The Relationships between the Big Five Personality Traits and Academic Motivation Levels of Turkish University Students

Abstract

The relationships between personality traits and motivation are significant for effective learning and teaching. The main purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between personality traits and motivation levels of Turkish university students. The specific purpose of the study is to determine which personality factor predicts academic motivation to what extent. For this purpose, Adjective Based Personality Scale (ABPT) developed by Bacanlı et al. (2009) was conducted on 353 (237 female, 116 male) students who study at state universities. ABPT was developed according to The Big Five Personality Traits and measures the five main factors of personality. Academic Motivation Scale was developed by Valerant et al. (1992) according to self-determination theory and consists of seven factors (Amotivation, External Regulation, Introjected Regulation, Identified Regulation, Intrinsic Motivation to Know, Intrinsic Motivation to Experience Stimulation and Intrinsic Motivation to Accomplish). Turkish adaptation was done by Karagüven in 2012. The results indicate that, all personality factors show significant relations with academic motivation. While conscientiousness has been shown to be positively and significantly correlated, neuroticism has been shown to be negatively and significantly correlated with academic motivation. In order to determine which personality factors predict academic motivation level stronger, data were analyzed by multiple regression analysis. The subcategories which form personality explain 16% of variance on the levels of student motivation. When the significance tests of regression coefficients were examined, the neuroticism and conscientiousness factors of personality (p<0,05) were found to be significant predictors of academic motivation. Keywords: Big Five Personality Traits, academic motivation, Turkish university students