The mathematical abilities and
             personality of undergraduate psychology
             students relative to other student groups
             Roy Bhakta, Clare Wood & Duncan Lawson
             This study examined differences in personality and mathematical ability between students studying
             Business, Psychology, Sports and Nursing. There were 286 participants who each completed a mathematics
             diagnostics test and a Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R) during the first term of their
             first year of study. There was a significant effect of subject studied on the students’ performance on the
             maths diagnostic questionnaire and their scores on the ‘psychoticism’ subscale of the EPQ. Furthermore
             significant correlations were observed between psychoticism scores and mathematical ability within both the
             Business Management and Psychology groups, although the direction of those associations were different
             for each group (the association was positive for the business students, but negative for the psychology
             students). Based on these results it is suggested that there are significant differences in both psychoticism
             and mathematical ability between students from different courses. Furthermore, students may benefit from
             differing methods of teaching mathematical concepts, especially in the cases where students are averse to
             working in groups and collaboratively. 
             Keywords: mathematics; numeracy; personality; psychoticism; extraversion; collaborative study; 
             EPQ; EPQ-R; GCSE.
                  HIS STUDY is concerned with the                       been relaxed by many institutions. The
                  mathematical abilities of psychology                  result of this has been increased recruitment
                  students relative to other undergrad-                 of students into higher education, combined
             T
             uate students and the extent to which indi-                with greater diversity in the educational and
             vidual differences in the students’                        social backgrounds of those students. 
             personality profiles are associated with math-             A by-product of widening participation in
             ematical competence. As Smith (2004) has                   higher education is a greater variation in
             highlighted, there is a constant need for a                current and potential attainment of the
             numerate workforce and this is not limited                 students (Hawkes & Savage, 2000). In partic-
             to just those who study mathematics at                     ular, the number of students who are
             degree level:                                              entering universities ill-prepared for the
                 ‘Advanced economies need an increasing                 mathematical demands of their chosen
                 number of people with more than minimum                university course has risen substantially
                 qualifications in mathematics to stay ahead in         (Williamson et al., 2003) and such students
                 international competitiveness and, in                  are more prone to failing or dropping out
                 particular, to effectively exploit advances in         due to mathematical or numeracy issues
                 technology. An adequate supply of young                (Bourn, 2002, 2007). 
                 people with mastery of appropriate                         A major difference between England and
                 mathematical skills at all levels is vital to the      other parts of the world is the non-compul-
                 future prosperity of the UK.’                          sory nature of mathematics study once the
                 Smith (2004, p.12)                                     compulsory phase of education has been
             Over the past two decades the types of quali-              completed (Wolf, 1997). This feature sets
             fications that have been accepted as valid for             the English education system apart from the
             entry onto higher education courses has                    majority of other developed countries where
             96                                                                 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 16 No. 2 
                                                                                 © The British Psychological Society 2010
                                     The mathematical abilities and personality of undergraduate psychology students… 
                mathematics is to some extent compulsory              ligence (intelligence test, historical knowl-
                and seen as an essential deciding factor for          edge, writing ability, foreign language) and
                acceptance onto university courses. As a              personality (NEO-PI, measuring Neuroti-
                result, English university students may have          cism, Extraversion, Openness to experience,
                avoided mathematics prior to entry onto the           Conscientiousness and Agreeableness)
                university course, but that could lead to a           among Estonian speaking students (N=381)
                mismatch between students’ own abilities              during the application process to a univer-
                and the demands and expectations arising              sity. This study found weak but statistically
                from staff at universities. This problem is           significant correlations between the person-
                widespread and observable in many different           ality scales and general ability as measured
                disciplines (Smith, 2004).                            by the intelligence test. In particular, the
                   Even though mathematical study is not              intelligence test scores were found to be
                compulsory after GCSEs, students still have           negatively correlated with conscientiousness
                the option of studying mathematics.                   (r=–0.19,    p<0.001) and agreeableness
                However, Ruggeri et al.’s (2008) study of 196         (r=–0.18,  p<0.001). Extraversion was not
                psychology students (first year=158 and               found to be correlated with any of the meas-
                second year=38) found that only 46.7 per              ures of intelligence. Allik and Realo
                cent reported knowing about the compul-               concluded that although personality and
                sory statistics components of their course            achievement were not directly related,
                prior to entry. This could help explain why           students with lower intelligence scores may
                many students intending to take psychology            behave differently (thrill seeking and with
                do not undertake post compulsory mathe-               the urge to explore their fantasies) than
                matics study and as a result find the statistical     individuals who scored highly on the intelli-
                components of the psychology degree chal-             gence tests (who tended to be controlling,
                lenging.                                              self-regulatory and control of their
                   Research has shown that psychology                 emotions). Furthermore Komarraju et al.
