Evaluating Personality Traits as a Predictor of Undergraduate Goal Setting

Abstract

Although the importance of goal setting for students is well established in the literature and the utility of personality as reliable antecedents of different outcomes is similarly well established, there are a limited number of studies that analyze the relationship between these two sets of variables, particularly within learning environments. The current study is intended to contribute to this area by analyzing goal setting and personality in undergraduate students enrolled in a leadership development course. Incorporating differences among individuals, which includes differences in personality to predict goal setting, will aid educators in recognizing links between persons of similar, or differing, personalities. The results of the study indicate that of the Big Five personality factors (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability), the factors of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were related to student project level and class level goals. However, when regressed simultaneously, only Agreeableness was a statistically significant predictor of goals.