Standard Multiple Regression
The purpose of this study was to identify any correlation between conscientiousness or extroversion for scores in the Raven’s Progressive Matrices. The Raven’s Progressive Matrices was used as a dependent variable and the Big five personality traits of conscientiousness and extraversion were used as independent variables. Raven’s Progressive Matrices is a non-verbal multiple choice test which is used to identify or measure a person’s reasoning (Bouchard, 2003). This test is used to measure intelligence through the use of patterns. Both these tests are data driven, comprehensive and use empirical findings. Studies similar to these are used mostly in the field of academics. In a precious study by Laidra, Pullmann and Allik (2006), correlation between academic achievement and intelligence were tested with personality disposition. Studies such as these can help educational institutions provide better learning outlets for students depending on their personality type. This was proven to be helpful in the academe for instructors to better help students. A similar study was conducted on young middle school children in a school located in Italy. The depression and anxiety levels were measured against their performances and correlated with intelligence (Russo, et. al., 2011). The purpose of these tests is to find patterns in disposition and intelligence in order to be able to pigeon hole students in a way that can nurture their learning type.
The particular hypotheses were tested because of studies conducted in the past relating stimuli levels with extroversion in an individual.
Studies have shown that extroverts have lower levels of arousal as compared to introverts; this leads them to search for stimuli that raise their arousal (Laidra, Pullmann &Allik, 2006). Introverts are quite the opposite. Since they have very high levels of stimuli, they tend to avoid things that cause any arousal to stimuli.)Therefore, this researcher has come up with two different hypotheses:
If an individual scores highly on traits of conscientiousness and extraversion, then this will have a significant positive effect on the outcome of their Ravens Progressive Matrices score.
If an individual scores highly in the Ravens Progressive Matrices test, then this will be as a result of significant unique variance in extraversion.
This study intends to find patterns from RPM scores with extroversion and conscientiousness. The results will deliver useful information that will allow researchers to further study the capability and intelligence of learners depending on their disposition.
Methods
The study consisted originally of 125 participants. Outliers were omitted and the study therefore only used 104. In view of the study where conscientiousness and extroversion were to be measured against intelligence, the standard RPM and the Big Five tests were used. The RPM has often been used in personality intelligence studies worldwide (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997). Cronbach’s coefficient alpha for the RPM was 0.90, which can be described as very satisfactory. The frequency of all tests was positively skewed. The p value is seen where p<0.001, where the null hypothesis is p>0.001. The results will be treated as multivariate where the RPM is used as the dependent and conscientiousness and extroversion are the variables. The RPM scores will be measured against the two variables to see if there is any correlation or pattern seen in individual scores. The predictors are seen in the regression and residual tests where the constants are Personality-extroversion, personality-conscientiousness. The dependent variable Ability and IQ-Raven's Progressive Matrices raw score.
Results and Analysis
Std. Deviation
Ability and IQ-Raven's Progressive Matrices
The results did not show much correlation between the dependent variable and the predictors. The hypotheses were proven wrong with the ANOVA test as there is no seen pattern in the findings. This is done by using Raven’s Progressive Matrices as a predictor where R2 = 0.22, F(1, 80) = 23.05, p < 0.001. When we join the five personality traits, we come up with R2 = 0.32, F(6, 75) = 88.01, p < 0.001. Adding these gave a variance of about 10%, however that is not statistically significant to the study. The test will be dissected into parts using a descriptive tool in statistics known as multivariate analysis where each variable is scrutinized against the dependent in the study.
Discussion and Conclusion
The goal of the study was to find correlations between RPM scores and conscientiousness or extroversion. The data suggests that there is no strong correlation between either the tests. The strength of affiliation is not seen in the study and the results show that the hypotheses should be rejected as the significance was >0.05. No remarkable patterns were seen between the scores of the respondents. However, there is potential in the study of relating RPM scores with conscientiousness and extroversion, there should be further studies in terms of correlation between personality traits and intelligence scores. In some areas, there might be connections between these tests scores, however this cannot simply be generalized. The previous study conducted by Laidra, Pullmann and Allik (2006) also could not prove correlations between academic achievement and personality disposition. Results for their tests were also unremarkable. The population used in this study should be justified as a promising sample. Different variables such as age, gender and maybe even race should be considered in the test scores to allow for further studies using multivariate tools (Mottus, 2012).
References
Anastasi, A. and Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall
Bouchard, McGue (2003). "Genetic and environmental influences on human psychological
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Laidra, K., Pullmann, H. & Allik, J. (2006). “Personality and intelligence as predictors of
academic achievement: a cross-sectional study from elementary to secondary school”.
Personality and Individual Differences. Retrieved from http://psych.ut.ee/~jyri/en/Laidra-
Pullmann-Allik_PAID2006ip.pdf
Mottus, R. (2012). Correlates of personality trait levels and their changes in very old age: The
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Russo, et. al. (2011). “Trait Emotional Intelligence and the Big Five: A study on Italian Children
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