Personality and intelligence predict arts and science school results in 16 year olds

Abstract

This study examined personality trait and intelligence scores as predictors of schoollevel academic performance (AP) (British GCSE; America Grade 10) in various arts (i.e. languages) and science subjects. The participant sample consisted of 80 school pupils from a British Sixth Form College. Conscientiousness and Openness-to-Experience of the Big Five personality factors (Costa & McCrae, 1992) were found to account for 13% of unique variance in AP. Intelligence (Wonderlic, 1992) accounted for the initial 10% of unique variance in AP. For science subjects (maths, science) intelligence accounted for more of the variance than personality traits, while for English language (literature, language) subjects the opposite was true. The results further support the use of personality measures being used in academic selection procedures and confirms that personality can predict AP at school level. Limitations of the study are discussed.