Personality Correlates of Academic Involvement among Secondary School Students

INTRODUCTION

In today‟s world education is important for everyone to lead successful life, especially for students in higher secondary school level as their progress in education marks the criteria for choosing their future studies. Hence the higher secondary school level is the most crucial stage in the academic life of a student. It is said to be a foundation stage for college and further learning and to establish successful career. Every student should be enlightened with right way to attain an interest in the field of education. Higher secondary school students are mostly adolescents. Academic achievement or (academic) performance is the extent to which a studenthas achieved their short or long-term educational goals. Cumulative GPA and completion of educational degrees such as High School and Bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement. To achieve something they have to involve themselves into the work which is known as academic involvement. When we talk about academic involvement it is correlated with study involvement. Involvement has been conceived in different ways by the different authors, and Cantril (1947) were the first to use the concept of ego involvement. According to them the behavior can be designed as ego-involved when in the course of development, acquired attitudes related to one‟s own ego are brought into play in a certain situation by relevant objects, people or groups so that either a high degree of participation is produced or attitudes relative to one‟s own ego, the image of one‟s ego etc are called upon. Involvement is very essential in all he activities to complete a particular work or task with success. In education, students can achieve in their studies only when they totally involve in their studies. In view of Morse & Wingo (1970) study involvement implies seen interest in the task, working with persistence & imagination and sharing the responsibility for own learning process. Involvement in studies not only making the learning pleasant activity but also yields enhancement in learning outcomes of higher order and develops positive attitudes towards learning and facilitates creative productivity.

successful life, especially for students in higher secondary school level as their progress in education marks the criteria for choosing their future studies. Hence the higher secondary school level is the most crucial stage in the academic life of a student. It is said to be a foundation stage for college and further learning and to establish successful career. Every student should be enlightened with right way to attain an interest in the field of education. Higher secondary school students are mostly adolescents. In this study, we try to understand how a personality trait is influencing the academic involvement in an individual. We further going to understand what kind of personality train has more positive effect on study involvement and which personality trait has less effect on study involvement. From the conclusions obtained we can help the students to cope up with the study involvement for the betterment of their education.

To study the relationship between personality traits and academic involvement among secondary school students

1. To find out there is any significant relationship between personality traits and study involvement among secondary school students. 2. To examine the gender differences in the study involvement among secondary school students..

1. Neuroticism has a negative correlation with academic involvement among secondary school students. 2. Extroversion has a negative correlation with academic involvement among secondary school students. 3. Openness has a positive correlation with academic involvement among secondary school students. 4. Agreeableness has a positive correlation with academic involvement among secondary school students. 5. Conscientiousness has a positive correlation with academic involvement among secondary school students.

Personality: In this study Personality is an apparent quality of an individual which is obtained score by the respondents on personality test. Study Involvement: In this study, Study Involvement implies seen interest in the task, working with persistence & imagination and sharing the responsibility for own learning process.

In examining the correlation of personality traits and academic involvement among secondary school students the correlation research design is used and the gender difference is examined by using descriptive survey design. In general, a correlational study is a quantitative method of research in which you have 2 or more quantitative variables from the same group of subjects, & you are trying to determine if there is a relationship (or covariation) between the 2 variables (a similarity between them, not a difference between their means). Theoretically, any 2 quantitative variables can be correlated (for example, midterm scores & number of body piercings!) as long as you have scores on these variables from the same participants; however, it is probably a waste of time to collect & analyze data when there is little reason to think these two variables would be related to each other.

The selection of the sample was through simple random sampling method. Then administration of NEO-FFI developed by Paul Costa, Jr. and Robert McCrae and Study Involvement Inventory developed by Dr. Asha Bhatnagar to the higher secondary school students (n=30) aged 14-15.

The random sample of 30 girl students and 30 boy students studying in Sri Chaithanya Techno School Bangalore was taken. Inclusion Criteria : Private school in urban area within Bangalore city. CBSE Syllabus Girls & Boys

School in Rural area State and ICSE syllabus

■ Semi-Structured Interview Schedule ■ Neo-Ffi (Paul Costa, Jr. And Robert Mccrae) ■ Study Involvement (Dr. Asha Bhatnagar) The questionnaire was administered on 30 female and 30 male students, with demographic data. A brief introduction regarding the study was given to the students. The questionnaire were distributed among the students and instructions were provided for the 2 questionnaire, namely NEO-FFI developed by Paul Costa, Jr. and Robert McCrae, consisting of 60 statements and Study Involvement Inventory (SII) developed by Dr. Asha Bhatnagar consisting of 40 statements. The responses are then scored using the appropriate scoring key and norms.

