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The Relationship Between Personality Traits of International Students and

Academic Achievement

Article  in  Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences · December 2012

DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.257

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012) 4374 – 4379

WCES-2012

The relationship between personality traits of international students

and academic achievement
Seyedeh Maryam Geramian a *, Shima Mashayekhi b, Mohd. Tajudin Bin Hj. Ninggal c
a
Phd. Student, Faculty of Education, department of Guidance and Counseling, Universiti Teknology Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Malaysia
b
M.Sc. Student, Faculty of Education, department of Guidance and Counseling, Universiti Teknology Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Malaysia
c
Prof. Dr., Faculty of Education, department of Guidance and Counseling, Universiti Teknology Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Malaysia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to study the relationship between personality traits of postgraduate international students at Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia and their academi
John (1998) was dispersed among 146 postgraduate international students, divided into two groups, 114 male and 32 female
students, who were working towards their master degree. These students were asked to mention their last CGPA, which is
used as a criterion for collegiate academic performance. Descriptive analysis and inferential Correlation were calculated for the
statistical analysis of the data. From the five dimensions analyzed (Agreeableness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness to
Experience and Neuroticism, only two hypotheses (Conscientiousness and Openness to experience) were highly significant at
p<.001 level.
Keywords: Big Five Personality traits, Academic achievement, Cumulative grade point average

1. Introduction

All people enter the world with their own unique traits and, in spite of all the differences there might be between
all these people, they share some common traits and behaviors. The beauty of this world is that while each unique
individual has his/her own personality, a great deal of similarity exists between these personalities. Personality can
be defined as the way one talks, thinks, behaves, and feels that shows his or her differences. Interest and curiosity in
studying human behavior and personality in different cultures has motivated psychologists to investigate this area.
Humans are always known by the personal characteristics that they present. In simple words, having a good
personality means that people are warm, friendly, and optimistic. On the other hand, being mean, cruel, and selfish
is addressed as having a bad personality. There are several definitions of personality. Based on Zimbardo and
Gerrig (1996), personality
According to Allport (1948), personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical
systems that determine his unique adjustments to the environment. Funder (2001, p.2) has defined personality as "an

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +60-173861061.

E-mail address: sunset_s_ge@yahoo.com

1877-0428 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Uzunboylu
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.257
 Seyedeh Maryam Geramian et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012) 4374 – 4379 4375

individual's characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms,
hidden or not, behind those patterns". Pervin (1975) also defines personality as the way people interact with each
other or even in roles that are associated and practiced by n individuals in the community. Many psychologists are
interested in investigating and studying individual personality which leads to the emergence of many approaches and
theories regarding personality differences. Clinical psychology and psychiatry made early approaches in the study of
personality. Both fields tried to address psychopathology by insisting upon the significance of the role of personality
in abnormal functioning. Sigmund Freud emphasized the importance of inner psychic forces that were unique to
each individual and their relationship with behaviour. After Freud, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, and Carl Jung,
among others, promoted the idea that there are individual differences in psychopathology that contributed to each
Allport pioneered the belief that the influence of personality is not

result of individual differences in variables as well. This notion was also supported by Stagner (1937) and Cattell
(1966) who also made great advances in identifying individually different variables. Eysenck, like Cattell, was
committed to an empirical approach to quantify personality. A lexical approach was used by Allport and Odbert
(1936) in order to understand the elements of personality and that led them to FFM. Contemporary English is full of
terms used to describe personal definitions. Allport and Odbert (1936) catalouged almost 18,000 English
personality-relevant terms, but this number was downscaled to 4,505 adjectives and 12 consistent personality
variables using factor analysis (Cattell, 1945).

2. Literature review

Trait approach can be counted as area of considerable theoretical interest in the study of personality. Trait theory
implies that individual personalities are composed of broad dispositions. As Funder (1998) mentioned, different
specific personality theories address different questions about personality and how it operates. As such, a specific
theory may have a lot to say of value about a specific area of personality. Researchers now support the idea of
evaluating personality traits as predictors of academic achievement based on several works that have done on
personality. First, it has been suggested that behavioral tendencies reflected in personality traits affect certain habits

