Personality and Academic Attainment*

Abstract

SUMMARY.Research using the scales developed by Eysenck and Cattell is reviewed at school level and in higher education. The results suggest an age effect in which academic success at primary school is linked to stable extraversion, while success at university is associated with introversion. This simple pattern is, however, complicated by a variety of interactions which indicate that the relationships may differ with intellectual level, with type of institution and with the subject being studied. There is also a suggestion that the style of teaching may affect the relationships between personality and attainment. Finally, evidence on the stability of scores on the JEPI is used to question the direction of causality normally assumed in the interactions.

Helping students turn up for class: Does personality moderate the effectiveness of an implementation intention intervention?

“…In the context of task performance, highly conscientious people tend to set more autonomous goals and be more committed than less conscientious people (Barrick, Mount, & Strauss, 1993;Hollenbeck, Williams, & Klein, 1989), introverts tend to outperform extraverts on vigilance tasks (Aladjalova & Arnold, 1991;Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985;Koelega, 1992), and so on. Finally, personality traits are systematically associated with educational outcomes such as participation in seminar activities (Furnham & Medhurst, 1995), consolidation of new material (Child, 1989), classroom performance (Rothstein, Paunonen, Rush, & King, 1994), and academic performance more generally (De Fruyt & Meyvielde, 1996;Entwistle, 1972;Furnham & Mitchell, 1991;Goh & Moore, 1978). In sum, personality traits typically account for about 30% of the variance in a wide range of behaviors (Furnham & Heaven, 1999).…”

Personality, cognitive ability, and beliefs about intelligence as predictors of academic performance

“…Accordingly, the correlation between AP and Extraversion has been found to change from positive in primary school to negative in secondary school and university (see Entwistle, 1972;Eysenck & Cookson, 1969;Petrides, ChamorroPremuzic, Fredrickson, & Furnham, in press). This change has been attributed to the change from the sociable, less competitive, atmosphere of primary school to the rather formal atmosphere of secondary school (although others, such as Anthony, 1973, have argued that this change is due to the fact that the less-able individuals become extraverted, and vice versa).…”

Personality Characteristics of Syllabus‐bound and Syllabus‐free Sixth‐formers

“…Entwistle (1972Entwistle ( , 1973 has provided thorough analyses of the main directions of these studies, and he and other researchers have indicated that a useful conceptualisation has emerged from what are known as the syllabus-bound and syllabusfree orientations.…”