Personality, coping, and performance: Relationships among anxiety and impulsivity, relevant coping strategies, and performance on academic examinations

The present research was conducted to assess the relationships among personality, coping, and academic performance. One conceptualization of personality (Gray, 1972, 1981) suggests that the independent dimensions of anxiety and impulsivity reflect underlying neurological systems that lead individuals to be relatively more sensitive to rewards or punishments in the environment. Additionally, this model of personality argues that Neuroticism, as measured by the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), reflects the joint intensity of the punishment and reward systems. It was hypothesized that these personality variables are associated with coping strategies that serve to manage potentially detrimental tendencies, leading to enhanced academic performance. Moreover, it was hypothesized that higher overall intensity should be related to more reported coping in the service of managing impulsive and anxious tendencies. The present data support the idea that anxiety is consistently related to coping styles and, further, coping styles are predictive of academic performance. However, the data clearly suggest that EPI Neuroticism does not reflect the joint intensity of the punishment and reward systems and, in fact, does reflect the anxiety dimension. The data are suggestive, but less clear with respect to impulsivity. The lack of clarity in the data is likely a measurement artifact. The data also suggest that it may be important to consider the relevance of coping situations to individuals' personality. Measurement issues pertaining to validation of the model as well as issues pertaining to the relevance of personality/coping stimuli are discussed.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio