Date of Award:

5-1980

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Elwin C. Nielsen

Committee

Elwin C. Nielsen

Committee

Jay R. Jensen

Committee

Michael Bertoch

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether or not the use of a biographical inventory would be a feasible and viable adjunctive means of making more accurate predictions of student success in programs of upper-division and graduate study in speech pathology and audiology. During the past years, biographical inventories have been found to be predictive of creativity, performance as a military officer, performance in varied occupations, and academic performance. It was hypothesized that a biographical inventory could be developed which, when used in conjunction with the existing academic predictors of Grade Point Average and Graduate Records Examination scores, would add to the established selection instruments. As a means of identifying and distinguishing among several levels of competency of students, a student evaluation form was constructed and validated. Items cores from a 257 item biographical inventory were correlated with scores obtained from the student evaluation form and a 52 item biographical inventory for speech pathology and audiology students was developed. Admissions criteria data, student evaluation form scores and biographical inventory scores were placed in two step-wise multiple regression equations and analyzed statistically. Results indicate that biographical factors appear to be of importance to undergraduate success in programs of speech and hearing therapy. Student success in the more rigorous programs of graduate study appears to depend much more on academic ability. Disparate results indicate that the use of a biographical inventory as an adjunctive academic predictor should be approached with caution until further studies can be conducted.

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Included in

Psychology Commons

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