Assessing the Democratic Maturity and Self-fulfillment of 154 Air Force High School JROTC Cadets

Journal of Instructional Psychology, March, 1999 by Russell N. Cassel, Dennis L. Ritter

a. The only score to show no gain was ASS (assertiveness).

b. PERMAT (personal maturity) score showed statistical significant positive change at the 0.010 level of significance.

c. DEMOTOT (DEMO Total) score showed statistical significant positive change at the 0.020 level of confidence.

d. Since 10 of the 11 part scores showed positive gain, based on the sign test, there was statistically significant gain in democratic maturity evident.

e. Multiple regression using a constant with the 8 DEMO part scores in concert against AGE showed no statistically significant change suggesting that democratic maturity is not significantly related 40 age (growing older).

In terms of self-fulfillment 10 of the 11 part scores showed positive gain in terms of SELF scores (lower scores represent greater self-fulfillment and less hurt):

a. TRA (travel & relaxation) was only score not to show positive gain.

b. IPTOT (internal & personal) score showed a statistically significant positive gain with a significance level of 0.003 level of confidence.

c. EITOT (external & impersonal) score showed a positive gain at the 0.012 level.

d. SELFTOT (SELF total) showed a positive gain at the 0.000 level of confidence.

e. Since 10 of the 11 part scores showed positive sell-fulfillment, based on the sign test, there was statistically significant gain in sell-fulfillment for the 154 students involved.

Reliability of DEMO & SELF Part Scores

The reliability was computed by use of a Pearson correlation between each part score and the respective sub-total, and the part score total with the grand total for both DEMO and SELF. These correlations were then corrected by use of the Spearman/Brown correction formula

1. For the DEMO test all part scores had acceptable uncorrected correlations, and with only one being below 0.600; it was SYM (sympathy) with an uncorrected correlation of 0.419.

2. Both part score totals (PERMAT and SOCINT) had excessively high uncorrected correlations, i.e., PERMAT was 0.856, and SOCINT was 0.811.

3. For the SELF test all part scores had acceptable uncorrected correlations except SUR(survival & pollution); it was 0.162.

4. Both part score totals had exceptionally high uncorrected correlations: IPTOT was 0.856, and EITOT was 0.895.

Significant Correlates With DEMO Scores

The data contained in Table 1 below displays all statistically significant correlates at the 01 level of confidence or better with democratic maturity part scores. All correlates involving SELF that are negative depict an improvement in self-fulfillment, and an absence of cognitive dissonance (hurts). It is of interest to note that SUR (survival & pollution) is the only SELF score that correlates positively with democratic maturity scores, and serves to increase hurts, and decrease self-fulfillment. It is of interest to note that every single score on DEMOTOT correlates significantly with all scores on SELF, and, again, SUR is the only one that creates "hurts" (cognitive dissonance), and destroys self-fulfillment. It is of interest to note that AGE, GENDER, and GRADE are not significantly related to any of the DEMO scores.