A Study of the Relationships between Cognitive styles and Personality Traits with Academic Achievement in Tehran University Students

According to previous researches some factors such as cognitive styles and personality traits could induce changes in academic achievement. So، the present study has investigated the relationship between this factors and academic achievement among the students. This research has been performed on 285 students at college of economics and college of management. Participants completed the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) (Paul T. Costa، Jr. and Robert R. McCrae.، 1985)، the Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT)، and reported their college grade point average (GPA). Stepwise regression has been applied for study of the relationship and predictive quantity of aforementioned variables; meanwhile for comparing males and females in research variables Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and T-tests has been used. A correlation analysis on 285 students (191 female، 94 male) revealed an interesting pattern of significant relationships between cognitive styles and personality traits and academic achievement. Stepwise regression analyses indicated that cognitive styles and personality traits could explain 50% variance in academic achievement. The most powerful predictor of academic achievement was Conscientiousness that could predict 39% variance of academic achievement. Cognitive styles also explained 1. 2% of the variance in academic achievement. Result of this research showed that there is no significant difference between research variables in gender.