PERSONALITY AND STUDENTS' ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF CONSCIENTIOUSNESS AND AGREEABLENESS ON STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE IN PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

The relationship of psychological types of agreeableness and conscientiousness and their interactive effects among students with their academic performance in the course were investigated. On the basis of data from 105 students in an introductory economics course, results indicated that conscientiousness ( r = .413), agreeableness ( r = .335), and interaction of agreeableness and conscientiousness ( r =. 364) were all significantly related to students' performance in the course. Consistently with our expectations, students high in conscientiousness and agreeableness performed better than did those low in conscientiousness and agreeableness. Implications and directions for future research are noted.