Personality Characteristics and Study Choices

Personality is a widely studied topic in the field of Psychology, and one important area of research examines how personality affects people’s everyday lives. Though there are many models for studying personality, the Big Five model (McCrae & John, 1992), which includes the components Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism, has been established as a reliable and valid measure. Previous research has shown that personality influences effort in class, but little research has been published on how personality influences the way students study. Similarly, although research has demonstrated that personality may be related to leadership choices, there is little research specifically examining group work in college students. We hypothesized that individuals who are more conscientious are more likely to be group leaders. We also hypothesized that individuals who score higher in neuroticism will be more likely to be group leaders. Finally, we hypothesized that extraverted individuals will be more likely to study in groups. Consistent with our hypothesis, results indicated that there was a positive correlation between conscientiousness and group leadership. However, contrary to our prediction, there was a negative association between neuroticism and group leadership. Additionally, individuals who score higher in extraversion were less likely to believe that it is studying in groups is effective. These results suggest that there may be other factors that predict group leadership and study choices in college-aged students.