Optimization: an attempt to establish empirical evidence for theoretical and practical purposes

• Autores: Huy P. Phan, Bing Hiong Ngu
• Localización: European journal of psychology of education, ISSN-e 1878-5174, ISSN 0256-2928, Vol. 36, Nº 2, 2021, págs. 453-475
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1007/s10212-020-00484-3
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Optimal best practice is a central feat of human agency. It emphasizes a state of flourishing and reflects, in this case, the paradigm of positive psychology. One research inquiry that is of interest relates to an explanatory account of how a person reaches a state of optimal best. Recent research development has considered an important psychological process, known as optimization, which may explain a person’s achievement of optimal best practice. Having said this, very little is known about the process of optimization. In this article, the authors report on a non-experimental study (N = 352 secondary school students), which focused on the testing of a theoretical model of optimization. Innovatively, derived from existing theorizations and empirical evidence, the authors provide a methodological rationalization of flourishing, which is defined as a “quantitative difference” between a person’s current level of best practice (denoted as L1) and his/her optimal level of best practice (denoted as L2). Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated a few major findings, for example, (i) a positive association between a person’s optimal best practice and his/her academic performance in a subject matter, (ii) a person’s current level of best practice acts as a determinant of optimal best practice, and (iii) personal resolve, as a psychological optimizing agent, directly influences optimal best practice, and potentially mediating the effects of academic striving and a person’s current level of best practice on optimal best practice.

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