                undergraduate students have mathematical              (2009) looked at how personality could be
                skills that are not always sufficient for their       related to both motivation and achievement
                studies at university (Mulhern & Wylie,               (among 308 undergraduate students at an
                2005). Furthermore, the mathematical skills           American university. Of particular note is
                of psychology students since 2002 is signifi-         their finding that conscientiousness, open-
                cantly lower than a similar cohort of students        ness, neuroticism and agreeableness as meas-
                in 1992 (Mulhern & Wylie, 2004). Further-             ured using the NEO-FFI instrument
                more, a report by Kounine et al. (2008)               accounted for 14 per cent in the variance of
                suggests that the overall standard of mathe-          Grade Point Average (GPA) scores whilst
                matics has been declining since the mid               only five per cent could be accounted for by
                1970s, to the extent that students can                intrinsic motivation. This suggests that
                achieve a good pass at GCSE with little               personality may have a greater influence on
                conceptual understanding. Similarly, Ofsted           attainment than the degree of personal
                (2009, pp.51–52) highlight that students’             motivation. Komarraju et al.’s (2009)
                mathematical competencies are focused                 research also showed that amongst their
                more on the performance of mathematical               sample, there was a significant positive corre-
                procedures and less on the underlying                 lation between GPA scores and: conscien-
                concepts involved.                                    tious (r=0.29, p<0.01), agreeableness (r=0.22,
                   It has been suggested that there may be            p<0.01) and openness (r=0.13, p<0.05). 
                some relationship between personality traits              The influence of conscientiousness on
                and academic achievement. A study                     attainment is further highlighted by the use
                conducted by Allik and Realo (1997) looked            of the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) by
                at the correlation between measures of intel-         Martin et al. (2006) who conducted a four-
                Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 16 No. 2                                                            97
           Roy Bhakta, Clare Wood & Duncan Lawson
                                                             being more accurate compared to extroverts
           year longitudinal study which looked at the
           effectiveness of personality measures and         who were quicker and made more errors. 
           pre-entry academic assessments as predictors          Social Constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978)
           for undergraduate performance in the form         suggests that learning is more productive
           of GPA scores for undergraduates (N=587) at       when performed as a collaborative process;
           an American university. Their study showed        individuals work with others rather than in
           that there was a correlation between GPA          isolation., The notion of collaborative
           and both Prudence (positive correlation)          learning has also been highlighted by Lave
           and Sociability (negative correlation), where     and Wenger’s (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger,
           Prudence was used as a measure of consci-         1998) work on communities of practice.
           entiousness and Sociability when combined         However, it is important to note that the
           with ambition was considered a measure of         collaboration and learning as a group idea is
           Extraversion (NEO and EPQ). However, it           dependent on the individuals and how they
           was also shown that over the four years the       interact with each other. Personality traits
           strength of the correlations decreased,           such as extroversion and psychoticism
           which suggests that tuition can attenuate the     (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1991) suggest how indi-
           extent of any relationships between person-       viduals may interact with their peers: intro-
           ality and attainment. Fruyt and Mervielde         verts are more likely to prefer working alone
           (1998) also found conscientiousness as            whilst extroverts are more likely to engage
           measured by the NEO-PI-R (Dutch Flemish           with group based activities. Similarly, those
           version) to be a predictor of the achieve-        scoring higher on psychoticism measures may
           ment of 934 final year undergraduate              be more inclined to work alone rather than
           students (various disciplines).                   collaborate with peers. What is not clear from
              The literature, therefore, suggests that       the literature is if this is true in all areas of
           there is an inconsistent relationship between     learning or just isolated to certain areas, for
           extraversion and academic achievement,            example, numeracy, literacy or foreign
           although the aspect of personality measured       languages. Furthermore, it is unclear whether
           variously as ‘conscientiousness’ and ‘psycho-     there are significant differences in the person-
           ticism’ would appear to have a consistent         ality and mathematical competencies of
           relationship with academic achievement.           students from different courses. In particular,
           However, it is important to note that not all     differences in personality may influence how
           the studies use the same scales for measuring     individuals prefer to study, for example, indi-
           personality; for example, the psychoticism        vidually or within groups (e.g. Vygotsky, 1978;
           scale on the EPQ instrument can be thought        Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). 
