How Predictable Ratings are: The Role of Personality Traits

Previous research has shown that raters’ personality characteristics exert an influence on their ratings, skewing the results and invalidating the decisions made about students’ future life. Although the exact mechanism of these factors, their precise effect on ratings, and the interaction between the traits and ratings are yet to be empirically demonstrated, anecdotal evidence coupled with research findings suggests raters’ ratings do not necessarily reflect students’ abilities and may be affected by other construct-irrelevant variances, including personality traits. The purpose of the present study, therefore, was to examine the extent to which some selected personality traits would predict the ratings awarded by the raters to students’ written performance. To that end, teacher raters rated students’ essays on 13 assessment criteria using a 5-point analytic rating scale. Big five inventory and student essays were used to measure teacher raters’ personality traits and to collect data. Data were computed and analysed using SPSS (version 25). Results from linear regression showed that extroversion, agreeableness, openness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness did not significantly contribute to the ratings. The findings suggest that such personality factors may not account for the ratings, and rater variability should be explained in terms of other personality variables. The implications of the study are discussed.