The Influence of the Big Five Personality and Motivation on Academic Achievement among University Students in Ghana

The study investigates the association among students’ personality characteristics, motivation and academic achievement by selecting a total of 273 students from the University of Ghana, Legon. The cross-sectional survey design was adopted for this study and standardized instruments which measure personality characteristics, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were administered to the students. The respondents also reported their current Cumulative Grade-Point Averages (CGPA) as a measure of their academic achievement. Data were analyzed with the use of standard multiple regression and Pearson correlation. Results show that, among the personality characteristics, conscientiousness is the only factor that significantly predicts students’ academic achievement. Further analysis did not show any significant relationship between extrinsic motivation and academic achievement as well as intrinsic motivation and academic achievement. It is concluded that culture could be exerting a strong influence on personality characteristics and motivation and therefore, the associations should be interpreted within the cultural milieu of Ghana.