The Relationship of Scores of Community College Students on a Measure of Philosophical Orientation to the Nature of Reality to their Standing on Selected School-Related Variables

Abstract

A description is presented of an 18-item scale entitled RAM that was designed to indicate a relative, absolute, or mixed relative-absolute philosophical orientation to the nature of reality. For a sample of 261 community college students both item analysis data and correlational information concerning the relationship between placement within each of three classifications of philosophical orientation derived from RAM scores and standing on each of five school-related criterion variables are summarized. Item statements on the RAM scale reliably differentiated between subsamples of students categorized as relative or absolute. Statistically significant indices of association occurred between placement in one of three score categories on the RAM scale and standing on each of two criterion variables: (a) stated preference for an educational system designed to facilitate accepting tension and frustration or for one planned to minimize these factors and (b) expressed reason for dropping the course as being related either to teacher-centered or to personal student-centered characteristics. No statistically reliable level of association was present between placement in one of the three score categories and (a) an index of scholastic achievement, (b) incidence of dropping classes, and (c) declared preference for a job offering challenge and responsibility or for one affording security and dignity.