Trait profiles: a within-person approach to intellectual investment
Hyland, William
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/113351
Description
Title
Trait profiles: a within-person approach to intellectual investment
Author(s)
Hyland, William
Issue Date
2021-07-23
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Rounds, James
Committee Member(s)
Newman, Daniel
Department of Study
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
cognitive abilities
vocational interests
intellectual investment
trait complexes
Abstract
"Intellectual investment theories maintain that individuals learn by investing time and cognitive resources in domains of knowledge. According to PPIK (Ackerman, 1996), one of the prevailing models of intellectual investment, individual differences such as cognitive abilities, personality, and vocational interests guide the process of intellectual investment, leading to divergent knowledge outcomes. These outcomes have generally been addressed at a between-person level, posing the question, ""Who knows more than whom?"". However, investment theories can also be addressed at a within-person level by asking the question, ""Who knows what?"". The current study investigates this query by using Latent Profile Analysis to construct profiles of the traits most germane to intellectual investment: cognitive abilities and vocational interests. These profiles were used to predict scores on knowledge tests in disparate domains, identifying areas of relative strength and weakness for each profile. Results demonstrated that the profiles of cognitive abilities and vocational interests produced by LPA resemble the patterns of traits found in Ackerman's research, which he referred to as ""trait complexes"" (1997). This analysis also extended trait complex research by uncovering patterns of abilities and interests not found in previous trait complex studies. Lastly, our results provided support for PPIK by showing that profiles' strongest domains of knowledge corresponded to their strongest abilities and interests, indicating the importance of these traits for intellectual investment."
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