Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to study the relationships between personality and scholastic achievement and to compare the different personality with respect to sexes and classes. The personality was measured by the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), and achievement was measured by grade point average. The sample consisted of 210 medical students selected randomly from the 2nd, 4th and 6th year medical students of Mahidol University. Data were analysed by means of Multiple Correlation analysis and Analysis of Variance (2x3). The major finding obtained at the .01 and .05 level of significance are as follow: (1) For the 2nd and 4th year medical students, there were no relation between grade point average and all CPI scales; (2) For the 6th year medical students, there were positive correlation between grade point average and seven CPI scales: Social presence, Sense of well being, Responsibility, Tolerance, Good impression, Achievement via conformity and Intelligence efficiency; (3) All the CPI scales could be used to predict the scholastic achievement of the 6th year medical student only. (4) The personality of male and female medical students were significantly different in thirteen variables: Dominance, Capacity for status, Sociability, Social presence, Self acceptance, Sense of well being, Self control, Tolerance, Good impression, Achievement via conformity, Achievement via independence, Intelligence efficiency and Femininity. (5) The personality of the 2nd, 4th and 6th year medical students were significantly different in three variables: Self acceptance, Tolerance and Femininity.