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Personality’s Influence on Academic Performance

Neva-Ida Nelson

Department of Psychology, Keiser University

PSY102 Introduction to Psychology

Matthew W. Tolbert, PhD

March 24, 2024

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Personality’s Influence on Academic Performance

Personality can play a significant role in an individual's academic performance.

Characteristics of one’s personality can influence how they may act around people and teachers,

how they take care of their class work, and how they handle difficult situations. It is important

for one to understand how their personality affects their academic performance. I say this

because it can help the individual find their strengths. It can also help you find your weaknesses,

giving you the opportunity to make adjustments and enhance your academic performance. So, in

order to establish how personality and its traits influence academic performance, we would need

to look at what personality and personality traits are exactly.

Personality

There are many different definitions of personality in regard to psychology, but the one

that stands out to me is that it is the entirety of a person's behavior, like their characteristics and

qualities. Psychologists created many theories pertaining to personality. These theories can be

split into five categories which are psychoanalytic theory, behavioral theory, trait theory,

situational theory, and social learning theory (Choudhry & Khuhro, 2009). Psychoanalytic

theory, which is Sigmund Freud’s theory, is divided into three parts, id, ego, and super ego and

they all add up to a part of total personality. So, id is the primal and unconscious part of

personality, ego is the rational part of personality, and super ego is the moral attitude (Choudhry

& Khuhro, 2009). The behavioral theory focuses more on behavior in situational conditions than

thoughts and feelings. It also tells us that complex behaviors are built upon simpler behaviors

(Choudhry & Khuhro, 2009). The trait theory talks about how people have specific

characteristics that don't change at all and make them act differently from each other in situations
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that are similar (Choudhry & Khuhro, 2009). There are many theorists in this theory that have

their own meaning to the trait theory, but they were able to agree upon one thing. The next

theory is the situational theory, and it explains that people's behavior can be influenced by their

surroundings and personality, and it tells us that people have the ability to decide and make

environments that's similar to their behavior. These theorists argued that personality affects

social environments that the individual chooses to be in and affects how others in those

environments respond to them (Choudhry & Khuhro, 2009). Lastly, the social learning theory

mentions the importance of cognitive processes and explains how people learn behavior by

observing others and the consequences to their actions like being rewarded or punished

(Choudhry & Khuhro, 2009). As you can see these five theories tell us a lot about personality in

different aspects.

Personality Traits

As for personality trait, it means consistent patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings.

It reflects basic dimensions on which people differ from one another (Diener et al., 2019). The

difference between personality traits and overall personality is that personality is a mixture of

behavior and cognitive patterns that make up the individual. Personality traits refer to specific

characteristics that have influenced a person's behavior and that are constant in different

situations. The dimensions I was referring to are conscientiousness, extraversion, openness,

agreeableness and neuroticism, these are the big five personality traits/the big five model.

Conscientiousness is the extent self-discipline, control, and responsibility, extraversion refers to

one’s sociability, openness focuses on intellectual curiosity and willingness, agreeableness

relates to social interaction in a positive manner, and neuroticism focuses on one’s emotional
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stability and adjustments (Rodrigues et al., 2024). When talking about academic success,

personality traits indeed does have an influence on it.

Personality Traits Influence on Academic Performance

When it comes to your academic performance, personality traits can influence it.

Referring back to the big five personality traits, in ways they can influence your academic

performance. For example, when an individual is conscientious, they plan in advance, they are

diligent, they behave by the rules, and so on but if you’re at the lower levels of conscientiousness

then it is the opposite. Conscientiousness is a strong predictor of work engagement and

performance (Rodrigues et al., 2024). Those who are extraverts are assertive and sociable and if

you're the opposite (introvert), you are independent socially and you alter in your pace of work

(Rodrigues et al., 2024), which could affect how you interact with your classmates and your class

work. According to a study conducted at the University of London by Chamorro-Premuzic and

Furnham, they used the Big Five as predictors of academic performance, took some samples

from 70 students and the data showed that the highest GPA correlated with the personality trait

of responsibility compared to the rest (Cuadra-Peralta et al., 2015). When your personality trait

of conscientiousness is high, you tend to be more responsible in your work. For me, when it

comes to conscientiousness, mine is not low but it's not high either. When it came to my class

work, I was diligent and organized mostly but other times I would have bad time management

and I would procrastinate a little. Also, I believe I am a little bit more of an introvert than an

extrovert and because of this, in the past I was hesitant on asking questions to my teachers.

Approaches to Ensure Success

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One way that I can apply my understanding of my own personality's influence on my

academic performance to ensure my success is by managing my time well, trying to finish my

work prior to the due date and paying attention to detail. When it comes to my introvert side, I

am more of a stable introvert meaning I avoid social situations, but I do so with a steady attitude

(Diener et al., 2019). Introverts do not have to be shy, they just rather direct their energy inward

rather than outward, they would rather think about it for a moment then speak (Tyron, 2005). But

because of this I am more hesitant when asking for assistance. So, in order to ensure success, I

would need to be more assertive and push myself to actively seek the help I need.

Conclusion

Personality has many different meanings to it and many different theories. Theories

including psychoanalytic theory, behavioral theory, trait theory, situational theory, and social

learning theory. All these theories take part in what a personality is exactly. Personality and

personality traits have their similarities, but they are different in a way. Personality focusses on

the behavior and cognitive patterns that make up an individual's overall character and personality

trait are the specific characteristics that influence a person's behavior. There are five big

personality traits which are conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and

neuroticism and these traits can play a crucial role in an individual's academic performance. It

can affect how you interact with your classmates and teachers, and it can affect how you do your

classwork and how you act in a challenging situations.

WC: 1,077
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References:

Choudhry, I. A., & Khuhro, A. A. (2009, July 31). Personality in Psychology. New Horizons,

3(2). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A239790774/GPS?u=lirn99776&sid=bookmark-

GPS&xid=a2217654

Cuadra-Peralta, A., Veloso-Besio, C., Marambio-Guzman, K., & Henriquez, C. T. (2015,

October). Relationship between personality traits and academic performance in university

students/Relación entre rasgos de personalidad y rendimiento académico en estudiantes

universitarios/Relacao entre tracos de personalidade e desempenho academico em

estudantes universitarios. Interciencia, 40(10), 690+.

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GPS&xid=49e38486

Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Cummings, J. A. (2019, June 28). Personality Traits.

Openpress.usask.ca; University of Saskatchewan Open Press.

https://openpress.usask.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/personality-traits/

‌Rodrigues, J., Rose, R., & Hewig, J. (2024). The Relation of Big Five Personality Traits on

Academic Performance, Well-Being and Home Study Satisfaction in Corona Times.

European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education [EJIHPE], 14(2),

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Tryon, B. (2005). Lessons for the Academic Introvert. The Chronicle of Higher Education,

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