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Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

5-2015

Culminating Project Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Industrial/Organizational Psychology: M.S.

Department

Psychology

College

College of Liberal Arts

First Advisor

Daren Protolipac

Second Advisor

Jody Illies

Third Advisor

Edward Ward

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Abstract

This study sought to ascertain if there are specific, agreed upon personality characteristics that are perceived to contribute to the success of an Industrial and Organizational Psychology graduate student, and if Frame of Reference training has an impact on the reliability of the responses. For the purpose of this study, a successful graduate student has been defined as one who meets or exceeds program requirements with regards to satisfactory performance in coursework, research participation, colleague and advisor collaboration, and graduates from the program in good academic standing within the typically-allotted timeframe. Participants were recruited from I/O Psychology graduate programs across the United States of America, and were asked to respond to the Personality-Related Position Requirements Form through an electronic inventory management system known as Qualtrics. Approximately half the participants were asked to complete FOR training prior to responding to the PPRF. Results indicated that there were no significant agreements across any of the Big Five personality variables, but that Frame of Reference training did result in stronger reliability of responses than did the non-Frame of Reference training responses.

Comments/Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my parents; Robert and Donna Knights, without whose tireless guidance and encouragement I would not have had the courage and independence to pick up and move my entire life 1,300 miles west for graduate school. I thank my classmates for always offering an opinion, a helping hand, and for supporting each other through the trials and tribulations this experience has dealt us. I would like to thank my chairperson, Daren Protolipac for his patience, understanding, and helpfulness while guiding me through this thesis process. Above all, I extend my deepest appreciation, gratitude, and admiration to my steadfast partner, Mark Janzen, who stayed by my side during many long nights and frustrated exclamations with endless words of encouragement and not a single complaint.

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