Correlation of Personality Traits and Academic Performance of Jordanian Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Differences in personality may have an impact on academic performance, however, academic assessments aim to measure knowledge, skills, and behavior domains rather than personality. Objectives: To investigate the relation between personality traits and academic performance of medical students and evaluate if correlations between personality traits and examination scores are affected by gender or stage of study (pre-clinical versus clinical). Methods: This cross-sectional study used an online questionnaire to identify Big Five Model personality traits of medical students at the Hashemite University, Jordan. A stratified sampling technique, according to the stage of study and gender, resulted in a sample of 307 medical students who completed the questionnaire. Grade Point Average (GPA) scores, as a measure of academic performance, were retrieved from the University database for each participant and data was analysed using SPSS 16.0. The correlation between personality traits and GPA score was investigated using Pearson coefficient. Two-way ANOVA testing investigated the effect of gender and stage of study and the interaction of these factors with personality traits on GPA. Results: Only conscientiousness had a significant positive correlation with GPA (r = .231, p < .001). Two-way ANOVA showed only conscientiousness had a statistically significant effect on GPA (F (1, n=307) = 10.353, p = .001). Investigating the interaction between gender, stage of study and personality traits on GPA, showed only a statistically significant interaction effect between stage of study and openness on GPA (F (1, n=307) = 10.297, p =.001). Conclutions: Overall, personality traits did not unduly influence the assessment procedures, except a positive correlation of conscientiousness with academic performance and interaction between openness and stage of study with academic performance. These findings, from a developing country, advance our understanding of correlations between personality traits and academic performance and may inform the development of equitable assessments in similar contexts worldwide.