Predictors of Academic Performance

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the explanatory style is a cognitive personality variable that reflects the habitual manner in which people explain the causes of bad events that befall them. According to the paper, researchers believe that attributional style can help provide a better understanding of behaviors and consequences that affect one's performance and actions. The paper further discusses how tests of this relationship have spanned a wide variety of achievement settings including academic, health, athletic, and work settings, and how some of the problems and stresses affect performance, focusing primarily on academics.

Contents:
Chapter One
Performance
Statement of the Problem
Purpose of the Study
Significance of the Study
Research Hypothesis
Scope and Limitation of the Study
Definition of Terms
Overview of the Study
Chapter Two
Review of Related Literature
Chapter Three
Methodology
Identification of Subjects
Implementing the Study
Gathering and Analyzing Data
Chapter Four
Data Analysis
Chapter Five
Summary, Recommendations, and Conclusions

From the Paper:

"For African Americans, ethnic identity and cultural racism significantly predict life satisfaction (Utsey et al, 2002). The study conducted by Utsey et al (2002) dealt with how African Americans felt about the culture and ethnicity that they belonged to, whether they felt they had been the victims of racism during their lifetimes, and also looked at how satisfied they were with their lives. Those that were less comfortable with their ethnicity and those that had been victimized by racism had lower quality of life scores than those that were comfortable and did not feel as though they had been victims. The higher the victimization score, the lower the quality of life score for these individuals.
Phinney, Cantu, and Kurtz (1997) state that having a poorly developed racial identity can lead to depression, a lack of comfort with oneself, and many other emotional problems that can be avoided when racial identity development theory is more clearly understood. On the other hand, having a racial identity that is well developed and that one is very comfortable with produces the opposite effects. While this is not an overly surprising insight, it is important that the correlation be noticed and recognized as something that should be studied and understood more clearly. This understanding of the link between racial identity and well-being has its roots in counseling psychology. By understanding the process of the development of racial identity, counselors felt they could begin to better understand pathology among black patients. Similarly, in investigating life satisfaction among African Americans, researchers (Utsey et al, 2002; Phinney et al, 1997) theorized that they must be attuned to cultural differences. There are significant potential dangers when researchers are unable to incorporate culture as a variable. Without a good understanding of cultural differences, it is possible for behavior to be misunderstood and even pathologized."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Abouserie, R. (1994). Sources and levels of stress in relation to locus of control and self-esteem in university students. Educational Psychology, 14(3), 323-330.
• Abramson, L, Y., Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49-74.
• Aguirre, A. & Baker, D.V. 1999. Slave executions in the United States: a rescriptive analysis of social and historical factors. Social Science Journal, 36(1): 1.
• American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 1996 (3rd ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company.
• Anderson, R.B. 2003. A sound mind and a sound body: the Don Bosco Boys Club of Selma, Alabama, 1947-1964. Journal of American Ethnic History, 22(2).

More papers on Predictors of Academic Performance:

• Research Paper # 91638 : "Academic Performance"
• Research Proposal # 111692 : "Education and Parent Involvement"
• Essay # 46120 : "Early Sexual Experience Among Adolescents"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: