Characteristics of students on related science courses in further education colleges: Part IV—Achievement and personality

Abstract

Summary Tests of attainment in Chemistry and Physics, together with a personality inventory and tests of divergent and convergent thinking were administered to a sample of 633 students on GCE Advanced level, OND and ONC courses in a total of 39 colleges of further education. Test scores for the whole sample of students show that they are slightly anxious and extravert, the part-time students being the most extravert and the overseas students the most anxious. Factor analyses of all the data showed that there is a separate strong personality factor coupling anxiety with introversion (or stability with extraversion). Performance on convergent thinking tests shows little association with personality, although there is a small, but significant, correlation between extraversion and aspects of divergent thinking. High attainment in Chemistry and Physics, at this level and with these students, is associated with weak introversion, although the converse association is much less strong, i.e. low attainment with ex...