Education is a significant step in children’s socio-psychological and functional development. The educational situation sets the task of competent and effective assimilation of knowledge, which requires a completely different structure of mental cognitive processes and emotional-volitional sphere than in preschool childhood (Zell & Lesick, 2021). A modern high school student is an emerging socially active personality. Since it is at this age that readiness for personal and professional self-determination manifests itself, there is a need for self-determination and self-realization and life plans begin to be realized (Alkış & Temizel, 2018). The relevance of this topic lies in the fact that strong-willed qualities are important at all times, as they are necessary for the realization of goals, achieving success, and becoming a person. It is intentional efforts that help people overcome difficulties and do what they need. This paper aims to review the article titled “Does general and specific personality traits predict students’ academic performance?” and analyze its contents.
Different personality qualities are formed under the influence of purposeful upbringing. They are inextricably linked with the development of the personality’s orientation, character, and human intelligence, as well as beliefs, views on life, norms, ideals, and worldview (Alkış & Temizel, 2018). What is more, the social situation of the development of an older student is characterized primarily by the fact that he is on the verge of entering into an independent life. The authors examine “whether personality profiles, personality factors, or clusters of personality factors are associated with academic success” (Jaber et al., 2021, p. 1). Based on the secondary education programs, the researchers tried to measure the academic performance of students who plan to enter dental schools and how they are affected by their character traits. In the presence of expressed qualities, a person can set goals, consciously direct his behavior to overcome laziness, concentrate his activities according to certain principles, and overcome obstacles on the way to goal setting. This statement is a hypothesis for the paper as it implies that students with a more developed personality gain more academic success.
The authors implemented a set of methods to test the hypothesis. In this section, methods, participants, and settings will be reviewed. College of Dentistry of Ajman University was chosen as a setting where the research was conducted. The educational facility selected offers 190 places a 5-year curriculum to enrollees annually. Students take general and non-clinical courses during the first two years and start clinical practice in the subsequent years. The college is competitive in the area and accepts students from high school who are eligible per the following standards: grade point average (GPA), English proficiency, and interview. It means that only well-educated individuals may take places in the program.
The chosen population sample size for the study is 170 participants. All of them are fifth-year dental school students aged between 24 and 27; 60% are males, and 40% are females (Jaber et al., 2021). The dominant number of participants are of Arab nationality; the rest come from different countries (Jaber et al., 2021). In order to conduct a study featuring people of other races, it is vital to obtain consent from everyone to meet the ethical standards. The authors of this study received ethical approval from the university’s committee, which makes this study valid.
Big Five Inventory (BFI) was selected as a primary measurement instrument to evaluate the five major personality factors. Such method is useful in appraising the most significant indicators that influence the results. The participants were asked to appraise the following factors: extroversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, and agreeableness (Jaber et al., 2021). The authors used a 5-point Likert scale and the participants had to answer 44 BFI items (Jaber et al., 2021). This approach was used to measure the validity of consciousness. The choice of the instrument was conditioned by the cross-cultural sample and its effectiveness in structuring the results.
The researches also introduced the measure of performance – weighted GPA. According to Jaber et al. (2021), “weighted GPA was a composite measure of average derived from the forty-five courses with 100 credited hours that a dental student was required to take through the first year to the fourth year” (p. 3). This data was needed to appraise students’ academic productivity and further dominant traits’ identification. What is more, the authors established the psychometric data of predictors which are reliability, convergent and discriminate validity, incremental validity, and others. These criteria helped measure the results and identified the personality traits responsible for academic success.
The results were based on the filled forms that the student applied to the researchers. As a consequence of the interventions, it was identified that “achievement, dutifulness, deliberation, competence, and self-discipline would predict success in dental schools” (Jaber et al., 2021, p. 6). It implied that these traits are predominant when a high-school student enters a college. Nonetheless, self-discipline was not the major defining factor in academic success or failure. In addition, deliberation did not signify meeting success criteria either. Jaber et al. (2021) noted that “most dental studies have been limited to investigating the power of cognitive abilities and personality traits in predicting success” (p. 7). Therefore, there are also other factors that should be studied in future works.
Moreover, the researchers have explored that leadership skills are predominant in students who enter the selected university. Leadership as a social phenomenon is based on certain objective needs of complex organized systems: self-organization, ordering the behavior of individual elements of the system in order to ensure its vital and functional capabilities (Zell & Lesick, 2021). It presumes that a student with high GPA should be developed not only academically but as an individual capable of leading others. This trait is a complex socio-psychological process of group development, as a result of which the group structure arises and differentiates, its optimization and continuous improvement take place.
To my mind, the study proves that personal qualities highly affect one’s academic performance and define future success. The topic of developing the leadership traits of high school students in an education organization is becoming more and more relevant in the modern world since the formation of their personality, and active life position largely depends on it (Alkış & Temizel, 2018). When it comes to entering a competitive school, college, or university, it is indispensable to prove one’s eligibility for the program. Serious changes have also taken place in public education organizations; therefore, its graduates face particularly high requirements: initiative, perseverance, self-belief, and the success of a common cause (Alkış & Temizel, 2018). It is necessary to be able to organize yourself and your work and overcome internal and external obstacles on the way to improving its effectiveness.
The overall work of the researchers is productive since they have managed to explore the major personality characteristics that allow a student to achieve academic success. The research suggests several implications that can be applied to the future practice of counseling psychology. Primarily, there is a row of skills that help young individuals set and achieve their goals. In a work of a consultant, it is essential to explore and emphasize one’s potential. Whenever a student has doubts about their powers and abilities, a counselor needs to lead them to self-discovery. Furthermore, this study offers a new perspective on the personality tests suggested by the researchers. If a young individual has trouble identifying their strong characteristics, these instruments can be recommended. In general, the research is helpful in a way that it establishes the connection between personal qualities and academic performance, which gives a broad perspective on the image of a successful student.
In conclusion, the vitality of differentiating personality qualities is a crucial factor in predicting the behavioral patterns of a person. Since not many students can distinguish their qualities, they can be guided with various tests that allow them to trace their conduct. Such a process can alleviate the process of identifying strong and weak sides and lead to choosing a proper career path. The ever-growing importance of receiving education conditions the topicality of the subject. Nonetheless, the professional qualities are not enough to achieve success – there is a need to develop character traits that would help one succeed. The research established the series of qualities needed for reaching academic goals, especially in the field of dental studies.
References
Alkış, N., & Temizel, T. T. (2018). The impact of motivation and personality on academic performance in online and blended learning environments. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 21(3), 35–47. Web.
Jaber, M., Al-Samarrai, B., Salah, A., Varma, S. R., Karobari, M. I., & Marya, A. (2022). Does general and specific traits of personality predict students’ academic performance? BioMed Research International, 1-8. Web.
Zell, E., & Lesick, T. L. (2021). Big five personality traits and performance: A quantitative synthesis of 50+ meta-analyses. Journal of Personality, 90(2), 222-255. Web.