Attitude versus Aptitude: Is Intelligence or Motivation More Important for Positive Higher-Educational Outcomes?

This longitudinal study explores the relationships among a set of student input and environmental throughput variables in predicting output human capital skills acquisition and academic achievement at a large Canadian university. The framework for exploring these relationships is referred to as the integrated paradigm of student development. To our surprise, it was found that the input intelligence quotient was negatively related to output human capital skills and to various measures of adjustment to this university setting. In contrast, a measure of input motivation for personal and intellectual development best predicted output skills acquisition and academic achievement, independent of intelligence quotient. Although these counterintuitive findings may be sample- and university-specific, the instrument package representing the integrated paradigm of student development appears to provide a useful diagnostic battery for evaluating how well different types of students make the transition to different types of university settings.