NOA VU - Anita De Vries

1. Mix-in: Conference on diversity in higher education 2010
Broad versus narrow: personality as a
predictor of academic performance in
culturally diverse groups
Anita de Vries
A.devries@noa-vu.nl
A.de.Vries@psy.vu.nl
www.noa-vu.nl 1

2. Overview
 Introduction
 Research questions
 Study 1: method & results
 Study 2: method & results
 Conclusions
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3. What is this presentation about?
 A central issue: how to predict academic performance?
 At the same time: lower academic performance of ethnic
minorities (Jennissen & Oudhof, 2007; Roth & Bobko, 2000).
 Interestingly: personality traits sometimes better
predictors of academic performance than cognitive ability
(e.g., Conard, 2006; Noftle & Robins, 2007; Poropat, 2009).
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4. Personality predictors
 Big Five personality factors: Extraversion, Agreeableness,
Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, & Openness to
Experience (Goldberg, 1990).
 HEXACO = Big Five traits plus Honesty-Humility (Ashton & Lee,
2004).
 Conscientiousness = the strongest predictor of academic
performance (e.g., Noftle & Robins, 2007).
 Honesty-Humility as predictor? Integrity (cf. Honesty-
Humility) = one of the best predictors of job performance
(Schmidt & Hunter, 1998).
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5. Broad versus narrow traits
Band-width fidelity
 Broad traits with high band-width may offer lower fidelity.
 Differences are better captured by narrow traits with low
band-width but high fidelity.
 Hence, narrow traits may improve the prediction of
academic performance (e.g., Chamorro-Premuzic &
Furnham, 2003).
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6. Ethnicity
 Ethnic minorities: lower academic performance (Jennissen
& Oudhof, 2007; Roth & Bobko, 2000).
 Predictive validity of personality traits generalizable
across ethnic groups?
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7. Research questions
1. Are Conscientiousness & Honesty-Humility/Integrity
positively related to academic performance (study 1 &
2)?
2. Do narrow traits improve the prediction of academic
performance (study 1 & 2)?
3. Are the results for question 1 similar for the ethnic
majority and ethnic minority group (study 2)?
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8. Method study 1
Study 1: the relation between personality, at the broad- and
narrow-level, and academic performance (GPA).
 Second semester of academic year: 226 students (Mage =
20.5, SD = 2.8, 78.3% women) from the School for Higher
Education in Rotterdam (The Netherlands).
 The HEXACO-PI-R (Ashton & Lee, 2008)
 End of the academic year: GPA from official records.
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9. Results study 1
Emotionality
Extraversion
R² =.02
Agreeableness GPA
R² = .14**
Openness to Experience
Conscientiousness r = .32**
R² =.12**
Honesty-Humility (cf Integrity) r = .23**
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10. Results study 1
Organization r = .19**
Diligence r = .29**
Perfectionism r = .28**
Prudence r = 21**
GPA
R² =.18**
R² = .20**
Sincerity
Fairness r = .15*
Greed Avoidance r = .23**
Modesty r = .22**
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11. Method study 2
Study 2: the relation between personality and GPA among an
ethnic majority and an ethnic minority group.
 Start academic year: 1236 students (Mage = 20.1, SD =
4.2, 72.8% women, 17.5% minority students) from the
School for Higher Education in Rotterdam (The
Netherlands).
 The Multicultural Personality Test - Big Six (MPT-BS; NOA
Amsterdam, 2007).
 At the end of the academic year: GPA from official
records.
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12. Results study 2
 Conscientiousness (r = .27**) & Integrity (r = .19**) positive related to
GPA.
 GPA of ethnic minority students was less high than GPA of ethnic
majority students.
 For ethnic minority students, the relation between Conscientiousness
and GPA was less strong than it was for majority students
 For ethnic minority students, the relation between Integrity and GPA
was stronger than it was for majority students
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13. Conclusions
 Conscientiousness & Honesty-Humility/Integrity were positively
related to academic performance.
 Narrow traits of Conscientiousness and Honesty-
Humility/Integrity: explained more variance than did the broad
traits.
 For ethnic minority students, the relation between
Conscientiousness and academic performance was less strong,
while the relation between Integrity and academic
performance was stronger than it was for majority students.
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14. Your help
 Could you help me with the following:
Why do you think .....
the relation between Conscientiousness and academic
performance was less strong for ethnic minority students,
while the relation between Integrity and academic
performance was stronger than for majority students?
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15. THANK YOU
A.devries@noa-vu.nl
A.de.Vries@psy.vu.nl
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