Abstract

This study aims to determine the personality and learning style of the
first, second, and third year psychology students of the University of Negros
Occidental Recoletos. The Introversion Scale by James McCroskey was used
to determine if the respondents are either introverted or extraverted. The
Index of Learning Styles by Richard Felder and Barbara Soloman was used to
determine the learning style of the respondents. In this study,

Chapter 1
Introduction
Every student has their own particular style of learning. There are
those who know and practice a style of learning which they are inclined to
and even if others may be uninformed about this, they unconsciously prefer
a learning style which for them is most helpful. They exercise that style
which makes studying for them effective.
There are several models of learning styles but one of the most
common is the Index of Learning Styles which was formulated by Richard
Felder and Linda Silverman and was further developed by Felder and Barbara
Salomon. According to this model, Students preferentially take in and
process information in different ways: by seeing and hearing, reflecting and
acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, analyzing and visualizing, steadily
and in fits and starts. This model introduces four dimensions of learning
styles: active and reflective, sensing and intuitive, visual and verbal, and
sequential and global. Each style is a single continuum where a persons
preference for one category or the other may be strong, moderate, or there
may be a balance of the two styles in a single dimension. Active learners are
those who learn best by trying things out and by working with others while
reflective learners prefer thinking things through before acting and working

single-handedly. Sensing learners are concrete, practical, and oriented

towards facts and procedures whereas intuitive learners are conceptual,
innovative, oriented towards theories and meanings. Visual learners prefer
visual representations of presented material like pictures, diagrams and flow
charts while on the other hand, verbal learners prefer written and spoken
explanations. Lastly Sequential learners are those who are linear, orderly,
and prefer to learn in small incremental steps while global learners are the
holistic and systems thinkers and learn effectively in large leaps. (Felder,
1988)
Students personalities, just like their learning styles, can be different.
A central dimension of several human personality theories is the trait of
introversion-extraversion which was first popularized by Carl Jung.
Psychology students may be informed of what these dimension truly means
but most of us may have common notions about this. Most of us link
introversion with being a loner, indifferent, and unusual while extraversion is
seen as being friendly, talkative, and normal. But what truly is introversion
and what is extraversion? Jung (1921) defines introversion as being focused
on the internal world of reflection, dreaming and vision. It is portrayed in
being thoughtful, insightful and sometimes being disinterested in joining the
activities of others. On the other hand, extraversion is being interested in
joining the activities of the world and being focused on the outside world of
objects, sensory perception and action.

The students personalities, specifically their being introverted or

extroverted, can directly affect several aspects of their lives. It can have
effect socialization and it can also affect how they cope to circumstances in
school. It can affect the decisions and actions they make.
Having known these, the researchers would like to determine if this
dimension of personality does have a relationship with the students
preference to learning styles, if the introversion or extraversion of the
students is a cause for them to choose a particular way of learning.

Statement of the problem

This descriptive research aims to find if there is a relationship between
introversion and extraversion and the students learning styles. To aid our
study, the researchers seek to answer the following questions:
1. Which of the respondents are introverted or extraverted?
2. What are the respondents learning styles?
3. Is there a significant relationship between the respondents personality
when they are grouped according to (a) gender and (b) age?
4. Which dimension of the Index of Learning Styles is/are more related to
introversion or extraversion?
Hypothesis
There is no significant difference in the personality of Psychology
Students when they are grouped according to (a) gender and (b) age.

Theoretical Background and Related Studies

In our world of psychology we see and classify people generally in two

different groups. That is the introverts and the extroverts. In this chapter is
the collection of information and studies coming from different sources such
as books, interviews, unpublished thesis, journals, articles and websites
related to the relationship of introversion and extroversion with a persons
learning styles.
The terms "introverted" and "extroverted" was noted by psychologist
Carl Jung coined in his 1920s work, Psychologische Typen (Psychological
Types). In his model, differences between the personalities basically boil
down to energy: Extroverted people are energized by social interactions,
whereas those same engagements are energetically taxing for introverts. So
after attending a party or other social gathering, introverts need time alone
to "recharge."
Premuzic, Furnham and Lewis (2006) studied the correlation between
personality traits and learning approaches of 221 British medical students
who completed the NEO-FFI personality inventory. The results showed that
personality and learning approaches are distinct but related and can account
for students teaching preferences, as teaching affect the way the students
learn and their academic performance.
As Susan Cain (2012) suggests, its not always the biggest talkers who
have the best ideas. When students are encouraged to explore and discover
the variable skills of group members, they may come to the realization that
the quieter member who takes time to process before speaking has unique

contributions to the groups efforts. Well-designed small group learning

experiences draw on the skills of all group members rather than creating
situations where the most extroverted and gregarious students control the
learning.
Psychologists today generally think of introversion and extroversion as
labels for areas of a continuous personality spectrum, just as words like red
and yellow are labels for certain areas of the light spectrum. We all draw
energy from others at times, just as we all need to recharge with some alone
time every now and then. Still, says Jason Castro, an assistant professor of
neuroscience at Bates College in Maine, We know there are a few structural
features in the brain that correlate with whether a person is relatively
introverted, versus extroverted.
In the 1960s, psychologist Hans Eysenck made the influential proposal
that extroverts were defined by having a chronically lower level of arousal.
Arousal, in the physiological sense, is the extent to which our bodies and
minds are alert and ready to respond to stimulation. This varies for us all
throughout the day (for example, as I move from asleep to awake, usually via
few cups of coffee) and in different circumstances (for example, cycling
through the rush-hour keeps you on your toes, heightening arousal, whereas
a particularly warm lecture theatre tends to lower your arousal).
A 2012 study completed by Randy Buckner of Harvard University
discovered that introverts tended to have larger, thicker gray matter in their
prefrontal cortex a region of the brain that is linked to abstract thought

