PsyCap to Promote & Assess Professional Skills for Undergraduate Engineering Students

The purpose of this proposed study is to determine if Psychological Capital (PsyCap), collective orientation, and learning goal-orientation can assess the impact of the development of the following ABET student outcomes: teamwork (d), ethics (f), communication (g), life-long learning (i) and awareness of contemporary issues (j), throughout an engineering student’s academic career. We hypothesize that PsyCap will be positively related to both collective orientation and learning goal-orientation, and the development that occurs with collective orientation and learning goalorientation would be predicted by development in PsyCap. This study will also address the condition of an engineering student’s development, as defined by PsyCap, from freshman to senior year and if measuring PsyCap throughout an engineering student’s academic program accurately assesses the impact in changes in relevant ABET student outcomes. This working paper outlines the methods and anticipated results of this study, which will be implemented in fall 2015. Index Terms – ABET student outcomes, Assessment, PsyCap, Professional Skills Development