the extent that evaluations of achievement in an academic program are influenced by characteristic modes of
behavior such as perseverance, conscientiousness, talkativeness, dominance, and so forth, individual differences in
es
academic achievement can arise from fluctuations in their personality traits. Next, what an individual can do is the
reflection of cognitive ability, whereas, what an individual will do is a reflection of personality traits (Furnham &
Chamorro-Premuzic, 2004). Educators and researchers have worked on academic achievement problems for years.
School dropouts (Ekstrom, R.B., Goertz, M.E., Pollack, J.M., Rock, D.A., 1986) and delinquent behaviors of
students are predictable from the performance and academic achievement of the riers (Tremblay,
R.E., Masse, B., Perron, D., LeBlance, M., Schwartzman, A.E., Ledingham, J.E., 1992). Cognitive and non cognitive
factors are both responsible for academic achievement. The role and impact of cognitive ability in relation to
academic success is well documented, and a strong correlation between grades and cognitive ability was found
(Mouw & Khana, 1993; Mathiasen, 1984). A similar positive relationship between academic success and cognitive
ability was demonstrated by Teachman (1996). As mentioned above, besides cognitive abilities, non cognitive
factors which are known as personality traits are responsible for academic achievement. Several personality traits are
related to academic achievement. (Rothstein, Paunonen, Rush, & King, 1994,) demonstrated that openness and
agreeableness were positively related to CGPA. Furthermore, they employed a measure of classroom performance
rticulate various types of problems encountered in the everyday
business world. According to Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham (2003) two samples have been used to prove the
significance of the relationship between personality and academic achievement.
4376 Seyedeh Maryam Geramian et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012) 4374 – 4379

3. Methods

This research is conducted at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and it was designed to measure
personality traits and their relationship with self- report measurement criteria such as, CGPA, which is considered an
academic achievement criterion. The researcher conducted this study as a quantitative study since the data is best
presented in terms of percentage (%) and mean. This research is also categorized as a correlation study as the
researcher used data collection to describe the relationships between scientific variables Fraenkel &Wallen (2006).

3.1 Participants and research design:

Participants were 146 international postgraduate students who were working towards their Masters degree.
Seventy- eight percent of the samples were male and twenty-two percent were female with an average age of 25-27
years. In this study, the researcher used systematic random sampling. Systematic random sampling is sampling in
which every Kth individual is selected from a list which, includes all the individuals in the population. K is a
variable determined by dividing the number of individuals on the list by the number of subjects desired for the
sample (Gay, Mills, and Airasian, 2009). Population size (N) /k= sample size (n)), (235/ 146= 2). (Castillo, Joan
Joseph, 2009). Here, every 2nd person had the chance of being chosen. In this context, the researcher is using
Pearson correlation to see the relationships between the five traits of personality according to Big Five Inventory and
academic achievement. Here, the five factors are considered as independent variables while the CGPA is taken as
dependent variable.

3.2 Research Instrument

In this study, the researcher used questionnaire as the research instrument due to its convenience and advantages.
As Fraenkel and Wallen (2008) stated, questionnaire is cost effective and also easy to analyze and data entry and
tabulation for almost all researches can be easily done due to the availability of many software packages. In this
study, the researcher used Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS version 14.0) software. Another reason for
choosing questionnaire is because of its familiarity to most people. Nearly everyone has had some experience filling
out questionnaires and they generally do not confuse respondents. In this study, one set of a 44 item Big Five
inventory developed by John (1998) was distributed among 146 postgraduate international students who were doing
their master degree and they were asked to mention their last CGPA. The Inventory was divided into two different
sections: Section A was related to demographic factors of the respondents and consisted of seven questions, while
section B was comprised of forty four items to measure the five major dimensions of personality. Each item in the
BFI is presented on a 5 point Likert type scale ranging from strongly Agree (5) to strongly Disagree (1). The
following Cronbach coefficient alphas were observed: extraversion, 0.52; agreeableness 0.72; conscientiousness
0.66; neuroticism 0.61; openness 0.61and the overall reliability is 0.77. Along with administering BFI, various
demographic data (age, gender, marital status, etc.) was collected. In the demographic section, participants were
asked to mention their overall CGPA by selecting one of the following ranges: 4-3.70, 3.69-3.50, 3.49-3.00, and
2.99-2.50.

