ابعاد کنترل روانشناختی والدین: ارتباطات با پرخاشگری فیزیکی و رابطه پیش دبستانی در روسیه

College students (308 undergraduates) completed the Five Factor Inventory and the Academic Motivations Scale, and reported their college grade point average (GPA). A correlation analysis revealed an interesting pattern of significant relationships. Further, regression analyses indicated that conscientiousness and openness explained 17% of the variance in intrinsic motivation; conscientiousness and extraversion explained 13% of the variance in extrinsic motivation; and conscientiousness and agreeableness explained 11% of the variance in amotivation. Further, four personality traits (conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, and agreeableness) explained 14% of the variance in GPA; and intrinsic motivation to accomplish things explained 5% of the variance in GPA. Finally, conscientiousness emerged as a partial mediator of the relationship between intrinsic motivation to accomplish and GPA. These results are interpreted within the context of what educators could do to encourage and nurture student motivation and achievement.

Academic success is strongly influenced by individual differences in motivation and achievement. Prior research has focused mostly on academic achievement among young students, and provides no clear and consistent evidence regarding the extent to which personality traits relate to academic motivation and achievement. The current study addresses these gaps by examining the relationship between the Big Five traits described by the Five Factor model of personality (Costa & McCrae, 1992), academic motivation, and academic achievement among college students in the United States. 1.1. The Big Five personality traits The Big Five traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) have been related to a wide range of behaviors (Ozer & Benet-Martinez, 2005), including academic achievement and job performance (Costa and McCrae, 1992 and Judge et al., 2007). The relative convergence by researchers on the value of a Big Five organizing framework for personality makes it a promising starting point for examining the intricate relationship between personality, motivation, and achievement (Costa & McCrae, 1992). 1.2. Self-determination theory We conceptualized motivation in terms of Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory viewing motivation as a continuum with intrinsic and amotivation at either end, and extrinsic motivation in the middle (Deci and Ryan, 1985 and Ryan and Deci, 2000). Intrinsically motivated individuals tend to have an internal locus of control, are driven to accomplish, seek intellectual stimulation, and are enthusiastic about learning new things. Extrinsically motivated individuals pursue education to achieve contingent goals, rather than for an intrinsic enjoyment of learning. There are three types of extrinsic motivations: external regulation (engaging in academic pursuits due to external rewards and punishments), introjected regulation (internalizing the importance of academic pursuits due to environmental influences) or identified regulation (choosing to identify with the values associated with academics). Finally, amotivated individuals are past caring and do not respond to environmental influences. The Academic Motivations Scale (AMS, Vallerand et al., 1992) operationalizes self-determination theory by measuring intrinsic (three subscales), extrinsic (three subscales), and amotivation in academic contexts. Intrinsically motivated students seek challenge and competition, whereas amotivated students tend to disengage or drop out (Beaudoin, 2006, Harter, 1981 and Vallerand and Bissonnette, 1992). Learning environments encouraging mastery foster intrinsic motivation, whereas environments emphasizing performance reduce student motivation and achievement (Ames and Archer, 1988, Barron and Harackiewicz, 2001 and Meece et al., 2006). 1.3. Personality and academic motivation Only a handful of studies have examined personality and academic motivation. Ross, Rausch, and Canada (2003) found that the Big Five explained significant variance in cooperative, hypercompetitive, and personal development motivational orientations. Individuals high in conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness show the strongest learning goal orientation (Payne, Youngcourt, & Beaubien, 2007), whereas high neuroticism and low extraversion students are most likely to experience a fear of failure and pursue avoidance performance goals. Komarraju and Karau (2005) found that engagement motivation (thinking and desire for self-improvement) was best explained by openness and extraversion, and achievement motivation (persisting and competing) by conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. Avoidance motivation (debilitating anxiety, withdrawing, and disliking school) was associated positively with neuroticism and extraversion, and negatively with conscientiousness and openness. Similarly, achievement motivation has been associated positively with