to be identified and helped.

Australia

Defensive externality and its relation to academic performance.

This study examined the relationship between locus of control and academic performance by evaluating the academic achievement of defensive externals, which has been considered a confounding factor in previous research. A further objective was an examination of the effect of two mediating variables in their relation to locus of control and academic performance. One hundred sixty college students were administered the Internal, Powerful Others, and Chance scales, the Fear of Negative Evaluation scale, and the Achievement via Independence/via Conformance scales. Obtained results demonstrated that internals were academically superior to both defensive and congruent externals. Defensive externals were shown to have higher grade point averages than congruent externals, and female defensive externals achieved greater academic success than their male counterparts. Further results suggested that the relationship between locus of control and academic performance may not be a direct one but may be modified by specific mediating variables.

Achievement

Do stimulant drugs improve the academic performance of hyperkinetic children? A review of outcome studies.

Stimulant drug studies based primarily on measures of teacher opinion have frequently concluded that these drugs improve the achievement of hyperkinetic children. However, a review of those studies using more objective measures of academic performance revealed few positive short-term or long-term drug effects on these measures. What few improvements have been noted can be readily attributed to better attention during testing. The major effect of the stimulants appears to be an improvement in classroom manageability rather than academic performance. It would seem that the stimulants are not able to influence those etiologic factors, other than overactivity and inattentiveness, which predispose hyperkinetic children toward school difficulties. Hence, since the goal of pediatric intervention with these children should be to enhance school performance as well as reducing hyperactive behavior, the two should be independently and objectively monitored. Since stimulant medications fail to improve the academic performance of most of these children, additional educational assistance must be provided.

Central Nervous System Stimulants

Tactile-perceptual functioning and academic performance in brain-impaired and unimpaired children.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether tactile perception is a useful predictor of academic performance. 50 control and 42 brain-impaired (epileptic) children were examined. Both groups showed a strong relationship between tactile perceptual integrity and academic achievement. Analyses of extreme groups indicated that academic performance is clearly ordered by tactile perceptual skill not only for children with documented brain impairment but also for a normal control group as well. The implications for additions to the traditional cognitively oriented psychological test battery were discussed.

Achievement

Inventory and expressive measures of locus control and academic performance: a 5-year outcome study.

Inventory and expressive measures of locus of control were used in a effort to assess their long term potential for predicting academic performance. Thus 45 male graduate students from three diverse major areas and 45 male high ability undergraduates were initially administered Rotter locus of control and Autobiography locus of control scales. Academic data regarding grade point average and baccalaureal or doctoral degree attainment were gathered five years later. The hypotheses were supported to the extent that low to moderate significant correlations were found between the two locus of control scales and subsequent academic performance. The strongest relationships were found between locus of control and graduate degree attainment, with graduate student internals significantly more likely to earn the doctorate within 5-year period than externals. It was speculated that the externals might be a more persistent group, but the internals were more likely to either attain the degree within 5 years, or drop out. And within this study's restricted ability ranges, locus of control personality measures proved to be better predictors of degree attainment than conventional ability scales.

Achievement

Causal analysis of academic performance.

Maximum likelihood methods are presented to test for the relations between causes and effects in linear path diagrams, without assuming that estimates of causes are free of error. Causal analysis is illustrated by published data of the Equal Educational Opportunity Survey, which show that American schools do not significantly modify socioeconomic differences in academic performance and that little of the observed racial difference in academic performance is causal. For two races differing by 15 IQ points, the differential if social class were randomized would be only about 3 points. The principle is stressed that a racial effect in a causal system may be environmental and that its etiology can be studied only by analysis of family resemblance in hybrid populations.

Educational Status

Personality correlates of study difficulty and academic performance in university students. I. The Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire and Dynamic Personality Inventory.