3.3 Data Analysis

This study investigated the relationships between Big Five personality trait and academic achievement among
international postgraduate students. SPSS software version 14.0 was used to analyze the results. To satisfy
Objectives 1 and 2, descriptive analysis was applied in order to identify the level of academic achievement of the
international postgraduate students and also to identify the personality profile of students based on the Big Five
Inventory. Objective 3 is presented using inferential analysis which describes the relationships between academic
achievement and Big Five personality traits.
 Seyedeh Maryam Geramian et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012) 4374 – 4379 4377

4. Results

Descriptive and inferential analysis of the findings was done. Descriptive analysis was centered on explaining the
demographic factors of the respondents which include their nationality, gender, age, religion, marital status, CGPA
result and level of financial aid. The same action was performed to analyze the five factors as independent variables.
Meanwhile, inferential analysis was done to exhibit the relationships between the Big Five traits and CGPA among
the respondents.

Table 1. Demographic Variables

Items Frequency Percent

Nationality Iran 84 57.5

China 14 9.6
Nigeria 10 6.8
Iraq 13 8.9
Yemen 6 4.1
Indonesia 5 3.4
Somalia 3 2.1
Turkey 3 2.1
Libya 2 1.4
Korea 2 1.4
Pakistan 2 1.4
Sudan 2 1.4
Total 146 100.0

Gender Female 32 21.9

Male 114 78.1
Total 146 100.0

Age 22-24 18 12.3

25-27 60 41.1
28-30 50 34.2
31 and above 18 12.3
Total 146 100.0

Religion Muslim 121 82.9

Christian 9 6.2
Buddhist 3 2.1
Other 13 8.9
Total 146 100.0

Marital Status Single 120 82.2

Married 26 17.8
Total 146 100.0

CGPA 4-3.70 2 1.4

3.69-3.50 47 32.2
3.49-3.00 41 28.1
2.99-2.50 56 38.4
Total 146 100.0

Financial Aid Scholarship 11 7.5

Self-sponsored 135 92.5
Total 146 100.0
4378 Seyedeh Maryam Geramian et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012) 4374 – 4379

Table 2. Big Five Dimensions and CGPA Inferential Correlation Analysis

Average CONSCI OPPEN AGREE EXTRA NEOR

of
CGPA
Average of CGPA Pearson 1 .516(**) .393(**) .027 .076 -.021
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .748 .361 .802
N 146 146 146 146 146 146

CONSCI Pearson 1 .752(**) .199(*) .105 -.104

Correlation .516(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .016 .206 .212
N 146 146 146 146 146 146

OPPEN Pearson .393(**) .752(**) 1 .222(**) .087 -.051

Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .007 .294 .540
N 146 146 146 146 146 146

AGREE Pearson .027 .199(*) .222(**) 1 .238(**) -.152

Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .748 .016 .007 .004 .067
N 146 146 146 146 146 146

EXTRA Pearson .076 .105 .087 .238(**) 1 -.174(*)

Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) . 361 .206 .294 .004 .036
N 146 146 146 146 146 146

NEOR Pearson -.021 -.104 -.051 -.152 -.174(*) 1

Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .802 .212 .540 .067 .036
N 146 146 146 146 146 146

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

5. Discussion

This study was conducted to identify the personality profile of the international postgraduate students at
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and the relationship of this profile with CGPA. The findings of the data
analysis revealed that most of the international postgraduate students rate high in agreeableness (mean=3.71).
Openness (mean= 3.48), conscientiousness (mean=3.47), subsequently extraversion (mean= 3.13) and neuroticism
(mean=2.74) are subsequently at medium levels. From the Correlational analysis, the result revealed that
conscientiousness (r=.51, p<.01) and openness(r= .40, p<.01) have significant relationship with CGPA. On the other
hand, no significant relationship was found between extraversion (r= .76, p> 0.05) and agreeableness (r=.27, p>
0.05) and CGPA. Finally, inferential Correlational analysis between neuroticism (r= -2, p> 0.05) and CGPA showed
a negative relationship. This result was to some extent surprising since previous studies have concluded that three
other Big Five traits predict academic success: Conscientiousness, Openness, and Agreeableness. The results of the
present study confirm previous findings regarding the validity of both cognitive and personality variables in relation
 Seyedeh Maryam Geramian et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012) 4374 – 4379 4379

to collegiate academic performance. (Lounsbury, et al., 2003; Musgrave-Marquart, et al., 1997; Paunonen & Ashton,
2001; Rothstein, et al., 1994)

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