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THE IMPACT OF PERSONALITY TYPE ON UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE STUDENT SUCCESS AT OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education By Pamela I. Oklahoma State University, 1977 Oklahoma State University, 1979 Pittsburg State University, 1993 May 2008 University of Arkansas i ABSTRACT The purpose of this descriptive/causal-comparative study was to determine if relationships existed between individual personality types as determined by the Do What You Are (DWYA) on-line personality inventory and gender, ethnicity, area of academic study, entering and exiting grade point averages (GPA), and time to degree completion of undergraduate students at the case study institution. Data were collected over a six year period by the institution’s career development center. The student respondents were undergraduates and were self-selected to take the inventory.

The sample included 2, 533 undergraduate students surveyed between 2003 and 2007. Statistical analysis utilized scores on the four continuous dimension scales on the personality inventory and other student demographic variables. Student scores on the DWYA served as the chief independent or predictor variable for all of the outcome variables. The first and second research questions examined the descriptive information of the majority types in each of the academic areas.

The third and fourth questions examined the relationship between personality type and undergraduate grade point averages of the respondents. The fifth question examined the relationship between personality type and the student’s academic status (continuing, dropped, or graduated). The sixth question sought to find a correlation between personality type and the time to degree obtainment. The four-way factorial ANOVA found one significant main effect interaction between the judging / perceiving dimension scale where judging types had a significantly higher mean GPA than perceiving types.

ANOVA also discovered a significant two-way ii interaction between mean GPA’s of the respondents and the extroversion/introversion scale and the thinking/feeling scale. Introverted thinkers had a higher mean GPA than extroverted thinkers. The Chi square statistic was found to be significant for feeling perceiving (FP) personality types (ENFP, ESFP, INFP, ISFP) and the dropout status. iii This dissertation is approved for Recommendation to the Graduate Council Dissertation Director: ______________________________________ Michael T.

Dissertation Committee: ______________________________________ Daniel B. iv ©2008 by Pamela I. Ehlers All Rights Reserved v DISSERTATION DUPLICATION RELEASE I hereby authorize the University of Arkansas Libraries to duplicate this dissertation when needed for research and/or scholarship. Ehlers vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Having been both a student and a teacher for many years, I particularly appreciate great teachers.

The members of my committee have shown by example what great teachers do everyday. My special thanks to Dr. Miller for his encouragement and support. He kept me on track when times were difficult.

His expertise, patience, and support are renowned among graduate students in his department. In spite of long distance communications; he has been generous with his time and talents. My greatest support has been my husband Kim Ehlers. I thank him for listening, sacrificing, driving me to Fayetteville on many long evening trips, and for his love.

I also thank my only son Chase Ehlers. It’s not easy being a college student along with your mother. My dissertation committee has been invaluable. Jenny Miles, Dr.

Daniel Kissinger and Dr. Carl Holt have been very supportive and I appreciate their efforts in reading my manuscript and making suggestions. Martin Rutte stated, “You have to do it by yourself, and you can’t do it alone.” I owe thanks to many of my colleagues along my career journey. Jim AuBuchon, Pittsburg State University Vice President for University Advancement (retired) for his encouragement to enroll in a doctoral program, PSU President Tom Bryant for his support and encouragement to attend the University of Arkansas, and Dr.

Lee Bird, Oklahoma State University Vice President for Student Affairs, for her encouragement and support during the last phase of my program. And finally, I want to thank all the wonderful colleagues in Career Services and higher education at OSU and PSU that supported, advised, and guided me through the process. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS I. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii III.

TABLE OF CONTENTS viii IV. LIST OF FIGURES x V. LIST OF TABLES xii VI. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO STUDY 1 A.

Purpose of the Study 4 C. Definition of Terms 6 E. Significance of the Study 11 VII. CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 12 A.

Overview of Personality Theory 12 B. Structural Model of Personality Assessment 16 C. Identifying Weaknesses in Personality Type 21 D. Personality Type and Career Choice 24 E.

Personality Type and Academic Success 26 F. Academic Grade Point Average (GPA) and Student Persistence 28 G. Race and Academic Persistence 30 H. Gender and Academic Persistence 34 I.

Personality Assessment and Academic Persistence 34 J. Chapter Summary 36 VIII. The Sample and Population 38 C. Chapter Summary 40 IX.

CHAPTER IV RESULTS 41 A. Personality Type and Gender 44 2. Personality Type and Ethnicity 46 3. Individual Personality Types of Undergraduate Students 48 4.

Personality Type by Academic Classification When Assessed 52 B. Personality Types and Grade Point Averages (GPA) 54 1. Personality Type and GPA Significant Effects 55 2. Personality Type and Entering and Exiting GPA 57 C.

Personality Types and Academic Success 59 1. Personality Type and Graduation Status Results 60 D. Personality Type and Time to Graduation 63 1. Personality Type and Time to Degree Obtainment 64 viii E.

Summary of Findings 64 X. Summary of the Study 66 B. Chapter Summary 74 XI. Appendix A University of Arkansas IRB Approval Letter 82 B.

