Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Recreation, Parks and Tourism Resources

Committee Chair

Chad D Pierskalla

Abstract

In taking the applications of both emotional intelligence and outdoor orientation programs, this present study employed a quasi-experimental approach to study the change associated with first year students transitioning into a collegiate setting. In conveying multiple levels of University 101 curriculum in a dynamic outdoor setting, Adventure West Virginia (AWV) was utilized in order to gauge the elicited impacts associated with outdoor orientation upon students' emotional intelligence, most specifically trait emotional intelligence (TEI). Four individual programs (Explore, Habitat, Wilderness and Odyssey) were studied, with elements of each trip and student characteristics taken into account during analysis. Overall, this study sought to identify the elements, if any, which helped in the raising of TEI and the factors that consist of this specialized construct.;Measurements of differences between pre-test and post-test values of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQ-SF) were made. T-tests along with Chi-square analyses and ANOVA tables helped develop a framework for which significance was sought, as both evidence supporting the development of TEI and a student typology was desired. In all, this sought to gauge the elicited impacts of TEI all while developing a student profile, depicting the type of student participating in AWV.;Results show significant increases in all TEI factors including Global TEI. These results were significant and support the notion that TEI can be raised, especially in relation to outdoor based collegiate orientation programs. The student typology assisted in breaking down and stratifying the TEI scores, with low, medium and high scores being accounted for. This diversification of students allowed for motivations to be implied, developing a student typology that incorporates TEI, motivations and student demographic data. Isolated analysis allowed for the elaboration of scores to be further simplified, with the stratified TEI scores paired along specific trip types within AWV. In all, Wilderness was the only program found to have adverse impacts upon TEI for AWV, actually lowering the construct within many of its factors.

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