Personality Types in Relation to Academic Achievement

Academic achievement is a major issue among students, teachers, parents, school administrators, and community at large. Attempts have been made by researchers to unravel the complexities surrounding academic achievement. Psychologists have put forward a lot of reasons why these disparities in achievement exist ((Eyong, 2014). Moreover, understanding the factors influencing academic performance has also been a great concern for counseling and educational psychologists. Many researchers are anxious to know who will perform well or not in any academic activity. Thus, identifying the factors determining academic success is a major concern of researchers for the purpose of developing an education curriculum aimed at improving levels of academic performance. This calls for examining the reasons for individual differences in students’ academic performance(Singh, et al 2010). In relation, multiple studies have shown that academic achievement is strongly correlated with various measures of individual personality types. The term “Personality” is considered the most meaningful term that carry a lot of meanings with several psychological concepts, which is one of the most difficulty terms to be understood because, as (Abdel-Qawi, 2010) shows, “personality” represents the personal traits of the individual and the patterns of behavior, through which one can identify the individual’s adaptation to the surrounding environment and predict their responses in various situations. Furthermore, students differ in their personal values; they receive and process information differently; their personality is different and hence, so also is their understanding. It is often argued that a blend of personality characteristics is necessary for people to be successful in their career(Hough, 2007). On a different note, in this era of globalization and technological revolution, education is considered as a first step for every human activity. It plays a vital role in the development of human capital and is linked with an individual’s well-being and opportunities for better living (Battle & Lewis, 2002). Academic achievement has great importance for both the student, and those around him or her. There is a certainty that it is affected by two broad factors: subjective factors or individual factors and objective factors or environmental factors. The subjective factors are related to the individual himself and the objective factors pertain to the environment of the individual. Social maturity is one of the individuals and non-cognitive factors may affect the academic achievement of the students (Singh, et al 2010). For many children, interior of the home and its immediate surroundings are the first environments they experience throughout their early years. Young children, spend the majority of their time in the home. Home environments have been shown to be a major factor that influences the overall development of children. Within the home, children also have their early interactions with the members of their family, and availability and quality of resources for learning and playing largely determine the nature of these interactions. Availability of stimulating objects, books and play materials within the home are critical indicators for the overall quality of the home environment ( Iltus, 2006) It has been observed that with changed and positive family environment, children have managed to improve remarkably in intelligence as well as in physical growth (Case and Paxson, 2002). A positive, supportive and predictable home environment helps a child to cope with the stresses and uncertainties of the schoolroom. Parents who are well educated take more of an interest in their children's educations, and will provide whatever effort, time and money are necessary to ensure that those educations are effective. As the above mentioned researches indicate the importance of home environment for individuals’ development, the researcher, found it interesting to explore the influences of students’ profile to their personality and personality types to their academic achievement