Individual Psychosocial Competence: a Personality Configuration

Abstract

Two investigations of students entering college (Ns = 84 and 262), and one of the students completing high school (N = 147) explored the presence of a psychological competence configuration as a component of personality-functioning. That configuration was hypothesized to consist of self-attitudes (Rotter I-E), world attitudes (Rotter Trust), and behavioral attributes (Tyler, Behavioral Attributes of Psychosocial Competence). The configuration held across all 3 samples, with the self-attitudes-behavioral attributes relation strongest. Configural measures were independent of aptitude and grade point measures, but somewhat related to social desirability (Crowne-Marlowe). In the high school study, the BAPC significantly differentiated students selected by counselors as exemplary ("getting their lives and school together well" ) in contrast to those selected as marginal. The differentiating power of the BAPC proved to be completely independent of social desirability and aptitude effects and partially independent of grade point average. Thus these studies establish the presence of a functionally relevant behavioral attributes component of effectiveness.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Coehlo, G. V. , Silber, E. , and Hamburg, D. A. Use of the Student TAT to assess coping behavior in hospitalized, normal and exceptionally competent college freshmen. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1962, 14, 355-365.

Coehlo, G. V. , Hamburg, D. A. , and Murphy, E. B. Coping strategies in a new learning environment. Archives of General Psychiatry, 1963, 1, 433-443.

Coehlo, G. V. , Solomon, F. , Wolff, C. , Steinberg, Alma, and Hamburg, D. A. Predicting coping behavior in college. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases , 1969, 149, 386-397.

deCharms, R. Personal causations. New York: Academic Press, 1968.

deCharms, R. , Collins, J. R. , Jackson, K. R. , and Shea, D. J. Can motives of low income Black children be changed? Symposium in American Educational Research Association meeting, 1969.

Evans, D. A. and Tyler, F. B. Is work competence enhancing for the poor? American Journal of Community Psychology, 1976, 4, 25-33.

Ezekiel, R. S. The personal future and Peace Corps competence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 1968, 8, (No. 2), Monograph Supplement, Part 2.

Grinker, R. R. , Sr. with the collaboration of Grinker, R. R. , Jr., and Timberlake, J. 'Mentally healthy' young males (Homoclites . Archives of General Psychiatry, 1962, 6, 405-453.

Jahoda, Marie. Current conceptions of positive mental health. New York: Basic Books, 1958.

10.

Nunnally, J. Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.

11.

Rotter, J. B. A new scale for the measurement of interpersonal trust. Journal of Personality, 1967, 35, 651-665.

12.

Rotter, J. B. Generalized expectancies for internal vs. external control. Psychological Monographs, 1966, 80, 1-28 (whole #609).

13.

Rotter, J. B. Some problems and misconceptions related to the construct of internal versus external control of reinforcement . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1975, 43, 55-67.

14.

Silber, E. , Coehlo, G. V. , Murphy, E. D. , Hamburg, D. A. , Pearlin, L. I. , and Rosenberg, H. Competent adolescents coping with college decisions. Archives of General Psychiatry , 1961, 5, 517-537.

15.

Smith, M. D. Explorations in competence: A study of Peace corps teachers in Ghana. American Psychologist , 1966, 21, 556-566.

16.

Tyler, F. B. Psychosocial competence: The conception of a personality configuration and the design of an evaluation study. Eastern Psychological Association Symposium, April 1975, New York.

17.

White, R. W. Competence and psychosexual stages of development in Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Lincoln University Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1960, 97-140.

18.

White, R. W. Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 1959, 66, 297-333.

19.

White, R. W. Strategies of adaptation: An attempt at systematic description. In Coehlo, G. V. , Hamburg, D. A. and Adams, J. E. (Eds.), Coping and adaptation . New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1974.