Poster #3 - Predicting Scholastic Performance: When Interests Take Over From Openness

• In Event: 77.059 - MTCC Tuesday Poster Session 18
  In Poster Session: 77.059-1 - Exploring Motivational Constructs in Authentic Academic Settings

Abstract

Openness and interest were explored as predictors of scholastic performance in a large sample of Chinese secondary school students (N = 836). Hierarchical latent regression analyses revealed that both Openness and interest significantly predicted scholastic performance for Mathematics and English, after controlling for students’ Gf, and the other four personality traits. Moreover, Openness interacted with interest in a compensatory pattern, indicating that when the level of interest is very high, Openness does not add much to predict scholastic performance, and vice versa. No significant interaction effect was observed for Chinese. The findings made a big step to understand the Openness -Interest-performance relationship and generally support the ideas presented in the Openness-Fluid-Crystallized-Intelligence model by Ziegler, Danay, Heene, Asendorpf, & Bühner (2012).

Author

• Jing Zhang, East China Normal University