Browsing by Author "Massam, Winston Edward"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Relationship between introversion, extroversion, and academic performance in science subjects among secondary school students in Tanzania
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2006) Massam, Winston Edward
    The present study attempted to explore the relationship between the personality trait introversion-extroversion and academic performance in science subjects among secondary school students in Tanzania. Biology was chosen as the subject of interest. Specifically, the study intended to demonstrate the differences in performance between introverts and extroverts and then examine these differences by sex. The study was conducted in two secondary schools using a sample of 215 students, 1 10 boys and 105 girls. The data was collected through personality scale and students' academic performance records in biology. Three hypotheses were to be tested. First, it was hypothesized that extroverts would perform better than introverts in biology. The second hypothesis stated that there would be no significant difference in biology performance between girls and boys of the same personality trait. Yet, the third hypothesis stated that there would be no significant difference in biology performance between girls and boys of different personality traits. The last two hypotheses entailed demonstrating the differences between and within sexes respectively. The first hypothesis was not supported. Results indicated that introverts were performing nearly the same as extroverts with some meager differences, which were not found statistically significant. However, when it came to demonstration of the differences between and within sexes the results were different. Thus, the second hypothesis was supported so that there was significant difference in performance between boys and girls of the same personality trait. Introvert girls were found to perform better than introvert boys. The opposite was true with extroverts where, extrovert boys were found to perform better than extrovert girls. The third hypothesis was also supported. Hence, the significant difference in performance was found between boys and girls of different personality traits. Consistently, introvert girls were found to perform better than extrovert girls and equally opposite, extrovert boys were found to perform better than introvert boys. It was therefore concluded that while introversion predicts better performance in girls, extroversion predicts better performance in boys.