The personality correlates of study difficulty and academic performance in university students have been measured in terms of psychiatric symptomatology and premorbid characteristics. The UCLSQ, MHQ and DPI were administered to two groups of male and female students presenting at an health centre: one (n = 72) of patients seeking psychological help, the other (n = 73) a control group. Significant differences between the two groups were formed on the MHQ, confirming previous results; and these were supplemented by differences on the DPI. Motivational and psychoneurotic components of study difficulty were significantly related to MHQ scores in both groups. DPI scores were more closely related to study difficulty in the patients than controls; and served particularly to characterize their sylbism and work satisfaction. The DPI added to the picture of a subgroup of students observed both in an earlier and the present study: academically successful patients scoring high on phobic anxiety.

Achievement

Sex differences in self-perceptions as students of excellence and academic performance.

Differences between the sexes in self-ratings on 37 characteristics of a quality student, changes in their perceptions over a semester, and academic performances were analyzed for 172 male and 281 females. The characteristics were collapsed into five groups reflecting learning in class, study habits and attitudes, peer relationships, student-instructor relationships, and physical and emotional needs. Trend analyses showed significant differences (a) between the sexes on three grouped characteristics: learning in class, study habits and attitudes, and peer relationships (with females reporting higher ratings), (b) among the three self-rating sessions(reflecting upward trends) on all grouped characteristics, and (c) on one interaction, student-instructor relationships. Analysis of variance showed that the females obtained significantly higher grades than did the males.

Achievement

Effect of menstruation on academic performance among college women.

Many studies report that women's performance and affective patterns fluctuate with their menstrual cycle. Poor mental performance is generally more common during menstruation and for several days prior to onset. Research on academically advanced women, however, has shown that their scholastic performance is less likely to exhibit the usual menstrual decline. Presumably, they are motivated enough to exert a compensatory effort on "off-days." Thus the current research was designed to test whether, among college women, academic performance fluctuates with the menstrual cycle. The academic performance of volunteers in and introductory college psychology course was followed. Biweekly course tests were used to measure performance. The subjects filled out menstrual calendars, indicated their SAT scores, and answered questions from a standardized test of academic motivation. Following the convention of past research, the "paramenstruum" (the time of menstrual stress) was defined to be the 4 days prior to onset and the first 4 days of menstruation. The other days in the cycle comprise the "intermenstruum." On all eight tests, the difference between paramenstrual and intermenstrual performance (adjusted for aptitude and motivation) was insignificant.

Achievement

Anxiety level as an indicator of academic performance during first semester of graduate work.

This article presents the results of an empirically based research study that examines the use of the trait and state anxiety level of first semester graduate students as a potential indicator of academic performance (N = 63 males and females. The findings reveal that the higher the student's Graduate Record Examination (GRE) score, the greater his chances of achieving a higher grade point average (GPA) at the end of his first semester of graduate work. Moreover, the lower his A-Trait anxiety score at the time of admission, the greater his likelihood of earning a higher first semester GPA.

Adult

Personality correlates of study difficulty and academic performance in university students. II. Conscience and self-esteem.

Scales measuring self-esteem and conscience have been included in a further study of work-related symptoms in students. Two groups were tested: a group of patients attending the UCL Student Health Centre for psychological reasons, and a group of normal controls. Conscience and self-esteem were inversely related to one another. Both tests were reliable and differentiated between the groups. The patients tend to have low self-esteem, high conscience, and to score higher than controls both on neurotic symptoms as such as measured by a personality inventory (MHQ) and as assessed on work-related symptoms measured by our study difficulty questionnaire (UCLSQ). In terms of academic performance, an interesting subgroup of students was delineated who are rated highly by their tutors but who appear subjectively troubled with phobic anxiety, low self-esteem and a harsh conscience structure. The conscience and self-esteem scales, in view of their brevity, acceptable reliability, and in terms of the relationships discussed in this paper, will be retained for further research.

Achievement

Academic performance and cognitive processes in EMR children.

