3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item Capacity for complexity, intelligence and personality.(2012-07-09) Comaroff, YaelThe chaos and instability which dominates the organisational environment of today often leads to complexity – continuous ambiguity and change. Leaders and managers are required to be able to make effective decisions in these highly abstract circumstances hence selecting and managing employees who have the capacity to handle complexity has become of great importance (Yuksel, 2011). The Career Path Appreciation (CPA), which is an interview-based technique assessing complexity, has become popular in the South African context however it is extremely costly and organisations need to be assured that the financial expense results in a valid, reliable and unique assessment. Therefore, this research explored the associations between three different assessment measures: the (CPA), the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III (WAIS-III) and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI). The aim of the study was to investigate whether personality and/or intelligence were associated with one’s capacity for complexity in any way and whether the CPA was distinct in any way from other personality and/or intelligence measures. The research was based on archival data collected from a final sample of 266 managers from a large international manufacturing organisation situated in South Africa. The only biographical information attained was for age of the individuals. Correlation results found that only one of the subscales of the WAIS-III, Similarities, was significantly and moderately correlated with current capacity for complexity. In terms of future potential, only Similarities and Block Design were found to have significant positive correlations. Many more of the personality factors were found to be related to capacity for complexity. Current capacity for complexity was moderately correlated with Achievement via Independence, Independence, Empathy, Social Presence, Capacity for Status and Flexibility. For future capacity for complexity, significant moderate relationships were found with Flexibility, Social Presence, Achievement via Independence, Intellectual Efficiency, Sociability and Empathy. Chi-Squared Tests of Association were conducted to assess the nominal data of CPA Style, which found that of all the WAIS-III subscales and overall scales, only Digit Symbol Coding, Similarities and Block Design showed evidence of significant relationships. Five CPI factors proved to be significantly associated with CPA Style: Empathy, Tolerance, Achievement via Independence, Intellectual Efficiency and Psychological Mindedness. A series of multiple regressions were conducted in order to find out which personality and intelligence facets predicted current and future capacity for complexity. It was found that forty-one percent of the variance in current capability was explained by age, Dominance, Sociability, Independence, Good Impression, Wellbeing, Achievement via Independence, Similarities and Block Design. In terms of future capability forty-eight percent of the variance in Mode was explained by age, Dominance, Social Acceptance, Good Impression, Achievement via Independence, Flexibility, Similarities, Block Design and Comprehension. The research concluded that the CPA assessment is a highly effective and unique technique for outlining an individual’s capacity for complexity even though it is an extremely costly assessment tool in South Africa. Although aspects of the WAIS-III and the CPI were found to be related to capacity for handling complexity, these results were not strong enough to conclude that the WAIS-III and the CPI overlap with the constructs measured in the CPA or could be used in its place.Item Raven's advanced progressive matrices within a South African context(2006-11-14T12:26:28Z) Israel, NicoleThe issue of bias, whether a psychological test measures what it claims to measure similarly across different groups, remains a fundamental concern within the field of psychometrics, particularly within South Africa, where a history riddled with oppression, discrimination and malpractice in the area has led to suspicion, mistrust and legislation banning the use of many psychological tests as invalid and unfair (Foxcroft & Roodt, 2001; Murphy & Davidshofer, 2001; Nell, 1999). There is thus clearly a need for additional and more detailed investigations of the way specific individual tests function in the South African context. This study attempted to creatively examine systematic differences in performance on one specific test, the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM), on the basis of home language and gender, factors seldom investigated in the literature. A sample of one hundred Psychology first-year students completed a demographic questionnaire, the RAPM, the Similarities sub-test of the South African Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales (SAWAIS) and an adapted version of the Reading Comprehension subtest of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT). The data gathered was then utilized to explore four main research questions. Firstly, in order to establish construct comparability, the relationship between the RAPM and a more verbally-oriented measure of g, the Similarities sub-test of the SAWAIS, was assessed. Results indicated a relatively strong positive relationship between the two measures (r = 0.66), and no significant differences between the correlations on the basis of either gender or home language. Secondly, in order to explore the relationship between the RAPM and English comprehension, the study assessed the relationship between overall, literal and inferential scores on an adapted version of the Reading Comprehension sub-test of the SDRT and the RAPM. Results indicated only a moderate relationship between the two tests (r = 0.65), no difference in the relationship between RAPM performance and literal comprehension or inferential comprehension, and no difference in the relationship between the two tests on the basis of either gender or home language. Thirdly, in order to establish whether items were found to be difficult in a similar way across the different gender and home language groups, p-values and regression lines were calculated. These indicated that significant differences in level of item difficulty were experienced between English and African language speakers, although no differences were apparent in item difficulty on the basis of gender. 5 Lastly, in order to establish whether qualitative differences in performance on the basis of ability (as estimated by performance on the RAPM), gender or language existed, a discrimination analysis examining the types of errors made by each group was performed. Repeated measures ANOVAs and multiple comparison post-hoc analyses revealed significant differences in the types of errors made on the basis of ability and home language, but not gender. The post-hoc analyses suggested that those of higher ability or first language English speakers were more likely to make incomplete correlate errors, while those of lower ability or speaking African first languages were more likely to make confluence of ideas errors. In general, the findings of the study seemed to suggest that the RAPM, while not biased on the basis of gender, might contain a deep-seated language bias despite their non-verbal presentation.