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Working In Groups And Alone: Effects Of Group Gender Composition On Cognitive Insight Problem Solving Performance, Viktoria Tidikyte

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined how working within a group versus working alone affects creative problem solving and what role gender plays in influencing problem solving performance. Previous studies yielded contradictory predictions of whether working in a group improves or impedes creative problem solving performance and whether gender has an effect on problem solving efficiency of a group. I proposed that contradictory results of the previous studies might have been due to the gender by group interaction. Two hundred and six Old Dominion University undergraduate students participated in this study. A 2 (groups vs. individual) X 3 (gender group composition) X 2 …

Section Abstracts: Psychology

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Psychology Section for the 87th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 27-29, 2009, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond Virginia.

Personality And Leader Emergence In Groups, Rhett M. Smith

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Trait-based approaches to leadership have been around for a long time. Starting out as one of the original theories of leadership, research in the area of trait- based perspectives began to slow and give way to other, different domains of predicting leadership in the 1950s. Only recently has there been a revived interest in the trait approaches to leadership. Building on this resurgence, the present study examined the relationship between leader emergence and the Five Factor Model of personality (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, Neuroticism, and Conscientiousness).

The Social Change Model Of Leadership Development: Differences In Leadership Development By Levels Of Student Involvement With Various University Student Groups, Chastity Beth Gerhardt

Theses and Dissertations

The development of students as leaders is a priority for most institutions of higher education and research suggests that students' leadership skills increase as a result of engagement in the collegiate environment. Given the scarcity of leadership models and instruments designed specifically for college students, research regarding leadership development among college students is lacking.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the differences in leadership development among various levels of student involvement within several student groups as measured by self-reported scores on the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership instrument. The basic research question was: Were there significant differences between student …

Developing Collaborative Leadership: A Study Of Organizational Change Toward Greater Collaboration And Shared Leadership, Jonathan Tyler Clark

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Implicit in leadership behavior is the ability to work with others, to be in relationship, and to collaborate. Contemporary theories about leadership have shifted from a focus on the individual “leader” toward the collective act of “leadership.” A concrete understanding of collaborative leadership remains somewhat underdeveloped in the literature and theoretically. This dissertation is a case study of organization's efforts to change from autocratic organizational leadership to a more collaborative working environment. Taking the form of a literary portrait, the study analyzes an example of action learning about collaborative leadership. The portrait will be of the agency's change, with special …

Personality Predictors Of Motivation To Lead, Tracey Tafero

All Dissertations

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in understanding the relationship between personality traits and leadership. Recent research suggests that some personality variables are related to leadership. However, research has rarely examined the process by which personality may impact leadership. This study explores the relationship between personality and motivation to lead, a proposed intervening variable between personality and leadership. In addition, this study looks at both broad and narrow measures of personality as predictors of motivation to lead. The current study both replicates and extends the findings of Chan & Drasgow (2001). Results reveal that facet-level personality scales …

Non-Linear Dynamics And Leadership Emergence, Stephen J. Guastello

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

The process by which leaders emerge from leaderless groups is well-documented, but not nearly as well understood. This article describes how non-linear dynamical systems concepts of attractors, bifurcations, and self-organization culminate in a swallowtail catastrophe model for the leadership emergence process, and presents the experimental results that the model has produced thus far for creative problem solving, production, and coordination-intensive groups. Several control variables have been identified that vary in their function depending on what type of group is involved, e.g. creative problem solving, production, and coordination-intensive groups. The exposition includes the relevant statistical strategies that are based on non-linear …

Emotional Intelligence As A Predictor Of Consideration Behaviors, Which Lead To Leadership Effectiveness, Janice Claire Evelyn

Theses Digitization Project

Studies investigating effective leadership often focus on either traits or behaviors. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a trait that has consistently surfaced as an important variable in studies examining patterns of effective leadership.

Social Intelligence, Problem Construction, And Leadership: The Trait Approach Revisited, David Michael Koch

Student Work

Social intelligence is a personality trait that refers to an individual's ability to correctly interpret their environment and take the appropriate action. Recent research (Gilbert, 1994) found social intelligence to be an important and significant predictor of leader effectiveness across multiple situations. Because the social intelligence construct can account for effective leadership behavior across multiple situations, it may represent a reconciliation of the trait and situation theories of leadership.

