Continuing motivation has been defined as an individual's willingness to return to a task or task area at a subsequent time, in similar or varying circumstances, without visible external pressure to do so, and when other behavior alternatives are available. In the current study, path models from Weiner's theory of motivation were developed to…

Literature from organizational and social psychology has suggested that three types of factors influence performance, i.e., cognitive, affective and behavioral. A model was developed to test a set of propositions concerning the relationship between the three kinds of factors, and included attributions, expectancies, general emotional responses to…

An extension of the methods of path analysis to include studies of categorical data was described and exemplified in a causal study of college dropouts. The usual models and methods of causal (path) analysis were designed for the study of quantitative variables and are not appropriate when the variables under investigation are categorical.…

The Werts-Linn procedure for dealing with categorical errors of measurement in "Comments on Boyle's 'Path Analysis and Ordinal Data'" in The American Journal of Sociology, volume 76, number 6, May 1971, is shown to be inappropriate to the problem of ordered categories. (For related document, see TM 002 301.) (DB)

A parent-offspring adoption path model, with a measured index of the home environment, was developed to assess extent to which genetic and environmental influences of the parents affect relationships between the environmental index and children's behavior. Intelligence Quotient (IQ) data from the Colorado Adoption Project were used. The…

A set of High School and Beyond data was used to study the effect of three variables on academic achievement. Homework had a positive effect, TV a negative, and parental involvement no direct effect on seniors' achievement scores, but influenced the amount of time students spent on homework. (Author/JAZ)

A conceptual model of the factors affecting dropout syndrome was develop emphasizing academic, social, and personal outcomes of the selection or socialization of students at a university. The model was estimated using path analysis, and the intervening variables were found to be important predictors of dropout syndrome. (Author/DWH)

This study compared and evaluated three alternative theoretical models of the reading-writing relationship. Reading dimensions included word analysis, vocabulary, and sentence comprehension components; writing dimensions included spelling, vocabulary, sentence structure, and story organization components. Models differed in sequential orderings of…

The roles of attention in reaction time and in relationships among reaction time, intelligence, and achievement were studied in seventh graders. Reaction time measures were correlated with attention and perceptual speed as well as general intelligence and achievement measures. Implications for current theories linking reaction time and…

Most existing research suggests that financial aid has a positive effect on minority student persistence although there are few multivariate studies that analyze the benefits of financial aid to Hispanic undergraduates at four-year colleges. This study used path analysis to evaluate the strength of various predictors of student persistence,…

Presented is an approach to causal models in which some or all variables are discretely measured, showing that path analytic methods permit quantification of causal relationships among variables with the same flexibility and power of interpretation as is feasible in models including only continuous variables. Examples are provided. (Author/IS)

Organizational context, organizational complexity, and bureaucratic control in 50 Japanese industrial manufacturing plants are analyzed. Highly dependent organizations rely on centralization and formalization to maintain administrative control. The significant relationship between formalization and centralization indicates that they are not…

A path analytic model is hypothesized and tested to explain the effect of a series of intellective and nonintellective student attributes on high school achievement and college achievement. Patterns of predictability for male and female students are compared. (Author/GK)

Discusses a study of the effects of work and expanded employee participation in decision making on four employee outcomes: alienation, job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and commitment. (Author/JOW)

The utility of several longitudinal data analysis models for use with educational attainment are discussed and illustrated on a large data set. Assumptions of the models, choice of scale units, and data transformations, as well as real-life implications are emphasized. (Author/JKS)