Edited by: Ahsan Akbar, South China University of Technology, China
Reviewed by: Syed Arslan Haider, Sunway University, Malaysia; Fakhra Yasmin, South China Normal University, China
This article was submitted to Organizational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
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This study attempted to explore the personality traits of higher achievers at the university level. The core objective of this investigation was to illustrate the nature of personality traits of the higher achievers’ students. To study this phenomenon, a quantitative research approach was used. The students were chosen by using a purposive sampling technique and included 758 high achievers enrolled in various programs at the Chinese universities. Based on the Hexaco model of personality, a questionnaire was used to gather information from respondents as a research tool to examine the personality traits of position holders after an extensive review of the relevant literature. Tool validity was determined by following the face, content, construct (convergent and discriminant validity) validation process. This investigation concluded that honesty, emotionality, and openness to experience were very high among the higher achievers’ students. Only honesty in female higher achievers’ students was significantly high than male, remaining factors “extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience” were significantly high among male higher achievers’ students. Moreover, the higher achievers of science group students were more extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness than arts group students. However, higher achievers in hostels were more emotional and agreeableness than the day scholars. Overall step-wise regression analysis, indicated that agreeableness and extraversion factor has significant influence on higher achievers.
All human beings are born different. They have their own preferences to live a life and choose to carry out their work. Despite their diversity, people share some common traits and behaviors, such as modesty, sincerity, fairness, social boldness, forgiveness, liveliness, gentleness, Conscientiousness and inquisitiveness, when they join the world. Likewise, they have their own capacities to understand the world, people, and happenings. As a result, the beauty of this planet is that every single person has their own distinct behavior and persona (
Globalization, technology, and informational developments have posed difficulties to the universities throughout the world in the 21st century. As a result, universities must equip their students with new skills, information, and competencies in order to cope with new challenging tasks that are in accordance with national or international educational aims and standards in order to remain competitive and relevant. Students, on the other hand, have individual perspectives and diverse qualities that cause them to interpret world views differently and act differently in different educational milieus.
Therefore, exploration of those factors which affect academic achievements is one of the focal points in the research field of psychology because of its noteworthy implications for both learning and its pedagogy (
Philosophers, psychologists defined, explained, and explored personality and personality traits in their own thoughts and judgments. Most of the theories go beyond the basic definition of personality and they cannot effectively give the literal meaning of personality. The entomology of the word personality is taken from the two Greek words “
In short, personality assessment is a very challenging task in order to understand its every aspect effectively and logically. The personality can be categorized into two major types one is optimistic and the other one is pessimistic. The individual having an optimistic personality, thinks positive and always hopes well while contrastingly the individual having pessimistic personality traits is always superconscious and afraid of taking challenges. As indicated by
Personality, according to psychologists, refers to one’s style of thinking, performing, and experiencing. Consistent and distinctive manners and styles of thinking, feelings, and activities are presented in an appropriate sequence in the case of peculiarities. When we talk about personality, we assume the full picture of something or someone. Regarding this perspective, personality is defined as a person’s constant and consistent attitude in all circumstances.
Therefore, diverse facets of human personality play a role in its development. Dominance of one or more than one element gives a distinctive shape to the personality. Features of human personality such as sincerity, modesty, social boldness, forgiveness, and humanity, are some major components of human personality that affect their internal life (
The Big Five-Factor model, which refers to “extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism,” is one of the most extensively used assessment techniques for assessing personality traits (
Individuals who scored high on the honesty and humility scale are expected to be honest in their interactions. These individuals never take advantage of others for their personal gain. They adhere to the laws and are uninterested in a lavish lifestyle. They do not expect any pretentious or social status from anyone. Contrastingly, persons who are less responsive to honesty and humility, they are more dishonest in public dealings. They feel at ease taking advantage of others for their personal gain. They have the ability to effortlessly breach the law for their personal gain. They are capitalistic in their outlook. These types of people are entirely concerned with themselves at all times throughout their lives (
According to
Extraversion is considered the positive nature of persons which falls in the category of social self-esteem, self-confidence, social-audaciousness, seeking of excitement, positive emotions, sociability, and liveliness (
Agreeableness is characterized by forgiveness, gentleness, low self-confidence, flexibility morality, high levels of trust in others, and patience. Such types of individuals have the ability to forgive others for their errors. Their nature is characterized by flexibility. They judge others with sympathy and are willing to work with others because of their adaptable nature. In short, individuals who are agreeable have empathetic care for the well-being of others, treat everyone fairly and with respect, they usually have good views about others (
Competence, continuous effort, self-discipline, organization, goal orientation, and striving for accomplishment are all traits of conscientiousness (
The development of positive traits is the highway to an individual’s aims, whatever they may be. A tiny modification in personality may make a tremendous impact on the goal-setting and organization of one’s life. In short, an individual’s success is determined by his personal qualities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to look into the personality qualities of universities’ position holders, which will assist teachers to understand what sorts of personality traits higher achievers have so that they may better educate students and address the difficulties of the higher achievers.