The purpose of this study was to continue this line of research on social intelligence and leadership by examining the role of social intelligence in creative problem solving. Problem construction is …

Gender And Leadership: Men And Women's Stories, Barbara A. Karanian

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates gender and leadership.

The Effect Of Leadership Predictions On Actual Leadership Emergence In Small Task Groups, Robert Anderson Jr.

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research has shown that prior expectations of on individual's performance can have a significant effect on others behavior and attitudes toward that individual. This phenomenon was tested on the emergent leadership process with zero history groups. Male students in various social fraternities at a regional university were given a leadership test designed to measure their leadership abilities. The leadership tests were never scored, but the subjects were told that they were, and, one of the group members was reported as scoring exceptionally nigh. The group was then given one of two tasks to perform, and the emergent leadership process was …

Leader, Follower, And Nonleader Patterns In Emergent Leadership, Catherine Mae Holmes

Master's Theses

In the present research 82 freshmen at the University of Richmond who had previously been administered the Omnibus Personality Inventory (OPI) volunteered for a short discussion session after which each student completed a 9 item leadership scale on each of the other group members. A multiple regression analysis revealed a significant correlation between the Social Extroversion scale of the UPI and ratings of group participation (r=.38, <.01). A post hoc multiple discriminant analysis identified 7 OPI scales which discriminated 64.4% of the cases into correct leadership groups. These findings support a leader-follower-nonleader paradigm for small croup participation, identifying unique personality configurations for each group -- leaders who participate actively and who organize the group process, followers who offer suggestions congeniality and nonreaders who either refuse to interact or become antagonistic to group goals. Suggestions for future research include a need for observer ratings of group interactions as well as more extensive personality measures of social variables such as dominance and social desirability.

Predicting Leader Emergence Within Fielder's Contingency Model Of Leadership Effectiveness, Helen Ferguson Daniel

Master's Theses

Eighteen fourman groups consisting of female undergraduates at the University of Richmond participated in problem-solving tasks within the restrictions of an all-channel communication network. Each subject was chosen by her scores on Fiedler' s (1967) Least-preferred co-worker (LPC) scale. The hypothesis that low LPC Ss would emerge as group leaders under the conditions of Octant II of Fiedler's contingency model was not supported by the nominations of twelve groups. Two-factor ANOV s showed non­ significant time differences over time for the four leadership conditions. These results are consistent with the Rice and Chemers (1973) findings which indicate that Fiedler' s …

Decision-Making Style As A Factor In The Selection Of Task-Group Coordinator, David E. Morris

Student Work

To date, emergent leadership literature has not clearly indicated what variables influence group members' perception and subsequent selection of a group leader. One approach to the study of this problem has been to analyze group members' verbal behavior to identify empirically behaviors which are more frequent among leaders than nonleaders within a task group. The basic assumption underlying this approach appears to be that a group selects as its leader that individual from the group who most frequently exhibits some specific "leadership behavior(s)." The literature indicates, however, that this approach has been misleading and inconclusive. For example, in an early …

Trait Anxiety, Leadership And Group-Induced Decision Change, Chester D. Gaston

Student Work

The twelve item Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire (CDQ) developed by Kogan and Wallach (1964) has been used extensively for investigating individual and group decision-making processes. Each item presents a hypothetical life situation in which the central character must choose between two courses of action, one of which is more risky than the other but also more rewarding if successful. For each situation the Sis must select the lowest probability of success they would accept before recommending that the potentially more rewarding (and risky) alternative be chosen. After Ss have made their private individual choices, a group is formed and each item …

Psychological Correlates Of Dogmatism And Heterogeneity Of Power In Small Groups, Joel Robert Kaplan

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Emergent Leadership As A Function Of The Leaders Social Distance And The Task Situation, George Stephen Goldstein

Master's Theses

The present study attempts to investigate the phenomena of social distance of the leader as a function of group effectiveness on different tasks. A number of hypotheses will be studied.