Personality, learning and academic performance in medicine

Abstract

Introduction: Academic success during student life is affected by many factors. Personality, according the Five Factor Model, and learning approaches (deep, strategic and surface) have shown to be significant determinants of academic performance.

Objective: Find association between learning approaches and GPA, personality factors and GPA, learning approaches and personality factors.

Material and methods: Observational, analytical, cross-sectional and prospective study. Study population: 204 medical students at a Nuevo Leon’s university. Big Five Inventory (BFI) was used to measure personality and Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) to measure learning approaches. Pearson r correlation was used to find relationship between the main variables of the study and discriminant analysis to find the variables that best describe the academic performance.

Results: The results showed significant correlations between grade point average (GPA)-deep approach, surface approach -GPA, and GPA- responsibility. There were also significant correlations between neuroticism-surface approach and deep approach with conscientiousness and  openness to experience. Discriminant analysis showed deep approach and conscientiousness best differentiate between subgroups.

Discussion: The present study demonstrates a significant association between conscientiousness and a deep approach to academic performance consistent with previous research.

Conclusion: It is suggested to conduct similar studies using BFI and ASSIST to adjust them to Mexican population.