noa vu - anita de vries

Mix-in: Conference on diversity in higher education 2010

Broad versus narrow: personality as a predictor of academic performance in

culturally diverse groups

Anita de Vries

A.devries@noa-vu.nl

A.de.Vries@psy.vu.nl

1www.noa-vu.nl

Overview

Introduction

Research questions

Study 1: method & results

Study 2: method & results

Conclusions

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What is this presentation about?

A central issue: how to predict academic performance?

At the same time: lower academic performance of ethnic minorities (Jennissen & Oudhof, 2007; Roth & Bobko, 2000).

Interestingly: personality traits sometimes better predictors of academic performance than cognitive ability(e.g., Conard, 2006; Noftle & Robins, 2007; Poropat, 2009).

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Personality predictors

Big Five personality factors: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, & Openness to Experience (Goldberg, 1990).

HEXACO = Big Five traits plus Honesty-Humility (Ashton & Lee, 2004).

Conscientiousness = the strongest predictor of academic performance (e.g., Noftle & Robins, 2007).

Honesty-Humility as predictor? Integrity (cf. Honesty-Humility) = one of the best predictors of job performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998).

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Broad versus narrow traits

Band-width fidelity

Broad traits with high band-width may offer lower fidelity.

Differences are better captured by narrow traits with low band-width but high fidelity.

Hence, narrow traits may improve the prediction of academic performance (e.g., Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2003).

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Ethnicity

Ethnic minorities: lower academic performance (Jennissen

& Oudhof, 2007; Roth & Bobko, 2000).

Predictive validity of personality traits generalizable across ethnic groups?

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Research questions

1. Are Conscientiousness & Honesty-Humility/Integrity positively related to academic performance (study 1 & 2)?

2. Do narrow traits improve the prediction of academic performance (study 1 & 2)?

3. Are the results for question 1 similar for the ethnic majority and ethnic minority group (study 2)?

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Method study 1

Study 1: the relation between personality, at the broad- and narrow-level, and academic performance (GPA).

Second semester of academic year: 226 students (Mage = 20.5, SD = 2.8, 78.3% women) from the School for Higher Education in Rotterdam (The Netherlands).

The HEXACO-PI-R (Ashton & Lee, 2008)

End of the academic year: GPA from official records.

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Results study 1

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Emotionality

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Openness to Experience

Conscientiousness

Honesty-Humility (cf Integrity)

GPA

R² = .14**

r = .32**

r = .23**

R² =.02

R² =.12**

Results study 1

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Organization

Diligence

Perfectionism

Prudence

Sincerity

Fairness

GPA

R² = .20**

r = .23**Greed Avoidance

Modesty r = .22**

r = .15*

r = 21**

r = .28**

r = .29**

r = .19**

R² =.18**

Method study 2

Study 2: the relation between personality and GPA among an ethnic majority and an ethnic minority group.

Start academic year: 1236 students (Mage = 20.1, SD = 4.2, 72.8% women, 17.5% minority students) from the School for Higher Education in Rotterdam (The Netherlands).

The Multicultural Personality Test - Big Six (MPT-BS; NOA Amsterdam, 2007).

At the end of the academic year: GPA from official records.

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Results study 2

Conscientiousness (r = .27**) & Integrity (r = .19**) positive related to GPA.

GPA of ethnic minority students was less high than GPA of ethnic majority students.

For ethnic minority students, the relation between Conscientiousness and GPA was less strong than it was for majority students

For ethnic minority students, the relation between Integrity and GPA was stronger than it was for majority students

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Conclusions

Conscientiousness & Honesty-Humility/Integrity were positively related to academic performance.

Narrow traits of Conscientiousness and Honesty-Humility/Integrity: explained more variance than did the broad traits.

For ethnic minority students, the relation between Conscientiousness and academic performance was less strong, while the relation between Integrity and academic performance was stronger than it was for majority students.

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Your help

Could you help me with the following:

Why do you think .....

the relation between Conscientiousness and academic performance was less strong for ethnic minority students, while the relation between Integrity and academic performance was stronger than for majority students?

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THANK YOU

A.devries@noa-vu.nl

A.de.Vries@psy.vu.nl

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