Author : Qiuzhi Xie
Release : 2017-01-26
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Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 484/5 ( reviews)
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Book Synopsis Intellectual Styles by : Qiuzhi Xie
Download or read book Intellectual Styles written by Qiuzhi Xie. This book was released on 2017-01-26. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation, "Intellectual Styles: Their Malleability, Their Associations, and Their Relationships to Ability and Personality Traits" by Qiuzhi, Xie, 謝秋芝, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: "Intellectual style," a term that encompasses all the existing style concepts, refers to one's preferred ways of processing information and approaching tasks. The present research has three purposes. First, it investigates the associations among styles in the three traditions: cognition-centered, personality-centered, and activity-centered traditions. Second, it looks into the relationships between intellectual styles and ability as well as between intellectual styles and personality traits. Third, it explores the changeability of intellectual styles. Field-dependence/independence (FDI), psychological types, and learning approaches were respectively selected as the representatives of cognition-centered, personality-centered, and activity-centered styles. This research includes three studies. The first one is a pilot study that investigates the reliability and validity of the instruments used in this research. It also preliminarily investigates the relationships among intellectual styles, abilities, and personality traits. Two hundred and ninety-eight students in a Chinese university participated in this study. Five instruments were used. The modified Chinese version of Group Embedded Test examined FDI. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator measured psychological types. The revised Two Factor Version of Study Process Questionnaire tested learning approaches. The Sternberg Triarchic Ability Test examined abilities. The NEO Five-Factor Inventory-3 measured personality traits. Study Two is a longitudinal investigation. It explores (1) the associations among FDI, psychological types, and learning approaches; (2) the relationships between the three style constructs, ability, and personality traits; (3) the changeability of intellectual styles; and (4) the effects of students' background factors on intellectual styles, ability, personality, and the changes on styles. Five hundred and ten students in a Chinese university (the same as the one involved in the pilot study) participated in the pre-test, and 430 of these students participated in the post-test. The interval time was one academic year. Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices replaced Sternberg's Triarchic Ability Test that showed poor internal consistency reliability in the pilot study. The other instruments were the same as those used in the pilot study. Study Three explores why students sustain or change their intellectual styles. Twenty-six students who participated in Study Two were selected for this study. The researcher conducted focus group discussions. The findings show that FDI, psychological types, and learning approaches did not share statistically significant common variance, indicating that styles in the three approaches represent different style constructs. FDI was most closely associated with ability, whereas psychological types and learning approaches were strongly associated with personality traits. This suggests that styles in the three traditions are related to ability and personality traits to different extents: cognition-centered styles are most closely related to ability, whereas personality-centered styles are highly related to personality traits. Activity-centered styles are more strongly related to personality traits than to ability. Learning approaches and FDI are comparatively changeable, whereas psychological types are comparatively stable. The qualit
