Date of Graduation

2000

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The problem for the research was to determine what effects participation in the OM program had on the development of personality preferences in elementary school children. The purposes of the research were to: (1) provide research data to teachers that justifies the use of teaching strategies to meet the needs of students toward the development of their personality preferences, and (2) provide research data toward further investigation of inventive personality characteristics and the programs that encourage their growth and development. The subjects for the study were selected from students in grades 3 to 5 at two elementary schools within the State of Indiana. The test subjects had to have participated in OM as a part of an extracurricular, voluntary program. Their non-OM classmates were used as the control group. The test instrument that was used to measure personality preferences was the Murphy-Meisgeier Type Indicator for Children (MMTIC). The comparative measures of the results of the MMTIC between the OM students and their non-OM counterparts were based on: (1) population distribution of the 16 personality types, and (2) the personality preference intensity measurements. The results of the research were inconclusive. Limiting factors, such as participation levels and the homogeneity of the populations that participated, produced data that was open to a variety of interpretations. The analysis of the population distributions, using a chi-square distribution, found that the first null hypothesis should be rejected and that there were differences in the population distributions. The second and third null hypotheses investigated questions of preference intensity through the use of a one-way analysis of variance [ANOVA]. The second hypothesis examined the intensity levels of personality preferences between the OM population and the non-OM population. This null hypothesis was accepted since no statistical difference could be found between the two populations. The third null hypothesis examined the intensity levels of personality preferences within the OM population but across the three grade levels. This null hypothesis was also accepted since no statistical difference could be found across the grades.

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