Does the most intelligent person get the best grades? One might think that the person with the most intellectual horsepower would excel at a variety of subjects and attain a grade point average commensurate with his or her intellectual potential. But that is not always the case. Why not?
THE RESEARCH STUDY
The study was conducted with a sample of 786 high school students in Australia. Researchers (Heaven & Ciarrochi, 2012) assessed the cognitive ability of study participants using standardized tests, including five numerical and three verbal subtests. They also measured personality, which was assessed by the International Personality Item Pool that evaluates extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. Finally, they recorded school grades in the subjects of English, mathematics, science, history, geography, and religious studies.
The researchers found that the predictors of academic performance were, in addition to cognitive ability, the personality characteristics of conscientiousness and openness. As a caveat, openness was a significant predictor of grades only among students who had high cognitive abilities.
THE BOTTOM LINE
These results imply that there is more to academic performance than just intelligence. In order to get a better understanding of the predictors of performance – whether it in a schoolroom or any other context – a more holistic approach that considers factors such as personality may yield more accurate results.
Heaven, P. C. L., & Ciarrochi, J. (2012). When IQ is not everything: Intelligence, personality and academic performance at school. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(4), 518–522.
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