The Influence of Personality Traits on University Performance: Evidence from Italian Freshmen Students

Abstract

D e s pit e s ev e ral at t e m pt s t o prov ide a de f ini t e pat t e rn re g arding t he e f f e ct s of pe rs onalit y t rait s o n pe rf orm a nc e in hig h e r e du c at ion, t he de bat e ov e r t he nat u re of t he re lat io ns hip is f ar f rom be i ng c onc lu s iv e . T he us e of dif f e re nt s u bje ct pools and s am pl e s ize s , as we ll as the u s e of ide nt if ic at ion s t rat e g ies t hat e it he r do not ade q u at e ly ac c ou nt for s e le c t ion bias o r are u nable t o e s t ablis h c au s alit y be tw e e n m e as u re s of ac ade m ic pe rf orm anc e and no nc og nit iv e s k ills , are pos s ible s ou rce s of het e rog e ne it y . T his pape r inv e s t ig at es t he im pac t of t he B ig F iv e t rait s , as m e asu re d be f ore t he be g inni ng of t he ac ade m ic y e ar, on t he g rade p oint av e rag e ac hie v e d in t he f irs t y e ar af te r t he e nrolm e nt , t ak ing adv ant ag e of a u niq u e and larg e dat as e t f rom a c oh ort of It a li an s t u de nt s in all u nde rg radu at e pr og ram s c ont aini ng de t aile d inf orm at io n on s t u de nt and pare nt al c harac t e ris t ic s . Re ly ing on a robu s t s t rat e g y t o c re dibly s at is f y t he c ondit iona l inde pe nde nc e as s u m pt ion, w e f ind t hat hig he r le v e ls of c ons c ie nt iou s ne ss and ope nne s s t o e xpe rie nc e pos it iv e ly af f e c t s tu de nt s c ore .

Academic Self-Regulation, Chronotype and Personality in University Students During the Remote Learning Phase due to COVID-19

“…This was a somewhat expected result, as conscientiousness is one of the most important influencing factors on learning and academic achievement (O'Connor and Paunonen, 2007;Poropat, 2009). Also, conscientiousness was found to be highly correlated to student scores during the COVID-19 pandemic (Corazzini et al, 2020). Our results are in line with Komarraju et al (2009), and Müller et al (2006, who found that conscientiousness is a positive predictor of intrinsic motivation.…”

“…More "open" students may face more challenging and difficult situations that allow them to perceive more self-efficacy than students with a more "reserved" character. This conjecture is backed up by the result of Corazzini et al (2020) who found high levels of openness to new experiences correlating with better student scores during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, openness correlated positively to intrinsic motivation, replicating the work of Komarraju et al (2009) and Önder et al (2014).…”

“…In this context, personality characteristics need to be considered as important predictors for academic achievement because 1) certain personality traits affect behavior which, in turn, can have an influence on academic achievement (e.g., conscientiousness; Rothstein et al, 1994), 2) personality traits reflect behavior which a person will show rather than what a person is theoretically capable of (Goff and Ackerman, 1992;Furnham and Chamorro-Premuzic, 2004), and 3) in an university setting, personality traits show more predictive power than cognitive ability for academic achievement (Ackerman et al, 2001;Furnham et al, 2003;O'Connor and Paunonen, 2007). For example, conscientiousness has been consistently related positively to academic achievement prior to (O'Connor and Paunonen, 2007;Poropat, 2009) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (Corazzini et al, 2020). As a personality dimension of the big five, it determines self-regulation and impulse control (John et al, 2008), which proved to be important in utilizing emotions to achieve academic goals (Pekrun, 1992;Pekrun et al, 2002).…”