Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies: Home

Abstract:
The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and the individual differences in the academic motivations of university students in order to develop more effective teaching strategies. 188 first-year university students were asked to complete questionnaires containing the Academic Motivations Inventory and the NEO Five factor Inventory. The results revealed an intriguing complex of relationships among the Big Five traits and the 16 subscales of the Academic Motivations Inventory. Factorial analysis revealed three underlying groupings of these subscales which are labeled escapism, commitment and performance. The association between these groupings and personality traits were refined further by means of multiple regressions. Escapism was best explained by extraversion, neuroticism and by an inverse relationship with openness to experience and conscientiousness. Of the remaining two, performance was best clarified by conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience; commitment by openness to experience and extraversion. Results are interpreted in terms of making optimal choices between teaching practices and academic motivations of the students, the range of which is due to the differences in personality traits. Recommendations for future research and educational methodologies are provided.

Keywords: academic motivation, the big five, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, a motivation

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