Five Robust Factors

2.3.2 Big Five

Over the years, trait theorists have devised a number of ways to measure personality, each involving a differing number of traits or factors. Trait psychologists have shown that five traits or factors i.e. Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness appear repeatedly in different research studies. These traits or factors are known as “Five Robust Factors,” or “The Big Five,” they are:

a. Neuroticism: The first main personality trait is Neuroticism. It can be described as the tendency to experience negative emotions, notably anxiety, depression, and anger. It is a widely conceptualized personality factor and can be assessed through both the EPQ (Eysenck & Eysenck) as well as the NEO-PI-R

Agreeableness: A fourth factor, Agreeableness (also known as Sociability), refers to friendly, considerate, and modest behavior. This factor is associated with a tendency toward friendliness and nurturance. It comprises the sub facets of trust, straight forwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender-mindedness. Agreeable people can thus be described as caring, friendly, warm, and tolerant. It is the personality trait, negatively related to Psychoticism and along with Conscientiousness is generally the major exponent of social behavior.

e. Conscientiousness: Finally Conscientiousness is associated with responsibility and persistence. This factor is having the second order dimensions of competence, dutifulness, order, self-discipline, achievement striving and deliberation. Such individuals are best known for their characteristics such as efficiency, determination, organization and productivity. It is no wonder that subsequently this personality dimension has been reported to be much related with various types of performance.

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NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). NEO-FFI-3 is a 60-item version of the NEO-PI-3, made by McCrae & Costa (1992) will be used to measure the five personality domains i.e. Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness (12 items per domain) while using a 5-point Likert-type scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

b. Test Anxiety Inventory (TAl). TAI, originally developed by Sarason (1980) and modified by Sansgiry et al. (2006) will be used as a self-reported scale owing to its high reliability scores and ease of administration. It contains ten statements. Responses will be taken on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (not at all typical of me) to 5 (very much typical of me). In this way, students will indicate how often they have experienced the feelings explained for each item of the scale; a high score will indicate that the student is having much anxiety.

c. Grade Point Average (GPA). Cumulative GPA (a measure of academic performance) will be obtained through an open-ended question by requesting the students for self reporting their GPA. It will later be counter checked with the record held with the examination branch of the university for accuracy. Furthermore, for discriminant analysis, student 's having academic performance with GPA above 3 will be categorized as high GPA group whereas those with GPA below 3 as low GPA group.

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