Numerous studies on high achievers have been published on various variables. Research on study habits and academic achievement was presented by
The prime objectives of this current investigation are as follows:
To depict the nature of personality traits of higher achievers’ students at the university level.
To compare the higher achievers’ personality traits of male and female students.
To compare the higher achievers’ personality traits of science and arts group students.
To compare the higher achievers’ personality traits of hostilities and day scholars.
To investigate the effect of the Hexaco model of personality traits on higher achievers’.
Exploring differential dimensions of the Hexaco model of personality traits on higher achievers will not only be a significant addition to current knowledge but will also give a theoretical background to educationists, psychologists, and educational psychologists. This research will be helpful for teachers to see what types of personality traits position holders have so that they should teach students in a better way and solve their educational problems accordingly and assist the low-grade student how they flourish and groom their personality.
University graduates are vital in forming the future of the country. Usually, students at elementary, secondary, and higher secondary levels are in the phase of personality grooming and they did not have permanent personality traits as during this stage of personality development many changes possibly occur so according to this perspective, the researcher approached the respondents at the university level because at this stage of education majority of students’ personality has been shaped and students are about to start their professional life. As mentioned by
This research is conducted at the university level, and it was designed to measure the Hexaco model of personality traits of the higher achievers’ students enrolled at different universities in different programs. This research was descriptive in its nature as the research deals with an existing situation. A survey method was adopted to collect data.
The population was the entirety of the observation made on all the objects having some common talents, abilities, and a set of qualities, which were the specific interest to research. “Targeted population” of the study was consisted of all male and female higher achievers’ students enrolled in different programs in the public and private universities of all over China. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the students and was consisted of 758 high achievers.
For this study, relevant literature was reviewed and a questionnaire was developed based on the Hexaco model of personality traits. It was kept in view that each statement must express a definite idea. The questionnaire was on five-point Likert scale containing 49 items out of which 38 were selected. The questionnaire was comprised of two sections: the first section was comprised of demographic variables such as institution, program, semester, department, CGPA, and position in class. Furthermore, the second section included 38 items (six factors) about personality traits. The validity and estimated reliability of the questionnaire is listed later.
Convergent validity (CV), as defined by
Measurement model.
Factor loading | Average variance extracted values (AVE) | Cronbach’s alpha | Composite reliability | |
Honesty-Humility | 0.639 | 0.771 | 0.778 | |
H-1 | 0.73 | |||
H-2 | 0.67 | |||
H-3 | 0.69 | |||
H-4 | 0.90 | |||
H-5 | 0.76 | |||
H-6 | 0.71 | |||
H-7 | 0.81 | |||
Emotionality | 0.649 | 0.756 | 0.844 | |
E-1 | 0.76 | |||
E-2 | 0.75 | |||
E-3 | 0.78 | |||
E-4 | 0.77 | |||
E-5 | 0.75 | |||
E-6 | 0.79 | |||
Extraversion | 0.575 | 0.732 | 0.851 | |
E-1 | 0.69 | |||
E-2 | 0.74 | |||
E-3 | 0.76 | |||
E-4 | 0.73 | |||
E-5 | 0.77 | |||
E-6 | 0.67 | |||
E-7 | 0.70 | |||
Agreeableness | 0.793 | 0.763 | 0.884 | |
A-1 | 0.74 | |||
A-2 | 0.96 | |||
A-3 | 0.76 | |||
A-4 | 0.80 | |||
A-5 | 0.81 | |||
A-6 | 0.87 | |||
Conscientiousness | 0.603 | 0.807 | 0.862 | |
C-1 | 0.79 | |||
C-2 | 0.69 | |||
C-3 | 0.72 | |||
C-4 | 0.75 | |||
C-5 | 0.77 | |||
C-6 | 0.85 | |||
Openness to experience | 0.522 | 0.771 | 0.845 | |
O-1 | 0.86 | |||
O-2 | 0.69 | |||
O-3 | 0.70 | |||
O-4 | 0.91 | |||
O-5 | 0.88 | |||
O-6 | 0.75 |
The aforementioned table displays that all factors of the Hexaco model of personality traits remain greater than the 0.6 value that exemplifies an acceptable range. The factor loading values of the honesty–humility (0.67–0.90), emotionality (0.75–0.79), extrovert (0.69–0.77), agreeableness (0.74–0.96), conscientiousness (0.69–0.85), and openness to experience (0.69–0.91). In
Fornell–Larcker criterion.