           of as an amalgamation of conscientiousness            By exploring the differences in person-
           and agreeableness scales on the NEO instru-       ality between groups of students and the
           ment. A meta analysis by Wolf and Ackerman        correlations with mathematics ability, it may
           (2005) suggests that past research has identi-    be possible to inform discussions of how best
           fied statistically significant correlations       to facilitate students’ learning of mathe-
           between intelligence (including numerical         matics related content, for example, within
           ability) and the extraversion personality         quantitative research methods and statistics.
           trait. Wolf and Ackerman also suggest that        This study, therefore, examined the relation-
           the magnitude of the positive correlation has     ships between personality and mathematical
           decreased over time and that more recent          competency in students from university
           studies imply a negative correlation. The         courses where A-level mathematics is not a
           Extraversion trait also suggests that             pre-requisite for entry, but where the course
           extraverts’ and introverts’ behaviours when       requires some element of mathematical
           taking test taking tests were different           ability. This study, therefore, aimed to assess
           (Eysenck, 1994); introverts being slower but      if there were differences in personality traits
           98                                                       Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 16 No. 2 
                                     The mathematical abilities and personality of undergraduate psychology students… 
                                                                     and Sports). Only subjects that did not
               and mathematical competencies between
               students from different courses. The study            require a mathematics qualification greater
               also aimed to explore whether any relation-           than a grade C at GCSE level (or equivalent)
               ships existed between personality variables           were selected. In total 288 undergraduate
               and the mathematics competencies of                   students at Coventry University volunteered
               undergraduate students.                               to participate in the study (see Table 1). 
               Methodology                                           Materials 
               Design                                                Students who volunteered to participate were
               This study explored the relationship                  asked complete a questionnaire that gath-
               between mathematics diagnostics scores and            ered data on mathematical ability, personality
               personality measures amongst undergrad-               and demographic data. Within the question-
               uate students at Coventry University.  naire the instruments appeared in the
               A mixed design was used such that the                 following order: Demographics, Mathemat-
               personality and mathematics diagnostics               ical ability questionnaire, Eysenck Personality
               variables were within participant variables           Questionnaire – Revised (EPQ-R).
               and the course being studied was a between                Mathematical ability. All students who
               participants variable. The outcome variable           participated in the study were required to
               was the mathematics diagnostic test scores            have a GCSE or equivalent qualification as
               (scored between 0 and 10) while the                   an entry criterion for their courses. It should
               predictor variables were the course of study          be noted that the use of past mathematics
               (five possible courses) and personality meas-         qualifications (e.g. GCSE) as accurate meas-
               ures (psychoticism 0 to 32, extraversion 0 to         ures of mathematical ability on entry has
               23, neuroticism 0 to 24, lie 0 to 21, addiction,      been questioned. A number of universities
               0 to 32, criminality 0 to 34).                        have found that the increasing diversity of
                                                                     entrance qualifications combined with the
               Participants                                          varying times between achieving the qualifi-
               Participants were recruited from five courses         cation and enrolment on the course has
               that were offered at Coventry University              meant that past qualifications are poor meas-
               (Business Foundation Year, Business                   ures of mathematical ability on entry (LTSN
               Management, Adult Nursing, Psychology,                MathsTeam Project, 2003). The document
                        Table 1: Age, gender and university course of those involved in the study.
                 Course                                        Male          Female         Mean          Median
                                                                                             Age            Age
                 Business Foundation year                       41             34           19.96            19
                 (SD)                                                                       (3.87)
                 Business Management                            20             41           20.77            19
                 (SD)                                                                       (4.32)
                 Adult Nursing                                   4             46           25.10            23
                 (SD)                                                                       (6.50)
                 Psychology                                      4             49           21.13            19
                 (SD)                                                                       (5.55)
                 Sports                                         20             27           19.38            19
                 (SD)                                                                       (2.34)
               Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 16 No. 2                                                            99