Relationship between Big-five Personality Domains and Students’ Academic Achievement

Personality is a multidimensional psychological construct that can influence the waystudents engage in learning and their academic performance. This study aimed to examinethe relationships between the different personality domains and students’ academicperformances in Malaysian context. The sample consisted of 360 students (Male, n = 180;Female, n = 180) from five randomly chosen secondary schools in a state in the northernpart of Peninsular Malaysia. A quantititave survey approach was used in this study. Inparticular, the Malay Version Five-Factor Personality Inventory (NEO-FFI) was used to measure the students’ personality domains while their academic achievement was denoted by Grade Point Average (GPA). Inferential statistics revealed that there were no gender differences in the different personality domains, except for neuroticism, where females had recorded a higher mean score. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis revealed that openness and conscientiousness were positively related to Malaysian students’ academic achievements. Finally, regression analysis has confirmed that the two variables accounted for the changes in students’ academic performances. The findings have significant implications for education matters.