The study of relationship between Big-Five personality factors and use of motivated learning strategies by students aspiring for careers through civil services competitive examinations

Pages: 13-17
Shirish K. Shitole (Department of Psychology, Mahavir Mahavidyalaya, Kolhapur, Maharashtra)

The aim of this research was to find out the relationship between Big Five Personality Factors (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) and Motivated Learning Strategies used by students aspiring for careers through civil services’ competitive examinations. To find out whether there existed any gender difference was also studied. Two scales namely, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire developed by Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, and McKeachie (1991) and NEO-Five Factor Inventory: Short Form developed by Costa, Jr. and McCrae (1992), were used for this study. The total number of sample was 199 (135 Males and 64 Females) and was taken from civil services’ competitive examination centers at Pune and Ichalkaranji. In case of male students, the motivational orientation was significantly correlated with conscientiousness (r=.2; p<.01) and extraversion (r=.2; p<.01) and non-significantly correlated with openness to experience (r=-.1), agreeableness (r=-.049) and neuroticism (r=.05). In case of female students, the motivational orientation was significantly correlated with conscientiousness (r=.39; p <.01) and extraversion (r=.2; p <.01) and non-significantly correlated with openness to experience (r=.014), agreeableness (r=-.09) and neuroticism (r=-.12). The relationship of learning strategies was non-significant with openness (r=-.13) and agreeableness (r=-.03) and was significant with conscientiousness (r=.5; p<.01), extraversion (r=.48; p<.01) and neuroticism (r=-.4; p<.01) in case of male students. In case of female students, the relationship of learning strategies was non-significant with openness (r=.04) but was found significant with conscientiousness (r=.62; p <.01) and extraversion (r=.37; p<.01), agreeableness (r=.43; p<.01) and neuroticism (r=-.46; p<.01). No significant difference was found among male and female students regarding motivational orientation (z=.59) towards civil services' competitive examinations but in case of learning strategies, a significant difference in favour of girls was found (z=2.16; p<.05). Regarding Big Five Factors, significant differences were found between males and females in case of conscientiousness (z=3.59; p<.01) and agreeableness (z=2.87; p<.01). For other factors, namely, openness (z=.57), extraversion (1.24) and neuroticism (.08), no significant gender differences between civil services' aspirants were found.