Appendix B Oklahoma State University IRB Approval Letter 83 C. Appendix C Personality Inventory 85 ix LIST OF FIGURES 1. Four Mental Processes for Personality Dimensions 17 3. Two-way Interaction between the E/I dimension and the T/F Dimension 57 x LIST OF TABLES 1.

Frequency and Percentage Table of DWYA Respondents 44 2. Numbers and Percentages of Personality Types by Gender 45 3. Numbers and Percentages Table of Respondent Ethnicity 47 4. Numbers and Percentages of Personality Types by Area of Study or Academic College 50 5.

Numbers and Percentages of Personality Types by Academic Classification 53 6. Between-Subjects Factors Table 54 7. ANOVA Tests between Subjects Effects 55 8. A x C Two-way Significant Interaction Table 56 9.

Entering and Exiting Mean GPA 59 10. Chi Square Table of Significance 61 11. FP Auxiliary and Non-FP Auxiliary Status Table 62 12. Personality Type by Academic Status by Gender 63 13.

Correlation between Personality Type and Number of Semesters to Degree 64 xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Introduction to the Study College student retention and graduation are among the most dominant issues facing higher education institutions. Barely half of all four-year college students (51.8%) graduate within five years of their entry into higher education (American College Testing Services [ACT], 2007), and this downward trend has continued to prompt many institutions to explore mechanisms and tools that will help them increase retention and graduation rates. Institutions have implemented a variety of transitional programs to help students become acquainted with their new surroundings, they have structured student success courses designed to teach study and social skills, and institutions have employed a host of early warning signs that might signal when a student is at risk of not continuing (Dougherty, Reid, & Nienhusser, 2006). Fremont (1998), for example, studied the relationship between personality type and dropout proneness, predicted academic difficulty, educational stress, receptivity to institutional help, and persistence when persistence is measured by the completion of the first two semesters by college freshmen and their registration for the second year, and found direct relationships.

Similarly, Stewart (2002) linked personality type to student success in achieving a degree in engineering at Auburn University. Many institutions have also begun to explore the personal characteristics of their students, especially those characteristics of students who are successful at completing their degree in a timely manner and with high levels of academic achievement (Korth, 2004). One specific characteristic that has been alluded to is the disposition of the 1 student’s personality, and whether the student’s tendency to be externally or internally focused, among other dispositions, has any relationship to student persistence. The current study was fashioned to explore personality characteristics, as measured by one prominent inventory, to degree selection, completion, and achievement.

Although there is a number of personality profiling protocols, the current study made use of the Do What You Are (DWYA) program, an inventory based on the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) and developed in 1997. The program has been used on many campuses to help identify personality preferences that correlate with specific fields of work and study, and is frequently used in career development centers to help students begin to think about occupational choices and academic majors (Tieger, & Barron-Tieger, 1993). Like the MBTI, the DWYA uses the four dimensions of type developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and is based on the personality theory of Carl Jung. Knowledge of personality type as it relates to academic persistence and graduation may be useful to higher education professionals for a number reasons and in a number of ways.

If students with certain personality preferences find it difficult to persist in certain academic disciplines, then perhaps specifically tailored programming could be developed as an intervention to help students succeed (Miller, 2007a). The DWYA program differs from other personality inventories in several important ways. Perhaps most notable is that other programs are based on the belief that the best career decisions result from matching students’ values, skills, and interests with specific jobs. However, all three of these elements can be fluid in college-aged students, and can change often as they mature.

The DWYA was designed and based on personality type, the innate way people naturally see the world and make decisions, a set of basic 2 drives and motivations that remain constant throughout a person’s life, and may shift subtly, but do not change radically, thus allowing for a more accurate matching of interests and personality (Miller, 2007b). Personality Testing The DWYA profile is built on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator with four dimensions of type (Extraversion/Introversion, E/I, Sensing/Intuition, S/N, Thinking/Feeling, T/F, and Judging/Perception, J/P) and a resulting 16 combinations or types. This inventory and resulting classifications scheme represents the lifelong work of Isabel Briggs Myers, and was published in 1962 by the Educational Testing Service with Katherine Briggs. The two developed the classification inventory over a 20 year period, and it was not widely utilized or well received until the mid-1970s when the Consulting Psychologists Press assumed responsibility for its publication.

Lawrence (1984) noted that the MBTI was especially relevant in bringing Jungian’s theory of type into practical application, and that it was very well received by the scientific and popular communities. Jessup (2002) wrote that by definition, an individual tends to prefer one pole for each of the four dimensions to the other pole, and the intent is to sort individuals into types, rather than to measure traits. Jung and Myers believed that type did not change, although the self-report of it might change, as individuals focus on developing different mental processes at various stages in life. Preferences are viewed as inborn, but one's environment at any point throughout life can change, supporting or negating one's preference.

In 1997 the Do What You Are inventory was developed based on the MBTI classification, correlating specific personality tendencies that do not change over time, 3 with occupational and discipline related observations. These observations correlated personality characteristics with the characteristics of individuals in specific fields and occupations, therefore allowing for students at any age level to more accurately note and consider personality in regard to occupation. The instrument has become a common element in many college career development centers, but has not been linked to academic performance or used to begin to predict college success, and these are the issues that are central to the current study. Purpose of the Study The purpose for conducting the study was to describe personality types as predictors of collegiate success at one mid-western research university.