The effects of personality on learning: The mediating role of goal setting

This study examined the mediating effects of 2 self-regulatory processes relating to goal setting on the relation between 3 personality traits and performance in a learning context. Data from 157 college students enrolled in a business course were used to investigate the effects of Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, and learning goal orientation on the difficulty of self-set goals and commitment to those goals and subsequent learning. As hypothesized, both self-set goal level and goal commitment were positively and significantly related to learning. Learning goal orientation was positively associated with both Conscientiousness and Openness as expected, but the hypotheses concerning relations between the personality traits and goal processes received mixed support. Goal commitment was found to completely mediate the relation between Conscientiousness and learning; however, support was not evident for the other proposed mediated relations.