Relationships of Some Personality Variables to Academic Attainment of Secondary School Pupils

Abstract

The study examined the relationship of extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), psychoticism (P), academic self‐concept and locus of control to academic attainment of lower secondary school pupils in a cross‐cultural context. Measures of E, N, P, academic self‐concept, locus of control and academic attainment were taken from 120 pupils (60 boys, 60 girls) of Standard 7 in a middle school in Bophuthatswana (Southern African region). The analysis of results revealed that E, N and P are significantly negatively related to academic attainment, while academic self‐concept and internality are significantly positively associated with measures of academic attainment. No significant sex differences were found. It was also observed that mean E and N scores of the subjects of this study were significantly lower than those given in Eysenck and Eysenck's (1975) normative data for English children of the same age.