Personality, cognitive ability, and academic performance: Differential associations across school subjects and school tracks

Abstract

Aim Personality traits and cognitive ability are well‐established predictors of academic performance. Yet, how consistent and generalizable are the associations between personality, cognitive ability, and performance? Building on theoretical arguments that trait–performance relations should vary depending on the demands and opportunities for trait expression in the learning environment, we investigated whether the associations of personality (Big Five) and cognitive ability (fluid intelligence) with academic performance (grades and tests scores) vary across school subjects (German and math) and across ability‐grouped school tracks (academic, intermediate, and vocational). Method Multiple group structural equation models in a large representative sample of ninth‐grade students (N = 12,915) from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Results Differential associations across school subjects emerged for cognitive ability, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness (math > German); and for Openness and Extraversion (German > math). Differential associations across school tracks emerged for cognitive ability, Conscientiousness (academic > intermediate > vocational) and Agreeableness (academic > intermediate > vocational). Personality traits explained more variation in academic performance in the academic than in the other tracks. Conclusion Most trait–performance relations varied across subjects, tracks, or both. These findings highlight the need for more nuanced and context‐minded perspective on trait–performance relations.

Big Five Personality Traits Predict Successful Transitions From School to Vocational Education and Training: A Large-Scale Study

“…Agreeableness predicted a higher likelihood of dropping out of VET, a transition success indicator that has not been investigated to date in previous research. Our finding is in line with Lechner et al (2017) and Brandt et al (2020), who found negative associations between high Agreeableness and school performance using the same NEPS data. However, other studies based on other (typically much longer Big Five inventories) have reported positive associations between high Agreeableness and related outcome variables -namely, educational attainment (Shanahan et al, 2014a), sales performance and performance growth (Thoresen et al, 2004), and GPA/grades (Poropat, 2009;Richardson et al, 2012;Vedel, 2014).…”

“…Without controlling for the covariates, high Emotional Stability was positively related to starting a VET position and satisfaction with VET, and high Openness was positively associated with the final VET grade and negatively associated with the intentions to drop out. Although the very limited role of Emotional Stability contradicts our expectations, it is in line with recent large-scale findings on the Big Five as predictors of educational achievement (Lechner et al, 2017;Brandt et al, 2020) and with Poropat's (2009) meta-analysis of personality-academic performance relationships based on the five-factor model. The prominent role of Openness in educational success suggested by this previous research was not borne out by our analyses with regard to transition to VET.…”

“…Based on previous findings on how the Big Five contribute to educational achievement and attainment (e.g., Spengler et al, 2013Spengler et al, , 2016Lechner et al, 2019;Brandt et al, 2020), we expected Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Openness, and Extraversion to have consistently positive associations with all aspects of transition success above and beyond the effects of the covariates (additive effects). For Agreeableness, we had no specific expectation, and we examined its effects in an exploratory fashion.…”

The Influence of Group Big-Five Personality Composition on Student Engagement in Online Discussion

“…Personality traits may affect students' ability to establish an excellent cooperative relationship with others in group learning and thus affect the collective learning effect and investment. And more nuanced and context-minded perspective on the trait -performance relations is needed [28]. Caraway found that in the traditional offline classroom, high school students' emotional engagement will be affected by their personality and self-efficacy [12].…”

Effect of personality on compound reasoning

“…On the other hand, Castro-Solano and Casullo (2001) have warned that intellectual factors alone are poor predictors of academic performance, while pointing out that certain personality dimensions enable to distinguish between profiles of high and low school performance. More recently, other studies (Brandt, Lechner, Tetzner, & Rammstedt, 2019 Bandura, Locke, Lee, & Sergent, 2018) have also been interested in the influence of personality traits and cognitive ability on academic performance. Finally, Macbeth, Razumiejczyk and Campitelli (2011) and Macbeth, Razumiejczyk, & and Crivello (2014a) have presented evidence in favor of introspection as an intervening variable in logical reasoning.…”