Personality and Academic Performance

This assignment examines the correlation between personality traits, specifically conscientiousness, intellectual ability, and academic performance. It analyzes research findings to support or refute hypotheses about these relationships. The study includes statistical analyses of correlation coefficients and p-values to determine the strength and significance of the connections.

The Relationship between Conscientiousness, Intellectual Ability, and Academic
Performance in an Undergraduate Psychology Cohort
Name:
Student Number:
Introduction
In the recent time identifying the factors affecting the academic performance has become one
of the most important research areas among the scholars. There are broadly two types of
factors identified which affect the academic performance. Most of the researchers argue that
the cognitive ability is one of the most important determinants(LAckerman & Heggestad,
1997). However some researchers argue that only the cognitive ability alone cannot explain
the difference in academic performance and the personal traits also plays an important
role(Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2006). It has been argued that the intellectual ability
mostly defines about what the student can do, whereas on the other hand the personal traits
show what the student will learn in future(Ackerman, Bowen, Beier, & Kanfer, 2001).
Personal traits refers so the difference in the individual thinking, characteristics, behaving and
feelings. On the basis of the previous research it can be said most of the studies on
personalities are in two major areas. First, differences in the individual characteristics such
as; irritability or the sociability. Second the different parts of an individual which comes
together. One of the most used models for personality traits is the “Five Factor Model”. To
find the relationship between the personal traits, academic performance and intellectual
ability many previous researchers have used different techniques and correlation analysis one
of them. Researcher such as (Steel, 2007; Vermetten, Lodewijks, & Vermunt, 2001) found
that academic performance and personality traits are positively correlated.positive correlation
between the personality traits and academic performance.
Similarly the relationship between the intellectual ability and the academic performance
harelationship between intellectual ability and the academic performance hass also been
examined. Studies by (Klassen, 2004; Noftle & Robins, 2007) supports the relationship
between the cognitive ability and the academic performance. Furthermore some scholars also
studied the relationship between the intellectual ability and the personal traits
conscientiousness.

From the previous research no unique conclusion can be drawn about the relationship
between the academic performance, intellectual ability and the personal traits. So this study
has been conducted where the main aim is to studyexamine the relationship among between
these variables. Three different hypotheses will be tested on the basis of the collected data.
Results
Table 1. Means and standard deviations for the Big Five personality traits, Intellectual Ability
(Raven’s APM), and Academic Performance
Mean Standard Deviation
Openness 3.57 0.84
Conscientiousness 4.22 1.05
Extraversion 3.58 0.88
Agreeableness 4.89 0.68
Neuroticism 3.32 0.83
Intellectual Ability (Ravens’ APM) 7.27 2.76
Academic Performance 76.27 10.90
Notes: The maximum score for the Big Five personality traits is 6. The maximum for the
APM is 12. Academic Performance is expressed as a percentage.
The descriptive analysis of the variables shows that the average value for Ravens’ APM is
7.27 which have been used as a measure of intellectual ability. Similarly on an average
student final grade is around 76 % which has beenis used as the proxy measure of academic
performance for the current research. To measure the personality trait conscientiousness fiver
different parameters were used namely the OCEAN and descriptive statistics for OCEAN
variables shows that average score for conscientiousness and agreeableness is better than the
score of other parameters.
Correlation Results
Correlation shows the whether two variables are related or not, and if they are related then it
also shows the direction of the relationsip ;relationship between two variables. The
correlation valuecoefficient lies between +1 and -1. If The correlation value is near close to