The present study was designed to examine whether students study involvement is related to their personality. The study was conducted on 30 female and 30 male students belonging to the age of 14-15 years. Pearson‟s product moment method and an independent sample t statistics have been used in examining the relationship of personality traits and study involvement as well as the gender difference on study involvement among secondary school students.

The above table shows the strength, direction and significance level of correlation between personality traits and study involvement among male secondary school students. As it shown that Neuroticism has a negative correlation (-.29) which is low level of correlation with Neurotism and this correlation is not significant hence there is no significant relationship Another trait, Extraversion has a positive correlation (.29) with study involvement, this correlation is negligible and this correlation is not significant, hence there is no significant relationship between extraversion and study involvement among male secondary school students. It is found that Openness has a positive correlation (.10) with study involvement and this is low level of relationship, this relationship is not significant therefore, there is no significant relationship between openness and study involvement among male secondary school students. It is also found that an Agreeableness has a positive relationship (.36) with study involvement and it is significant hence there is a significant positive relationship between agreeableness and study involvement among male secondary school students. It is also found that Conscientiousness has a positive correlation (.57) which shows high level correlation with study involvement among male secondary school students and this correlation is significant. Hence there is a significant relationship between conscientiousness and study involvement among male secondary school students. The above analysis indicates that conscientiousness and openness has a positive significant relationship with the study involvement among male secondary school students. The students who are more conscientiousness and open to change have better study involvement. The finding of the present study is supported by Bozionelos (2004).

The above table shows the strength, direction and significance level of correlation between personality traits and study involvement among female secondary school students. As it shown that Neuroticism has a negative correlation (-.07) which is low level of correlation with Neurotism and this correlation is not significant hence there is no significant relationship between neuroticism and study involvement among female secondary school students. Another trait, Extraversion has a negative correlation (-.15) with study involvement, this correlation is negligible and this correlation is not significant, hence there is no significant relationship

It is found that Openness has a negative correlation (-.01) with study involvement and this is low level of relationship, this relationship is not significant therefore, there is no significant relationship between openness and study involvement among female secondary school students. It is also found that an Agreeableness has a very low positive relationship (.005) with study involvement and it is not significant hence there is no significant positive relationship between agreeableness and study involvement among female secondary school students It is also found that Conscientiousness has a positive correlation (.34) which shows high level correlation with study involvement among female secondary school students and this correlation is not significant. Hence there is no significant relationship between conscientiousness and study involvement among female secondary school students. The above analysis indicates that though conscientiousness has a positive relationship with the study involvement among female secondary school students, it is not significant. Hence, the results show that personality traits are not significantly co related with study involvement among female secondary school students. The possible reasons could be that the age of the targeted population would have influence than personality traits with study involvement. Further this study can be planned by considering the age and other variables with study involvement. In further, to examine the gender difference on study involvement among secondary school students an independent sample t test was used and the obtained results are discussed as follows,

greater mean score (M=51.93, SD=7.88) on the need for succorance in study involvement compared to commerce students (M=52.37, SD=6.17). In comparing significant mean differences between groups an independent sample t test is calculated and the obtained t (58) = .23, p > .01 which clearly indicates that there is no significant difference in the study involvement between boys and girls students, Which means there is no difference in the level of study involvement between boys and girls secondary school students. Hence the results are according to the hypothesis which states that “there will be no significant difference in the study involvement between boys and girls secondary school students”.

The objective of this present study is to find out there is any significant relationship between personality traits and study involvement among secondary school students in and to examine the gender differences in the study involvement. The obtained findings are inferred and concluded as follows 1. Agreeableness and conscientiousness personality traits are positively correlated with Study Involvement among male secondary school students. 2. There is no significant relationship found between personality traits and study involvement among girls secondary school students. 3. There is no significant gender difference in Study Involvement among secondary school students.

Bhatnagar, A. (1982). Study Involvement Inventory. India, Agra: National Psychological Corporation. Bozionelos, N. (2004). The big five of personality and work involvement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19(1), pp. 69-81. Morse, R. M. (1971). Trends and issues in Latin American urban research, 1965-1970. Latin American Research Review, 6(2), pp. 19-75. Sherif, M., & Cantril, H. (1947). The psychology of ego-involvements: Social attitudes and identifications.

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Government First Grade College, KGF, Kolar