conscientiousness and extraversion, and negatively with neuroticism, impulsiveness, and fear of failure (Busato et al., 1999, De Guzman et al., 2003, Heaven, 1989 and Kanfer et al., 1996). Individual differences in students' achievement goals have also been documented. Students seeking performance goals, especially performance avoidance goals, tend to experience evaluation apprehension, view difficulties as threats, and are likely to give up (Cury et al., 2006, Dweck and Leggett, 1988, Elliott and Dweck, 1988, Elliot and Harackiewicz, 1996, Elliot and McGregor, 1999, Elliot and Sheldon, 1997 and Elliot and Thrash, 2002). In contrast, those seeking mastery goals enjoy learning, perceive difficulties as challenges, and are persistent (Harackiewicz, Barron, Tauer, & Elliot, 2002). Ideally, a combination of mastery and performance goals is positively related to performance, interest, and motivation (Harackiewicz, Barron, Carter, Lehto, & Elliot, 1997). Thus, there is initial documentation of some influences of personality on academic motivation and achievement goals, though our understanding is clearly rather preliminary. 1.4. Personality and academic achievement The larger and richer literature on personality and academic achievement suggests that conscientiousness has a consistently positive association with GPA beyond that explained by SAT scores (Conard, 2006), high school GPA (Noftle & Robins, 2007), or IQ (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005). Conscientiousness also predicts academic success (Dollinger and Orf, 1991, Furnham et al., 2003 and Paunonen and Ashton, 2001), including exam performance (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2003a), and GPA (Busato et al., 2000 and Wagerman and Funder, 2007). Besides conscientiousness, both openness and agreeableness are positively related to academic performance (Lounsbury et al., 2003 and Farsides and Woodfield, 2003), and neuroticism is associated with impaired academic performance (Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, 2003b, Furnham and Mitchell, 1991 and Heaven et al., 2002). Noftle and Robins (2007) also report that conscientiousness is the strongest predictor of academic performance, and the other four traits have weak or mixed relationships with GPA. Most recently, researchers note that grit and self-discipline go beyond IQ in explaining academic success (Duckworth et al., 2007 and Duckworth and Seligman, 2005). An individual's work drive also explains significant variation in GPA beyond that explained by the Big Five and intelligence (Lounsbury et al., 2003 and Ridgell and Lounsbury, 2004). Traits representing prudence, self-control, dominance, and perfectionism, as well as academic discipline and commitment to college, are significant predictors of GPAs and remaining in school (Martin et al., 2006, Mills and Blankstein, 2000, Pritchard and Wilson, 2003, Robbins et al., 2006 and Wolfe and Johnson, 1995). Academic performance is also higher among sociable (Furnham & Medhurst, 1995), emotionally stable, and introverted (Entwistle & Entwistle, 1970) individuals. A recent meta-analysis showed that academic self-efficacy and achievement motivation were the best predictors of GPA and persistence (Robbins, Lauver, Le, Davis, Langley, & Carlstrom, 2004). Thus, after controlling for ability, certain aspects of personality and motivational orientations clearly do contribute to academic success. 1.5. Rationale for the current study Although previous research suggests links between various personality traits and some aspects of academic motivation and achievement, not much research has examined the relationship between the Big Five traits, academic motivation, and academic achievement within the same study. We address this gap by directly assessing the role of the Big Five personality traits in explaining variations in college students' motivation and achievement. Because conscientious individuals tend to be more disciplined and achievement oriented, we predicted that conscientiousness would be positively related with intrinsic motivation and GPA and would be negatively related with amotivation. As individuals high in openness display a strong intellectual curiosity, we predicted that openness would be positively related with intrinsic motivation. Because extraverted individuals tend to be warm and sociable, we predicted that they would be more extrinsically motivated. Because agreeable individuals are trusting, cooperative, and likely to follow academic requirements, we predicted they would be less amotivated and more extrinsically motivated. Given that individuals high in neuroticism display emotional instability and poor impulse control, we expected them to be high on amotivation, low in intrinsic motivation, and to have lower GPAs. Finally, our use of an inventory containing multiple dimensions of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation allowed us to explore the extent to which any broader differences also held across specific sub-dimensions of academic motivation.