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Degree

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Psychology-Industrial/Organizational, 2008.

Abstract

Past research has established a model of implicitly held theories whereby people are considered to approach the world primarily through one of two views: the entity view, whereby attributes (such as intelligence, ability, morality or personality) are relatively fixed and stable, or the incremental view, in which these attributes are malleable and may be changed or developed. This model was applied in the current study to the area of self-reported personality. The current study measured chronically held implicit theories and also manipulated them based on research that has established that these theories may be considered to be a relatively enduring trait but also may be induced as a state. The ensuing state-trait interaction was explored in order to understand the influence of implicit theories on the relationship between self-reported personality and related outcomes. Specifically, the relationship of interest was between self-reported tendency to procrastinate and actual recorded procrastination behaviors aggregated over five test-taking occasions. Implicit theories were measured using four different ways and a self-persuasion paradigm was used to induce incremental and entity theories in separate groups. The study failed to find significant influences of implicit theories on the relationship between self-reported procrastination and actual procrastination. Reasons for the lack of effects detected are discussed and implications for the robustness of self-reported personality to influences from implicitly held theories about malleability are also discussed.

Subject Headings

Personality; Psychological tests; Psychology

Keywords

Implicit Personality Theories; Self-reported Personality; Entity Theory; Incremental Theory; Procrastination

Advisor

Andrea Snell, PhD (Advisor)

Document number: akron1226941146
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1226941146

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