ERIC Number: EJ1298507
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jun
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0256-2928
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Optimization: An Attempt to Establish Empirical Evidence for Theoretical and Practical Purposes
European Journal of Psychology of Education, v36 n2 p453-475 Jun 2021
"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 L[subscript 1]) and his/her optimal level of best practice (denoted as L[subscript 2]). 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.
Descriptors: Best Practices, Evidence Based Practice, Psychology, Secondary School Students, Models, Academic Achievement, Correlation, Psychological Patterns, Self Efficacy
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
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Author Affiliations: N/A