+1, then it indicates the strong positive correlation, between the two variables whereas the
correlation value nearcoefficient close to -1 indicates the strong negative correlation between
the two variables. However correlation does not guarantee the causation.
In this case the three different correlations were conducted and the results are shown below:
Table 2 Results from correlation coefficients
Variables
Correlation
coefficients p-value
Intellectual ability and academic performance 0.25 0.02
Personality trait conscientiousness and academic
performance 0.25 0.02
conscientiousness and intellectual ablility -0.11 0.27
As shown in the table above the correlation coefficient between academic performance and
intellectual ability and academic performance is 0.25, which indicates that the relationship
between the variable is positive. However the variables are weakly related as the coefficient
is only 0.25. In terms of significance since the p value is 0.02 which is less than 0.05, it can
be said the correlation is statistically significant at 5 % significance level. Similarly
correlation between personality trait conscientiousness and academic performance is also
positive. Since the personality trait conscientiousness was measured in terms of five different
parameters, average value was taken into consideration to calculate the correlation. The
positive correlation indicates that if one variable increase another variable will also increase.
However the low value of correlation coefficient shows that the relationship is weak. In terms
of statistical significance the p value in this case is 0.02 which is less than 5 % 0.05 so the
correlation is significant at 5 % significance level. Lastly the correlation between the
conscientiousness and intellectual ability is negative which suggest that the relation between
these two variables is negative. The p value of 0.27 indicates that the correlation coefficient is
not statistically significant.
The scatter plot for the variables included in the correlation is shown below:

Figure 1 Scatter plot between Intellectual ability and academic performance
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
0
10
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60
70
80
90
100
Intellecutual Ability
Academic performance

As the scatter plot shows the relations between the variables is upward sloping, however it is
not strong. Similar results were shown by the correlation coefficient also.
Figure 2 Scatter plot between personality trait conscientiousness
2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
0
10
20
30
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50
60
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Personality Trati conscientiousness
Academic Performance
In this case also the relationship between academic performance and personality trait
conscientiousness are positively and academic performance is positive asrelated as the plot is
upward sloping.
Figure 3 Scatter plot between intellectual ability and conscientiounsness
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
Intellectual ability
conscientiousness
Finally the scatter plot between intellectual ability and the conscientiousness is downward
sloping, indicating the negative relationship between the two variables.

Discussion
The main aim of this research is to study theexamine the relationship between the between
conscientiousness, intellectual ability, and academic performance and intellectual ability. To
find the relationship descriptive and the correlation analysis was performed. Results from the
descriptive analysis shows that average score for neuroticism was the lowest among the Five
Factor Model parameters whereas the score for agreeableness was highest. The average score
of intellectual score was also higher than the half level mark. The academic performance
indicator also shows that on an average student score 76.26 % marks.
Similarly correlation results shows that with increase in the score of the personal traits the
academic performance also increases as the correlation between those variable is positive and
significant. As per the results teachers/professors will be able to improve the academic
performance of the students if they focus on improving the score in the five factor model.
This results are in line with the previous studies of (Klassen, 2004; Steel, 2007) who also
found positive relationship. Similarly the positive correlation between the personality trait
conscientiousness and the academic performance shows that personality factors also play an
important role. This also proves that cognitive abilities are not the only factors affecting the
academic performance. Similar results were found in the previous research by (Chamorro-
Premuzic & Furnham, 2006; LAckerman & Heggestad, 1997). However one should note that
in the current research the correlation is not so strong. Lastly the correlation results between
the conscientiousness and intellectual ability shows negative correlation indicating that
increase in one variable will lead to decrease in the other variable. However the correlation
coefficient is not statistically significant.
The proposed hypothesis at the beginning of the research can be tested based on the
correlation results. On the basis of the correlation coefficients and the p value it can be said
that the results support the first two hypotheses. For the third hypothesis results only partially
support the hypothesis. This is because the there is negative relationship between
conscientiousness and intellectual ability and conscientiousness; however the correlation
coefficient is not significant. In addition results from the current research are in line with
most of the results found by the previous scholars and these results can be used in the future
research also. In addition the negative relationship between intellectual ability and

conscientiousness need further analysis Also two of the correlation coefficients are
statistically significant, so results can also be generalized for larger population.
References
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