The present study investigated the extent to which simultaneous and successive processing were related both to academic achievement and Verbal and Performance IQs in EMR adolescents. Simultaneous processing involves the integration of individual stimuli into quasi-spatial groups, whereas successive processing integrates individual stimuli into temporally organized successive series. Simultaneous processing was significantly related to WRAT arithmetic and WISC Performance IQ, whereas successive processing was involved in WRAT spelling and WRAT oral reading and negatively related to WISC Performance IQ. Silent reading and WISC Verbal IQ were related to neither processing strategy. These findings were considered in the broader context of the processing demands underlying decoding and comprehension skills in different subject populations.

Achievement

Neuropsychological significance of variations in patterns of academic performance: verbal and visual-spatial abilities.

Forty-five 9- to 14-year-old children with learning disabilties whose WISC Full Scale IQs fell within the range of 86-114 were divided into three groups on the basis of their patterns of reading, spelling, and arithmetic achievement. Group 1 was composed of children who were uniformly deficient in reading, spelling, and arithmetic; children in Group 2 were relatively adept at arithmetic as compared to their performance in reading and spelling; Group 3 was composed of children whose reading and spelling performances were average or above, but whose arithmetic performance was relatively deficient. The performances of these children on 16 dependent measures were compared. The performances of Groups 1 and 2 were superior to that of Group 3 on measures of visual-perceptual and visual-spatial abilities; Group 3 performed at a superior level to that of Groups 1 and 2 on measures of verbal and auditory-perceptual abilities. The results are discussed in terms of the relationships between varying patterns of academic abilities and patterns of brain-related behaviors, and the nature of the neuropsychological abilities that may limit performance on arithmetic calculation tasks.

Achievement

Physical stigma and academic performance as factors affecting children's first impressions of handicapped peers.

The effects of four variables on attitudes toward children were studied: the sex and social status of the rater and the physical appearance and academic competence of the target child being rated. The results indicated that competent and physically nonstigmatized children were rated more favorably than incompetent and physically stigmatized children. The data also revealed that girls had a significantly more positive stereotype than did boys of a competent male target child but that boys were more willing to be in physical proximity to the male target child as measured by a social-distance scale. Finally, the results indicated that popular children rated the attractive and competent target child less favorably than children who were not so popular. However, the popular children rated the attractive and incompetent target child more favorably than the less popular children did. The findings were discussed in terms of the salience of physical labels (i.e., stigma) on attitudes toward children.

Achievement

Academic performance and social factors related to cigarette smoking by schoolchildren.

Factors which may influence boys and girls aged between 10 and 121/2 years to start smoking were studied. Information was obtained from 491 schoolchildren, their parents, and headteachers. In their own view and that of their headteachers children who did not smoke were academically better than smokers. Children who smoked were more likely than non-smokers to have a parent and siblings of the same sex who smoked. No association was found between the child's own smoking and that of parents and siblings of the opposite sex. Smokers were more likely to have friends who smoked. Most children did not think smoking was enjoyable or desirable and many thought it bad for health, irrespective of their own smoking habits. The majority thought people of their own age smoked to show off.

Achievement

Effects of methylphenidate alone and in combination with behavior modification procedures on the behavior and academic performance of hyperactive children.

Twenty hyperactive 6- to 9-year-old children of normal intelligence were studied in a half-day laboratory classroom in a 2-week period baseline-treatment-reversal design for behavior modification. Under double-blind conditions half the children were placed on .3 mg/kg of Ritalin and half on placebo for the entire program. The classroom program consisted of a group period with immediate reinforcement possible, and an individual time period without immediate reinforcement possible. Behavior modification caused a significant decrease in nonattending, out-of-seat, inappropriate vocalizing and inappropriate peer interaction behavior in the group period. Fidgeting, a nontargeted behavior, was not significantly decreased during this period but did significantly decrease as a result of medication. No other drug effects occurred during this period. During the individual period, the results were essentially reversed. There were no significant behavior modification effects observed. Significant reductions resulted from medication in all behaviors except out-of-seat and fidgeting. Behavior modification alone significantly affected the two academic measures. No signigicant effects were seen on the Conners Abbreviated Teacher Rating Scale. No significant interactions were noted between medication and behavior modification.

Achievement