The Person-Oriented Approach in the Field of Educational Psychology

Abstract

Individual differences are a fundamental component of psychology, but these differences are often treated as “noise” or “errors” in variable-oriented statistical analyses. Currently, there is a small but emerging body of research using the person-oriented approach. In this paper a brief theoretical and methodological overview of the person-oriented approach is given. A person-oriented approach is often preferable where the main theoretical and analytical unit is a pattern of operating factors, rather than individual variables. In order to illustrate the relevance of this approach to research in educational psychology several representative statistical methods are outlined, two of which employ a person-oriented approach (latent class analysis/ latent profile analysis, configural frequency analysis/ prediction configural frequency analysis) and one that combines person and variable-oriented approaches. Examples of data analyses are used to demonstrate that variable and person-oriented approaches provide the researcher with different information that can be complementary. Key words: configural frequency analysis, educational psychology, individual differences, latent class analysis, person-oriented approach.

Longitudinal latent profiles of work–family balance: Examination of antecedents and outcomes.

“…In LPA, individuals are assigned to a profile for which their assignment probability is the highest. Moreover, the probabilities generated for group membership can be tested, and their goodness of fit can be analyzed (see also Raufelder, Jagenow, Hoferichter, & Drury, 2013).…”

L2 motivation in focus: the case of Finnish comprehensive school students

“…LPA has been used more in the field of educational psychology (see e.g. Raufelder et al 2013), but not in L2 motivation research. For example, cluster analysis, which also resembles LPA, has been used lately (e.g.…”

“…However, LPA is model-based and allows the comparison of different models with the help of the fit indexes it provides (see e.g. Marsh et al 2009;Pastor et al 2007;Peugh & Fan 2013;Raufelder et al 2013). The aim of the present study is therefore also to explore, how LPA as a person-oriented approach can be utilised also in the research of L2 motivation.…”

Latent Profiles of Online Self-Regulated Learning: Relationships with Predicted and Final Course Grades

“…Variable-centered and person-centered approaches operated on disparate but complementary assumptions; therefore, a combinational method has emerged. The combined method offered the potential to minimize weaknesses and maximize each method's advantages (Bámaca-Colbert & Gayles, 2010;Raufelder et al, 2013) and provided an alternative way to explore individual differences in educational research. Building on different cases, Bergman (1998) and von Eye (2010) proposed the following sequence of combined analyses: (a) start with variable-centered procedures to identify operating factors (Feyerabend, 1975;von Eye & Bogat, 2006); (b) use exploratory, person-centered analyses to distinguish possibly existing subpopulations (von Eye & Bogat, 2006); (c) use confirmatory person-centered analyses of data from independent samples to test theoretical assumptions; and finally, (d) use variable-centered methods to link theories and results from the various research approaches (Feyerabend, 1975;Molenaar & Campbell, 2009).…”

“…Identifying OSRL profiles helps reveal distinct OSRL strategies and provided valuable information for promoting self-regulatory strategies based on individual student needs (Woolfolk, 2001). Combining the variable-centered and the person-centered methods allows researchers to investigate generalities across entire samples as well as the profiles of distinct subgroups (Marsh et al, 2009;Raufelder et al, 2013). In the current study, we used the combined approach to:…”