NORMAL PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF BEGINNING NURSING STUDENTS IN SELECTED MIDWESTERN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC BACCALAUREATE NURSING PROGRAMS (CAREER PSYCHOLOGY).
Contributors: University of Missouri--Columbia.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 242
Subjects: Psychology, Personality.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Vocational.
Description: This exploratory study examined normal personality characteristics of typical beginning nursing students (N = 135) enrolled in selected private and public baccalaureate degree nursing programs (N = 5) within the State of Missouri during the Fall semester of 1989. Personality characteristics were measured by a contemporary behavioral assessment instrument, the Personal Styles Inventory (PSI) (Kunce, Cope, & Newton, 1986). Because of the newness of this instrument, researcher-developed instrumentation that addressed the value to subjects of their personality assessment feedback and faculty (N = 16) perceptions of personality characteristics of 'ideal' beginning nursing students was included to supplement this investigation.

Guided by a person-environment interaction (PEI) perspective embodied in Holland's (1985) theory of vocational personalities and work environments, nine research questions and four null hypotheses were answered by using a combination of descriptive statistics and statistical hypothesis testing. All calculations were performed using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS). The.05 level of significance was used for all hypothesis testing.

Based on descriptive statistical data and on the use of statistical hypothesis testing, it was shown that: (a) the majority of nursing student subjects' PSI personality data formed a pattern consistent with extrovertive-stability seeking behaviors; (b) differences between nursing student personality data and faculty 'ideal' beginning nursing student personality data were most pertinent in the cognitive domain; and (c) personality feedback information was rated by nursing student subjects as fitting moderately well and as being helpful. The significance of these findings was discussed from a PEI perspective. From these findings, several conclusions were drawn.

Recommendations included: (a) further study of nursing students' personality characteristics, along with that of practicing nurses, using additional instrumentation; (b) design of an intervention study with special need students, and (c) integration of a career psychologist, with expertise in nursing, into various nursing environments.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-04, Section: B, page: 2343.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI - COLUMBIA, 1990.

School code: 0133.