The influence of personality on HE students’ confidence in their academic abilities

Abstract

Students' confidence in their academic abilities, measured with the Individual Learning Profile (ILP) scale, was examined in relation to their personality traits and grades. To validate the ILP, in Study 1, factor analysis of data from 3003 students extracted six factors (Reading and Writing, Hard IT, Numeracy, Time Management, Speaking, and Easy IT) with good internal reliability. Subsequently, in Study 2, 130 students completed the refined ILP, and scales measuring the Big Five, Perfectionism, Anxiety, and Self-Esteem. Between 10% and 31% of the variance in four ILP factors, but not IT skills, could be predicted by personality traits, but Self-Esteem and Anxiety were not influential. Higher conscientiousness and openness positively predicted higher confidence in reading and writing, while agreeableness and three aspects of perfectionism predicted confidence in numeracy skills. Being introvert and female were predictive of lower confidence in speaking, as were low conscientiousness and the perfectionistic desire to be organised. Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and the perfectionistic desire to be organised were strong predictors of confidence in time-management skills, which in turn predicted first year GPA. The reliability of the ILP was examined over the course of a one-year interval.Keywords: Personality, Confidence, Big Five, Self-beliefs, Individual Learning Profile, Academic Achievement, Individual Differences.When things get tough for students in Higher Education they need the self-belief that they can succeed, and the confidence to keep persevering, or else they may be more likely to give up. The beliefs that students hold about their academic abilities are important, but may be influenced not only by the student's true ability but also by their personality. While self-perceptions of academic competence have been investigated in children (cf. Kinard, 2001), little is known about how adult HE students perceive their academic strengths and weaknesses and whether these relate to personality. The current work seeks to address this gap.In 2001 the University of Wolverhampton introduced the Individual Learning Profile (ILP) questionnaire to first year students, in an attempt to identify students at risk of failure and enhance personal tutoring practices to build confidence and motivation. The ILP was broadly based on a questionnaire developed by De Montfort University to help examine why students underachieve, and asks questions about students' confidence in speaking and listening, reading and researching, time-management, IT Skills, numeracy skills, and writing. The current study was designed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the ILP as an instrument to measure students' perceived academic strengths and weaknesses. The influence of personality traits on students' perceived academic strengths and weaknesses (as measured by the ILP) will also be examined as perceptions of abilities can be biased. Ehrlinger and Dunning (2003) suggest that the general views held by people about their abilities,...

Do social comparisons in academic settings relate to gender and academic self-confidence?

“…We chose to use the ILP (Pulford and Sohal 2006) to measure confidence in academic ability. The ILP does not measure the same as the ABC (Academic Behavioural Confidence) scale.…”

“…The Individual Learning Profile (ILP) (Pulford and Sohal 2006) measured academic confidence. The Academic Social Comparison Scale (ASCS), created for this study, measured how much students academically compared themselves with other students.…”

Students' Goal Achievement: Exploring Individual and Situational Factors

“…A number of studies have used psychometric scales to identify students' confidence in academic self-concept, finding confidence to be an important factor in students' approaches to study (Sander & Sanders, 2003;Sanders & Sander, 2007), and for students' academic confidence to be further influenced by certain personality traits (Pulford & Sohal, 2006). Future studies should use such scales to explore academic confidence in relation to the variables considered in the present study.…”

Personality Correlates of Co-Witness Suggestibility

“…Again, this behaviour can be attributed to the submissive nature of participants with high wanted control scores. Witnesses with submissive personalities tend to exhibit low levels of self-esteem (Gilbert & Allan, 1994;Pulford & Sohal, 2006). Consequently, individuals with low self-esteem would have more difficulty in gaining confidence through confirmatory feedback (McFarlin & Blascovich, 1981); but would still be more vulnerable to losing confidence from disconfirmatory feedback, compared to individuals with higher self-esteem (Young, 2000).…”