THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG FIVE PROPOSED CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HUMANISTIC PERSONALITY: HUMANISM, DOGMATISM, LOCUS OF CONTROL, PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION, AND BUREAUCRATIC ORIENTATION

Problem. The purpose of this study was to develop a predictive model for selecting and placing teachers with humanistic personality characteristics in our public schools. Specifically, this study attempted to determine if open-mindedness, internal locus of control, high professional orientation and low bureaucratic orientation are personality characteristics of humanistic teachers.;Design. Five personality scales provided data for the study. The sample consisted of 181 teachers, who completed the Humanitarian and Helping Attitudes Scale, the Short Form of the Dogmatism Scale, the Adult Nowicki-Strickland I-E Scale, the Professional Orientation Scale, and the Bureaucratic Orientation Scale. A questionnaire was used to obtain demographic information for further analysis.;Correlations, univariate multiple regressions, and stepwise regressions were employed to determine if humanistic orientation was significantly related to the four independent variables; to determine if the four independent variables together explained a large statistically significant amount of variance in humanistic orientation; and, when including the demographic variables, to determine which combination of variables explained the greatest statistically significant amount of variance in humanistic orientation.;Results. (1) Teachers' humanism scores were negatively related to their dogmatism scores and positively related to their bureaucratic orientation scores. (2) There was no statistically significant relationship between teachers' humanism scores and their scores on locus of control or professional orientation. (3) The hypothesized four-variable model was nonsignificant. (4) The largest statistically significant model consisted of dogmatism, professional orientation, age and education level, which explained 31% of the variance in humanism scores.;Four general hypotheses and a model were constructed: (1) the less dogmatic individuals are, the greater their humanistic orientation, (2) the more intrinsically motivated individuals are, the greater their humanistic orientation, (3) the more professionally oriented individuals are, the greater their humanistic orientation, (4) the less bureaucratically oriented individuals are, the greater their humanistic orientation. Together, the four-variable model of dogmatism, locus of control, professional orientation, and bureaucratic orientation explains a large, statistically significant amount of the variance in humanistic orientation.