Personality and the psychology of learning

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the interaction between personality and learning in order to find clues to the role that a student's personality plays in the process of adaptation and learning. To scrutinize such an expansive area requires that I cover a lot of territory in a small space, condensing many components and processes. Wherever meaningful, I will direct readers to sources that provide greater depth of coverage. The article is divided into four sections. The first section covers personality theories and models based on a structure-oriented view of personality. The second section addresses personality from a process-oriented viewpoint. Current research findings that relate personality characteristics explicitly to learning processes, strategy use, and metacognition are briefly reviewed. The third section goes one step further and discusses second-generation process-oriented personality models. These models are applied to student behaviour during actual learning episodes. A general outline of m y model of the adaptable learning process is given and it is argued that the quality of subjective experience is not just an outcome of personality characteristics. It is influenced by student * situation transactions. In the fourth section, conclusions and suggestions for future research are given. STRUCTURE-ORIENTED APPROACHES TO PERSONALITYLaymen have defended the .view that personality consists of millions of specific habits and that it is therefore impossible to describe an individual's personality profile. Researchers made a distinction between surface differences and the underlying structure of personality (see e.g. Allport, 1961). They made an attempt to identify traits that make up the structure of personality and devised instruments to measure these traits. The basic assumption is that individuals differ from each other because they are characterized by their own unique pattern of trait scores. On 'Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to

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