Factors | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
1. Honesty-Humility | 0.734 | |||||
2. Emotionality | 0.233 | 0.741 | ||||
3. Extraversion | 0.277 | 0.511 | 0.758 | |||
4. Agreeableness | 0.142 | 0.256 | 0.186 | 0.89 | ||
5. Conscientiousness | 0.137 | 0.211 | 0.311 | 0.547 | 0.714 | |
6. Openness to experience | 0.339 | 0.511 | 0.477 | 0.214 | 0.208 | 0.723 |
This study examined the personality traits of higher achievers’ students. The survey was carried out personally during the months of December 2020. After collecting the data, it was scrutinized to observe the personality traits of position holders and the results were analyzed by using SPSS “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences” software version 22. To attain the results of objective 1 descriptive analysis was applied in order to see the nature of personality traits of the higher achievers’ students based on the Hexaco model of personality. Objectives 2, 3, and 4 were assessed through the analysis of an independent
Demographics of study respondents.
Demographics | Frequency | Percentage |
Male | 402 | 53 |
Female | 356 | 47 |
Day-scholar | 519 | 68.5 |
Hostelites | 239 | 31.5 |
Science | 446 | 59 |
Arts | 312 | 41 |
In
Personality traits of higher achievers’ students at the university level.
Factors | Mean | Std. deviation |
Honesty-Humility | 4.02 | 0.603 |
Emotionality | 4.04 | 0.608 |
Extraversion | 3.80 | 1.03 |
Agreeableness | 3.78 | 0.905 |
Conscientiousness | 3.79 | 0.601 |
Openness to experience | 4.38 | 0.563 |
Comparison between male and female higher achievers’ students’ personality traits.
Factors | Gender | Mean | Std. deviation | ||
Honesty-Humility | Male | 4.00 | 0.633 | −3.295 | 0.001 |
Female | 4.08 | 0.609 | |||
Emotionality | Male | 4.07 | 0.631 | −1.629 | 0.103 |
Female | 4.11 | 0.626 | |||
Extraversion | Male | 3.90 | 0.955 | 5.342 | 0.000 |
Female | 3.68 | 0.977 | |||
Agreeableness | Male | 3.80 | 0.876 | 3.089 | 0.002 |
Female | 3.69 | 0.953 | |||
Conscientiousness | Male | 3.80 | 0.750 | 3.190 | 0.001 |
Female | 3.70 | 0.799 | |||
Openness to experience | Male | 4.35 | 0.767 | 4.234 | 0.000 |
Female | 4.20 | 0.919 |
Comparison between science and arts higher achievers’ students’ personality traits.
Factors | Group | Mean | Std. |
||
Honesty-Humility | Science group | 4.01 | 0.60 | −3.216 | 0.001 |
Arts group | 4.11 | 0.68 | |||
Emotionality | Science group | 4.09 | 0.62 | 0.821 | 0.411 |
Arts group | 4.07 | 0.64 | |||
Extraversion | Science group | 3.84 | 1.02 | 3.995 | 0.000 |
Arts group | 3.65 | 1.12 | |||
Agreeableness | Science group | 3.84 | 1.02 | 8.750 | 0.000 |
Arts group | 3.65 | 1.12 | |||
Conscientiousness | Science group | 3.82 | 0.84 | 2.131 | 0.033 |
Arts group | 3.46 | 1.09 | |||
Openness to experience | Science group | 3.77 | 0.75 | 1.216 | 0.224 |
Arts group | 3.69 | 0.83 |
Comparison between hostelites and day’s scholar higher achievers’ students’ personality traits.
Factors | Mean | Std. deviation | |||
Honesty-Humility | Day scholars | 4.04 | 0.63 | 0.565 | 0.572 |
Hostelites | 4.03 | 0.60 | |||
Emotionality | Day scholars | 4.07 | 0.63 | −2.012 | 0.044 |
Hostelites | 4.12 | 0.61 | |||
Extraversion | Day scholars | 3.78 | 1.05 | −0.957 | 0.339 |
Hostelites | 3.82 | 1.05 | |||
Agreeableness | Day scholars | 3.72 | 0.95 | −2.315 | 0.021 |
Hostelites | 3.80 | 0.81 | |||
Conscientiousness | Day scholars | 3.75 | 0.77 | 0.090 | 0.928 |
Hostelites | 3.75 | 0.76 | |||
Openness to experience | Day scholars | 4.29 | 0.91 | 1.133 | 0.257 |
Hostelites | 4.25 | 0.90 |
Stepwise multiple regression to find out the effects of personality traits on higher achievers’ students.
