Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T00:49:37.699Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sex differences, personality and study difficulty in university students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Peter Stringer ,
Sidney Crown ,
C. J. Lucas  and
S. Supramaniam
Peter Stringer
Affiliation:
University of Surrey
Sidney Crown
Affiliation:
The London Hospital
C. J. Lucas
Affiliation:
University College London
S. Supramaniam
Affiliation:
University College London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

A study difficulty inventory and three sets of personality scales were administered to 145 students attending a university health centre. Motivational and psychoneurotic components of study difficulty were identified, which were differentially related in male and female students to basic personality characteristics and to psychiatric symptomatology. Syllabus-boundness emerged as more salient in the female students, and self-esteem in the males. Poor academic performance was found to be associated with distinctive personality profiles in the two sexes. Both intra-personality and social–psychological interactional factors appear to underlie the pattern of results.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , July 1978 , pp. 221 - 229
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Crisp, A.H. & Priest, R.G. (1971) Psychoneurotic profiles in middle age. Br. J. Psychiat. 119, 385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crown, S. (1974) The Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ) in clinical research. In: Psychological Measurements in Psychopharmacology. Edited by Pichet, P.. Karger, Basel.Google Scholar
Crown, S. & Crisp, A.H. (1966) A short clinical diagnostic self-rating scale for psychoneurotic patients. Br. J. Psychiat. 112, 917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crown, S. & Crisp, A.H. (1970) Manual of the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire. Psychological Test Publications, Barnstaple, Devon.Google Scholar
Crown, S., Lucas, C.J., Stringer, P. & Supramaniam, S. (1977) Personality correlates of study difficulty and academic performance in university students: II. Conscience and self-esteem. Br. J. med. Psychol. 50, 275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crown, S., Lucas, C.J. & Supramaniam, S. (1973) The delineation and measurement of study difficulty in university students. Br. J. Psychiat. 123, 381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grygier, T.G. (1961) The Dynamic Personality Inventory. National Foundation for Educational Research, London.Google Scholar
Grygier, T.G. & Grygier, P. (1976) Manual for the Dynamic Personality Inventory. NFER publishing Company, Windsor.Google Scholar
Howell, R., Crown, S. & Howell, R.W. (1973) Personality and psychosocial interactions in an undergraduate sample. Br. J. Psychiat. 122, 699.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, L. (1966) Contrary Imaginations. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Josephs, A.P. & Smithers, A.G. (1975) Personality characteristics of syllabus-bound and syllabus-free sixth formers. Br. J. educat. Psychol. 45, 29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lucas, C.J., Crown, S., Stringer, P. & Supramaniam, S. (1976) Further observations on study difficulty in university students including ‘syllabus-boundness’. Br. J. Psychiat. 129, 598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marris, P. (1964) The Experience of Higher Education. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Parlett, M.R. (1970) The syllabus-bound student. In: The Ecology of Human intelligence. Edited by Hudson, L.. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, M. (1965) Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Princeton University Press, Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smithers, A., Sayles, P. & Josephs, A. (1975) Syllabus-bound and syllabus-free orientations in a technological university. Res. in Education, 13, 67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stringer, P., Crown, S., Lucas, C.J. & Supramaniam, S. (1977) Personality correlates of study difficulty and academic performance in university students: I. The Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire and Dynamic Personality Inventory. Br. J. med. Psychol. 50, 267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed