Predictors of performance in research methods
LE3 .A278 2016
2016
Mehta, Rick
Acadia University
Bachelor of Science
Honours
Psychology
At Acadia University, Psychology majors must successfully meet the requirements of the Research Design and Analysis (RDA) courses in order to graduate. Unfortunately, these courses have high attrition rates. The objective of the current study was to determine which of five measures best predicted performance in a fall semester RDA course at Acadia. Surveys were completed by 34 undergraduate psychology majors during the first two weeks of class. The results demonstrated that students’ attitudes toward statistics was able to predict performance in RDA, while attitudes toward research, numeracy, math anxiety, and academic motivation were not. Finally, contrary to our expectations, it was found that higher grades were associated with lower academic motivation levels, and neutral attitudes. Future research with a larger, more representative sample is required to explore these relationships further.
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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:1490