Model | Unstandardized coefficients beta (Std. error) | Standardized coefficients beta | Sig. | |||||
1 | 7.453 | 0.052 | 0.003 | |||||
(Constant) Agreeableness | 8.109 (0.307) | 26.419 | 0.000 | |||||
−0.217 (0.080) | −0.052 | −2.730 | 0.006 | |||||
2 | 8.671 | 0.079 | 0.006 | |||||
(Constant) Agreeableness extraversion | 7.540 (0.356) | 21.184 | 0.000 | |||||
−296 (0.083) | −0.071 | −3.551 | 0.000 | |||||
0.227 (0.072) | 0.062 | 3.141 | 0.000 |
The current investigation attempted to explore the personality traits of higher achievers at the university level, taking into account gender, residential status (Day scholars and Hostelites), and groups (Science and Arts) exposure differences. The results of this study depict the nature of the higher achievers’ students’ personality traits in the universities of China. This investigation evident that, the higher achievers’ students display high-personality traits of openness to experience, emotionality, and honesty while they display a moderate level of personality in terms of extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. The difference between personality traits of male and female students was also found. The honesty in female higher achievers’ students was significantly high than male students, while four factors regarding the Hexaco model of personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) were significantly high among the male higher achievers’ students.
On the other hands, study results also illustrate that honesty, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were significantly different in the science and arts group students. Science higher achievers’ students were more extrovert, flexible, and perfectionist than arts higher achievers’ students. The results of emotionality and agreeableness factors were significantly different in hostelites and day scholars’ students. The results indicate that hostelites students were more emotional and gentler. Step-wise regression analysis explained that agreeableness and extraversion factor has a significant influence on higher achievers. Likewise, extraversion has a positive influence on higher achievers whereas, agreeableness remained negative. The existing research is one of the first studies which examine and explore the personality traits of higher achievers at the university level based on the Hexaco model of personality. To the best of our knowledge, we could not find any research paper regarding this investigation but various research was found on various aspects such as personality traits relationship, effect, impact, and influence on the academic achievements or learning outcomes and these researchers were merely in a descriptive manner. Our study offered a more comprehensive view of the phenomenon by investigating different types of traits in a more extensive sample. Moreover, it is also worth to note that Day’s scholar and hostelites, science and arts higher achievers’ orientation differences in personality have never been investigated in the literature.
The research study adds in the existing body of knowledge on factors related to the students’ high achievement scores in academics. This study highlights the personality attributes of high achievers which enable the effective work with students having such qualities and characteristics. By promoting such instructional activities which are related to certain personality attributes of their students in the light of this study’s findings. Hence, it gives a new direction to the future researchers too by exploring new dimensions of existing theory not only on higher achievers but also on low achievers. In practical settings, the research will facilitate the university teachers to produce more high achievers and also assist students to groom their personality traits to become high achievers (
The findings of this study should be seen in the light of a number of caveats. First, this study was conducted in a sample of university students, and it was conducted in a Chinese cultural setting, exclusively with the Chinese students, and at a unique time (during the pandemic), limiting the feasibility of generalizing the conclusions to some extent. The study data were gathered from postgraduate students from two different disciplinary areas (science and arts). However, the students from other disciplines were not included in the sample, and future researchers should focus on them. Moreover, a longitudinal study ought to be carried out through primary to elementary and secondary school levels, so that long-term results of prior processes can also be reported. Furthermore, future study efforts may focus on this topic through observation or interviews. Moreover, there is no study found on the perspired population on the personality traits of higher achievers, so there is a lack of relevant literature to confirm the findings of the current research study. As this research only investigates the personality traits of higher achievers, new researchers can also observe the personality traits of low achievers. Further comparative researches can also be conducted to compare the personality traits of higher achievers with low achievers. Researchers can also examine the impact of general and cultural aspects of multi-ethnic societies on the personality traits of students. As this study was a survey based on a quantitative approach which was based on the determinants that were research-based only. However, to explore further prospects of personality qualitative studies are recommended.
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
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The special thanks to the participants of the study for trusting us and sharing their valuable experiences.