Some personality correlates of intelligence and educational attainment in Iran.

Abstract

Summary. The Persian form of the EPI and Eysenck's Psychoticism Scale were administered to a large group (about 23,000) of Iranian secondary school graduates, aged between 18 and 19, taking the Pahlavi University entrance examination. The latter consisted of a Persian adaptation of the Otis (Advanced Level) and five multiple choice tests of academic attainment. Analysis of results for two randomly selected groups of boys and one group of girls revealed a consistently negative correlation between measures of cognitive performance and psychoticism. A somewhat less consistent but positive correlation was observed for the extraversion scale. There was little correlation between neuroticism and measures of intelligence or achievement.Considering the joint effects of extraversion and psychoticism, stable extravert subjects seemed to have performed best on tests of ability and attainment. Psychotic introverted girls, however, seem to be superior to their extraverted counterparts. This sex difference persists with regard to a number of other dependent variables.On the whole, the personality patterns of more intelligent and academically successful Iranian students would appear to be more like those of younger British pupils (below 15 years) than their own age‐mates. The superior correlation between the psychoticism scale and measures of cognitive efficiency indicates the need for further exploration of this dimension as a potentially important aspect of normal personality.