Can the Five Factor Taxonomic Model of Personality Predict Academic Performance?

Can the five factor taxonomic model of
personality predict academic performance?
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The role that personality plays in psychology has grown immensely in the recent years as
the relationship between variables and factors of personality traits which include the feelings,
emotions and responses that an individual manages to conjure in a situation have been getting
increasing literary significance in theories such as the personality trait theory (Booth & Murray,
2018). Many traditional and modern researches and surveys which have been conducted in the
domain of psychology have listed 5 basic dimensions of personality which has been expanded
upon numerous times by eminent researchers such as Norman (1967), Smith (1967), Goldberg
(1981) and McCrae & Costa (1987), since its initial inception in 1949 by D.W. Fiske also known
as the 'five factor model of personality'. The 5 factors which have identified through this
psychological concept include extraversion (also referred as extroversion in psychology),
agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism and this critical essay involves a
detailed analysis of these factors to study their role in predicting and influencing the academic
performance of individuals. After conducting a thorough literature review, this essay was
successful in establishing a link between some elements of the five factor model to the academic
performance of students with the main one being conscientiousness which can be a predictive
factor to a certain degree. However this essay also resulted in some major holes being identified
in the model in terms of its faulty relation with academic performance as many traits which have
been defined in the model proved inconsistent as they invoked varied responses in accordance to
different years of schooling while some proved non-consequential. This resulted in a conclusion
that despite some aspects of the model being good predictors of overall academic performance,
the model in its entirety is unreliable and cannot be used to predict academic performance
(Gatzka & Hell, 2018).