Academic Achievement and Student Personality Characteristics--A Multivariate Study

General and research interest in the viability of procedures used in the selection of students intending to read for university degrees is appropriate for at least three reasons: I, intrinsic interest in the predictability of behaviour and the predictive power of behavioural indices; 2, demands of national and university economics; 3, the maintenance of the highest standards in the analysis and communication of knowledge. As the demand for higher education increases, questions are bound to be asked that have a profound bearing on the usefulness of the methods of selection, on educational ideals and aims, and whether the results justify the money and effort invested. The first and the last question can be answered at two points of an individual's history: does he proceed to and obtain a university degree of reasonable merit; does he proceed to and obtain a professional standing in society from which he can contribute his specialist knowledge and ability for the benefit of that society. While a utilitarian approach to this question does not always find favour, and is not the only possible approach to the evaluation of education, it provides adequate justfication for the investigator who is concerned with the predictive power of descriptions of human behaviour which are used in a quasi-utilitarian context. The prediction of suitability for university education assumes minimally that the student applicant is capable of pursuing a full course of study to its criterion of completion, i.e. a practical and positive end result is anticipated. The qualities necessary to achieve this used to be assessed in the personal interview, but this, as a predictive test, has now rightly fallen into disrepute, and with the vast increase in the number of applicants, has become, in any case, somewhat cumbersome and even impracticable. As a result, many university departments have come to

Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Higher education · Mathematics education · Personality · Political science · Power (physics · Predictability · Predictive power · Selection (genetic algorithm · Statistics · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Educational Management and Quality · Law · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Psychology

• Personality predicts academic performance

  Open Access•Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas Chamorro‐premuzic et al.•Journal of Research in Personality•2003

  Add to list

• The validity of the Dynamic Personality Inventory

  Open Access•Paul Kline•British Journal of Medical…•1968

  Add to list

• School Leavers, Their Aspirations and Expectations

  Griselda Rowntree, Thelma Vene et al.•Population Studies•1963

  Add to list