Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Academic Achievement in Engineering Education*

Abstract

The study reported here was conducted to investigate patterns of psychological types among students in a lower division engineering course and differences in the academic performance of those students associated with differences in psychological type. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was administered to 83 undergraduate engineering students enrolled in CE 214 Engineering Mechanics Statics at North Carolina State University. Analysis of variance was used to explore differences in numeric end-of-course grades of the students in relation to their different personality types. One of the most interesting findings was that students exhibiting the Intuitive type had significantly higher grades in the course than students preferring the Sensing type.