The Structural Study On Mental Quality Of University Students

This thesis is an empirical study on the structure of mental qualities of university students (SOMQUS) with the motivation of qualities education and psychology localization in China. The concepts and characteristics of mental qualities of university students are firstly defined through theoretical analysis of literatures. Relevant models of mental qualities structure and relations between mental qualities and other psychological issues are discussed. The methods to test the structures of both "Shall Be" and "Be" SOMQUS are brought forward. A number of theoretical hypotheses are tested by the survey data of large sample size using questionnaires. Statistical analysis and structural equation model (SEM) are employed to analyze the data in four steps: Step one: exploratory factor analysis and confirmative factor analysis were used to test the "Shall Be" SEM model of SOMQUS. Step two: exploratory factor analysis and confirmative factor analysis were used to test the "Be" SEM model of SOMQUS. Step three: the two models were statistically compared using t.test. Step four: the Linear Multi.regression Analysis was used to test the forecast power of "Be" SEM model of SOMQUS based on the related characteristics. The results of this thesis show that 1. There is a stable structure of "Shall Be" SEM model of SOMQUS. Such stable structure is a two.layer one.factor SEM model. The first layer factors include independence quality, career improving quality, individual striving quality, tolerance quality, learning quality and self.adaptation quality. These six factors can be further abstracted into a second layer factor, i.e. "Shall Be" factor of SOMQUS. The study shows that the individual striving quality, learning quality and self.adaptation quality in the first layer factors and the factor in second layer of "Shall Be" SOMQUS for undergraduate students are significantly larger than those of graduate students. Moreover, the factor loadings of the first layer factors on the second factor of undergraduate students are also significantly larger than those of postgraduate students. 2. There is a stable structure of "Be" SEM model of SOMQUS. Such stable structure is a two.layer one.factor model. The first layer factors include development quality, flexibility quality, career improving quality (differing from that of "Shall Be"), knowledge acquiring quality, independence quality (differing from that of "Shall Be"), and optimism quality. These six factors can be further abstracted into a second layer factor, i.e. "Be" factor of SOMQUS. The study shows that the average loading scores of development quality, independence quality and optimism quality in the first layer factors and the "Be" factor of SOMQUS in second layer of graduate students are significantly larger than those of undergraduate students. Moreover, the factor loadings of the first layer factors on the second factor of postgraduate students are also significantly larger than those of undergraduate students. The study also shows that the models can be applied to undergraduate students. 3. After comparison of both "Shall Be" and "Be" mental qualities of university students, this thesis finds that the average scores of each 12 key components as well as the average score of total 12 key components in "Shall Be" SOMQUS of undergraduate students are significantly larger than those of "Be" SOMQUS, except responsibility for work, civism, and kindness which show a contrary result. On the 12 key components, theaverage scores of sense, responsibility for work, civism and kindness of postgraduate students in "Be" SOMQUS are significantly larger than those in "Shall Be" SOMQUS, except trust and the average score of all components which do not show statistical significance. 4. All first layer factors and the second layer factor of "Be" SOMQUS have significantly moderate correlation with happiness feeling, self.capability feeling and self.esteem. These factors have also significantly moderate.to.low correlation with motivation for success. Among the first layer factors, the most capable quality to forecast the happiness feeling and self.esteem is optimism quality. The most capable one to predict the self.capability feeling is development quality. Knowledge acquiring quality is the most capable one to foresee the motivation for success. These results confirm the validity of "Be" SOMQUS. 5. The scale of "Be" SOMQUS consisting of 31 items have been tested to have good structure validity and very good content validity. Finally, the limitation and future direction are pointed out in the end of the thesis.