What is the best way to assign graduate business students to online team-based projects? Team assignments are frequently made on the basis of alphabet, time zones or previous performance. This study reviews personality as an indicator of student online team performance. The personality assessment IDE (Insights Discovery Evaluator) was administered…

Path analysis is presented as a technique that can be used to test on a priori model based on a theoretical conceptualization involving a network of selected variables. This being an introductory source, no previous knowledge of path analysis is assumed, although some understanding of the fundamentals of multiple regression analysis might be…

Many institutions have structured processes for gaining the necessary internal and external approvals for initiating academic programs. Unfortunately, program planners often lack the data required to develop a full understanding of the systemic implications caused by such changes. This article provides both a framework and an interactive data…

Sociological and demographic research often uses variables computed as ratios. When the denominators are highly correlated, and the ratios are used in correlation or regression analysis, a statistical dependency is formed. This article investigates this problem, particularly with respect to partial correlation, multiple regression, and the…

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the advantages of path analysis for the exposition of results in data analytic papers. Probably the greatest advantage is that it provides a means by which the nature of the problem may be handily summarized. The method of path analysis, although conceived over sixty years ago by Sewell Wright, has only…

A Monte Carlo simulation was used to ascertain the degree of inflation that can occur in regression estimates when samples contain randomly occurring instances of a pattern among correlations called cooperative suppression. Ten thousand samples of scores on three variables were randomly drawn from a population in which the correlations among the…

Recent theoretical and empirical study has considerably refined knowledge as to the dynamics of peer processes operative within secondary schools, but has tended to neglect models incorporating reciprocal effects. This situation results partly from a scarcity of appropriate data, and partly from limitations of older methodologies of estimating…

The inclusion of unmeasured variables in path analyses in educational research is discussed. The statistical basis for inclusion is presented, along with several examples. (JKS)

The shortcomings of current research on student attrition are reviewed, and ways are described in which multiple regression, path analysis, and a recursive causal model can be used to better understand attrition. A review of the research shows that past theoretical models lack an adequate definition of variables which have resulted in their being…

Path analysis, a technique related to multiple regression analysis is used for ascribing causal relationships among variables. Path analysis involves the construction of explicitly formulated causal models and makes the reasoning explicit in the form of path diagrams and structural equations. Regression analysis is then used to construct path…

The relationship between locus of control (LC), grade point average (GPA), standardized achievement test scores (SAT), sex, and socioeconomic status (SES) was investigated among a sample of 174 eighth graders who responded to the Nowicki-Strickland locus on control instrument. Certain partial correlations between momentary achievement…

The performance of the University of Arizona College of Medicine's graduating class of 1976 on the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Parts I and II was analyzed in a structural equation model. Although the primary emphasis of this paper is toward model development, the effects of several background and demographic variables such as age,…

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between reading achievement and a set of social and individual variables through the use of a critical path analysis. Data, taken from Cycle II of the National Health Examination Survey, included statistics on a national sample of 7,119 children, ages six through eleven years. Four…

Structural equation models incorporating unmeasured variables make possible the rigorous testing of theories previously difficult to test adequately because of fallible measures of the theoretic variables. This paper first discusses a simple causal model; incorporating a single unmeasured variable for the purpose of exposition. A substantive…

Data from a 1974 national survey on career interests and influences of high school seniors were used to develop a theoretical vocational interest model. Results of factor analysis of one dimension ("Realistic Services") of vocational interest indicated that sex was an important predictor of interest in this vocational dimension. (MF)