•  
  •  
 

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

Author Bio(s)

Andrea Palmisano, PhD is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Tidewater Community College. She holds a PhD in Psychology, a Masters in Clinical Psychology, and a Virginia Supreme Court mediation certification.

Abstract

Community colleges are academic institutions with a large number of nontraditional students whose needs must be understood before their academic needs can be fully addressed. Previous research studies have established a positive correlation between academic performance and the personality traits of Conscientiousness and Openness to Experiences, and to a lesser extent the traits of Extraversion and Agreeableness. In contrast, a negative correlation has been demonstrated between the trait of Neuroticism and academic performance. These studies were conducted primarily in four-year institutions, making the generalization of results to community college students inappropriate. The present study explored the predictive relationship between personality traits, GPA, and membership into a traditional and nontraditional student category using a non-experimental regression research design. A stepwise forward logistic regression was conducted with data provided by 163 students attending a major community college in the Southeastern region of the United States. Results indicated the trait of Neuroticism accounts for about 10% of the variability between traditional and nontraditional students, thus serving as a predictor variable. Information regarding how faculty members and staff can utilize study findings, as well as recommendation for future studies, are included.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.