School system favours pupils driven by worry and conscientiousness

It is well known that children perform differently at school, but how can two children with the same IQ, similar home backgrounds and the same teacher get completely different grades? In a new thesis from Lund University in Sweden, psychologist Pia Rosander has successfully predicted secondary school pupils’ final grades based on their personality traits. In one of three studies, Pia Rosander carried out personality tests on 200 pupils in southern Sweden when they entered upper secondary school at 16. Three years later, when they received their final grades, she was able to observe a strong link between personality and grades. In personality psychology one talks of "the big five" - the five most common personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. These qualities influence how a person behaves and are relatively stable qualities, which means that they do not change greatly over time or in different situations. One of the traits is clearly associated with high grades: conscientiousness. Neuroticism, where pupils are driven by fear and worry, also led to high grades.