Personality and Individual Differences

Volume 29, Issue 6, December 2000, Pages 1057-1068

Intellectual ability, learning style, personality, achievement

motivation and academic success of psychology students in
higher education
Vittorio V Busato a , Frans J Prins b, Jan J Elshout a, Christiaan Hamaker a

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Abstract

This study is directed towards an integration of intellectual ability, learning style, personality and
achievement motivation as predictors of academic success in higher education. Correlational
analyses partly confirmed and partly disconfirmed our expectations in a sample of 409 first-year
psychology students. Consistent with the literature, intellectual ability and achievement
motivation were associated positively with academic success. For the meaning directed,
reproduction directed and application directed learning style, no positive association with
academic success could be detected. The undirected learning style, however, appeared to be a
consistent negative predictor. For the Big Five personality factors (extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience), a consistent, positive association for
conscientiousness with academic success was found. The very first examination at the university
came out as the most important predictor for academic success, even after two and three years of
study. The implications of the results are discussed in relation to the literature and the policy of
the Dutch Ministry of Education.
Introduction

According to Harris (1940), the most essential factors in academic achievement in the thirties
were intelligence and drive or degree of motivation. Nothing has changed really since that time;
these factors still play a role in academic success (e.g. Andersson and Keith, 1997, Boekaerts, 1996,
De Raad and Schouwenburg, 1996, Eysenck, 1970), although the relative importance of these
factors as predictors, at least for the Dutch situation, should not be overestimated (e.g. Crombag
et al., 1975, Lavin, 1965; Meerum Terwogt-Kouwenhoven, 1990; Van Overwalle, 1985). Of these
factors, intelligence or intellectual ability, is probably the most documented variable as predictor
of cognitive performance (e.g. Elshout and Veenman, 1992, Neisser et al., 1996, Pintrich et al.,
1986, Sternberg and Kaufman, 1998, Veenman et al., 1994). For educational settings, drive or
degree of motivation has been refined to achievement motivation — i.e. the striving tendency
towards success with the associated positive effects and towards the avoidance of failure and the
associated negative effects — and is also known to be an important predictor for cognitive
performances (e.g. Atkinson and Feather, 1964, Boekaerts and Simons, 1995, Dweck, 1986,
McClelland et al., 1953, Pintrich and Schunk, 1996; interested readers might want to compare in
this context also Cacioppo, Petty, Feinstein & Jarvis, 1996). According to De Raad, 1996, De Raad
and Schouwenburg, 1996, personality (especially the Big Five factors extraversion,
conscientiousness and openness to experience; see also Blickle, 1996, Geisler-Brenstein et al.,
1996, Goff and Ackerman, 1992, Rothstein et al., 1994, Wiggins et al., 1969, Wolfe and Johnson,
1995) and learning style are also relevant factors, contributing to academic success. But “because
the different constructs stem from different theoretical or context-determined goals, and are
often measured by variables that are partially overlapping, it is hard to draw specific conclusions
as to which constructs play an important role in education and which do not. It may be profitable
to perform an integrated study with all the possible basic traits put together in a coherent system”
(De Raad & Schouwenburg, 1996, p. 315–316). This study is directed towards such an integration
of intellectual ability, learning style, personality and achievement motivation. Research-question
is how these variables relate to academic success in higher education.

In the literature, learning styles are very often considered as a kind of general strategy, for
example characterised as surface-level or deep-level processing (Marton & Saljö, 1976), a holistic
vs a serialistic style (Pask, 1976, Pask, 1988), deep processing, elaborative processing, fact retention
and methodical study (Schmeck, 1983). But learning styles are also described as types of learning
like, for example, concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and
active experimentation, resulting in four learning styles: divergers, accommodators, convergers
and assimilators (Kolb, 1976, Kolb, 1984), as orientations like achieving, meaning, reproducing
and non-academic (Entwistle, 1988), or as approaches to learning like surface, deep and achieving
(Biggs, 1993). (See, for example, Rayner and Riding, 1997, Riding, 1997, Riding and Cheema, 1991,
for thorough reviews.)
Elaborating on these theories, Vermunt, 1992, Vermunt, 1996, Vermunt, 1998) describes a learning
style as consisting of four aspects: processing strategies, regulation strategies, mental models of
learning and learning orientations. Processing strategies are thinking activities students use to
process information in order to obtain certain learning results like, for example, knowing the
most important points in the study material. (Metacognitive) regulation strategies are activities
students use to monitor, to plan and to control the processing strategies and their own learning
processes. Mental models of learning are (mis)conceptions students have about learning processes.
Learning orientations are personal aims, intentions, expectations, doubts, etcetera, students may
experience during their educational career.

Vermunt (1992) distinguishes four different learning styles: an undirected, a reproduction

directed, an application directed and a meaning directed learning style. Students characterised by
an undirected learning style have, for example, problems to process the material for study,
experience difficulties with the amount of study material and with discriminating what is
important and what is not. Students with a reproduction directed learning style are characterised by
study behaviour directed mainly on reproducing what is learnt at examinations, in order to pass
these successfully. Students with an application directed learning style try to employ what they learn
to actual, real-world settings. Finally, students with a meaning directed learning style wish to find
out what is meant exactly in their study material, interrelate what they have learned and try in a
critical sense to develop their own view.

Busato, Prins, Hamaker & Visser (1995) investigated the relation between intellectual ability and
learning style. On the meaning directed learning style a significant, positive influence of
intellectual ability was found. On the undirected learning style, however, a significant, negative
influence was found. The undirected learning style also appeared to be a negative predictor for
academic success. However, in a cross-sectional study with older year psychology students,
Busato, Prins, Elshout and Hamaker (1998) did not find the meaning directed learning style to be
a significant predictor for academic success, although the undirected learning style still
correlated negatively with academic success.

In psychology today, there is a remarkable consensus about the description of personality based
on five factors (e.g. Cacioppo et al., 1996, Costa and McCrae, 1992, Costa and McCrae, 1995, De
Raad, 1996, De Raad and Schouwenburg, 1996, Digman, 1990, Elshout and Akkerman, 1975,
Furnham, 1996, Furnham, 1997; Goldberg, 1990, Goldberg and Saucier, 1995, Hofstee and De
Raad, 1991; but see also Block, 1995a, Block, 1995b, Eysenck, 1991, Eysenck, 1992, Zuckerman,
1992 for critical comments). These five personality factors are usually named extraversion,
agreeableness (also referred to as sociability), conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to
experience (also referred to as intellect or culture). Extraversion refers to the degree people are
tended towards sociability, experience positive emotions and high activity. Agreeableness is
associated with a disposition toward nurturance, altruism, trust, and friendly compliance.
Conscientiousness has to do with the will to achieve, self-control, persistence, and dependability.
Neuroticism refers to the degree people experience negative emotions. Openness to experience is
associated with a receptivity to new ideas, a preference for varied sensations, and intellectuality.

In a previous study, Busato, Prins, Elshout and Hamaker (1999) investigated the relation between
learning style and personality with the Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS), developed by Vermunt,
1992, Vermunt, 1994), and the Big Five personality factors (measured by the 5PFT (Elshout &
Akkerman, 1975)). They also studied the relation between learning styles and achievement
motivation (measured by the PMT (Hermans, 1976)). Although some systematic overlap was
found, this was not so large that it would make no sense to measure only personality, or only
achievement motivation. Busato et al. (1999) concluded that it certainly makes sense to measure
learning styles independently from personality and achievement motivation in educational
settings.

In this research project, the influence of learning styles, the Big Five personality factors,
achievement motivation and intellectual ability on academic success (i.e., the first examination,
after one year of study, after two and after three years of study) in higher education will be
investigated by correlational analyses and, possibly, structural equation modelling. Consistent
with the literature, it is expected that intellectual ability and achievement motivation will be
positive predictors of academic success. Based on the finding of Busato et al. (1995), it is again
expected that the undirected learning style is a negative predictor for academic success. For the
meaning directed learning style, a positive influence on academic success is expected. According
to De Raad and Schouwenburg (1996), the Big Five factors extraversion, conscientiousness and
openness to experience are educationally relevant. We will analyse how these factors relate to
academic success. It will be interesting to find out in an actual, ecologically valid situation which
(combination of ) cognitive and motivational variables are revealed to be important in academic
success for psychology students in The Netherlands.

Section snippets

Sample

Participants were first-year psychology students at the University of Amsterdam. These students
had to take part in the mandatory ‘Testweek’, which is held every year for freshmen psychology
students. During this ‘Testweek’, different psychological tests are administered, including the
inventories measuring the variables under consideration. Data on learning styles were available
from psychology students who started their study in 1993, in 1994 and in 1995. The data on
learning styles of 1994…

Results
In Table 1, means and standard deviations of the variables under consideration are displayed.

In Table 2 the correlations between intellectual ability, learning styles, achievement motivation,
personality factors, academic success after one year of study, after two and after three years of
study, and the first examination are depicted.

As can be seen in Table 2, intellectual ability was associated positively with academic success after
one year and after three years. Achievement motivation…

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to integrate intellectual ability, learning style, personality and
achievement motivation, in order to investigate how these variables relate to academic success in
higher education. Some well-known empirical tendencies were confirmed. According to the
correlational analyses, intellectual ability and achievement motivation were associated positively
with academic success, which is in accordance with the literature cited in the introduction (e.g.
Dweck, 1986, …

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