Positive Psychology in Education: Hope and time perspective from Rasch, latent growth curve model, and phenomenological research approaches

Abstract

The primary purposes of this study were to identify motivational typologies of growth and stability and identify people who have crossed a boundary in terms of levels of hope and time perspective. This study draws upon two fields, philosophy and psychology. The philosophical framework traces its roots back to American pragmatism and Alfred North Whitehead’s Process Philosophy. The second set of theories proposed for investigation came from the relatively recent empirical endeavor known as positive psychology. Specifically, I tested the construct validity and predictive utility of hope and time perspective as predictors of academic time management and academic outcomes in a Japanese sample. The participants were 467 students attending one of the largest private universities in Japan. Several instruments were used to measure the relationship between hope and time perspective as independent variables and self-reported academic outcomes. The instruments were the Hope Disposition Survey, the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, self-reported TOEIC and GPA scores, and the Vocabulary Size Test. The research design was a quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods research plan. Two relatively recent constructs from the area of positive psychology research known as hope theory (a goal-oriented construct) and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory were utilized for empirical investigation. The use of a mixed-method research design allowed this study to add to our knowledge of the roles of hope and time management in goal directed behavior. The analytical tools included the Rasch model, confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), structural equation modeling (SEM), and latent growth curve modeling (LGM). The qualitative analysis was a phenomenological investigation (similar to a case study) into the relationship between affect, cognition, and motivation utilizing a Process Philosophy framework. Results of the Rasch and CFA indicated that hope and time perspective were viable constructs for this sample. The hope SEM results indicated that hope had a positive relationship with academic outcomes as hypothesized. The time perspective SEM indicated that future time perspective had a positive relationship and that present-hedonism had a negative relationship with academic behavior as hypothesized. LGM results indicated that study time management had a non-linear relationship with the academic calendar. Both sets of results must be considered with caution due to a design flaw in the data collection instruments and high levels of attrition for the LGMs. Finally, the interview results indicated that students in the sample were extrinsically motivated by situational variables such as professor signals of how to, how much, when to, and what to study and that transitions from secondary to tertiary level studies were difficult for students with low levels of hope. The results were interpreted to suggest that levels of student engagement in the sample were at a less than desirable level when compared to OECD or North American university expectations. However, results were considered to be generally supportive of hope and time perspective theory.