and decision-making while extroverts had less gray matter. Buckner

concluded that this might be accountable for introverts tendencies to sit in a
corner and ponder things thoroughly before making a decision, and
extroverts ability to live in the moment and take risks without fully thinking
everything through (which has its cons and benefits, of course).
As Colin DeYoung points out People who score low in Extraversion are
not necessarily turned inward; rather, they are less engaged, motivated, and
energized by the possibilities for reward that surround them. Hence, they talk
less, are less driven, and experience less enthusiasm. They may also find
levels of stimulation that are rewarding and energizing for someone high in
Extraversion merely annoying or tiring (or even overwhelming, depending on
their level of Neuroticism). Their reserved demeanor is not likely to indicate
an intense engagement with the world of imagination and ideas, however,
unless they are also high in intellect.
The theoretical framework of this study is illustrated in the schematic
diagram in Fig. 1.

Independent variable

Intraversion and Extraversion

Dependent variable

Learning Styles
(Based on Index of Learning Styles)

Fig. 1: Schematic Diagram

Significance of the Study

The information the researchers will gather while doing this study will
be useful in the educational setting especially to the educators since it
involves learning and the results may offer them a different perspective in
seeing how a student learn based on a trait of his personality.
It will also be helpful to the students. By discovering to which
dimension of learning style extroverts and introverts are more inclined to,
They will be able to know if they are introverted or extraverted and what
learning style will be most appropriate for them thus can increase their
effectiveness in studying.
It can benefit also the parents as the results of this study, if positive,
can help them understand why their child studies in particular manner and
they may reinforce a study habit which is advantageous to their childs
personality.
This study can also be a basis for further related research endeavors
which involve studying on learning styles and personalities.
Scope of the Study
This study is only a descriptive type of research. The respondents of
this study will be ___ students from the College of Arts and Sciences of the
University of Negros Occidental - Recoletos. The researchers will only be
using questionnaire or survey method to gather information from the
respondents.

Chapter 2
Methods
Research Design
The group intends to use descriptive research strategy in this study,
specifically survey method where the group will give out questionnaires or
survey forms to be filled out by the respondents. This design is appropriate
for the study since the goal of the group is to determine if there is a
significant relationship between students introversion/extraversion and their
learning styles. This correlational study does not require an experimental
method and using appropriate statistical tools is already sufficient to
determine an existing relationship between the independent and dependent
variables.

Participants/ Respondents

The respondents of this study are 50 students from the College of Arts
and Sciences of the University of Negros Occidental - Recoletos who are
currently enrolled for the A.Y. 2014 2015, 2nd semester.

Instruments

The instruments used in this research endeavor are the following:

Introversion and Extraversion of the students was determined by using
the Introversion Scale by James McCroskey (1997). The instrument has a
reliability estimate of .80 - .90. According to McCroskey, the instrument has
strong validity and can be used with confidence in its performance. It has 18
items to be answered by the respondents by indicating the degree to which
they agree to the statements. The following scale was used in the
instrument:

Strongly Disagree - 1
Disagree 2
Neutral 3
Agree - 4
Strongly Agree 5

To identify the respondents learning style, the Felder Soloman Index

of Learning Styles was used. Its a 44 item questionnaire which is a multiple
choice type. Different studies were conducted to test the reliability and

validity of the index of learning styles. According to the study conducted by

Malgorzata Zwyno (2003), the Index of Learning Styles or ILS has moderate
to strong reliability in all its scales ranging from 0.53 to 0.70 as it was
analyzed for Test retest reliability. The ILS according to the study has strong
construct validity. Another paper published by Richard Felder and Joni Spurlin
(2005) tested the ILS for reliability and validity. Test retest correlations of all
four scales in the ILS varied between 0.7 to 0.9 for an interval of four weeks
between test administrations and between 0.5 to 0.8 for intervals of seven
and eight months. The authors also concluded that the instrument
demonstrated convergent construct validity. There are more papers
published on the study of the reliability and validity of the ILS and mostly
concluded having confidence in using the instrument to determine the
learning style of a person.

Procedures
Data Gathering
The respondents of this study are the first, second, and third year
psychology students of the University of Negros Occidental - Recoletos. The
group used questionnaire method in order to gather data to use in the study.
The respondents were given instructions prior to answering the
questionnaires and they answered the questionnaires in groups. The consent
of the respondents was sought prior to the survey and the researcher
observed confidentiality on the data and results thereafter the study.

Data Analysis
The Likert 6-Point Scale was used to interpret the mean scores of
personality of the respondents. In here, it is determined if they are introvert
or extravert. For the inferential statistics, the computer p value was
compared with the probability value of .05 level of significance.

Statistical treatment
The following statistical tools were used on the data treatment:
Problem 1 which sought to determine the personality profile of the
respondents. The percentage frequency formula was used to answer the
problem.

Problem 2 which sought to determine the learning style of the

respondents.
The percentage frequency formula was used to answer the problem.

Problem 3 which sought to determine if there is a significant difference

in the personality of the respondents when grouped according to age and
gender. To determine if there is a significant difference, an independent
sample t-test was performed.

Problem 4 which sought to determine which learning style dimension is

more related to introversion and extraversion. The percentage frequency
formula was used to answer the problem.

1. The method of documentary analysis enables the researcher to include large

amounts of textual information and systematically identify its properties.
Documentary analysis today is a widely used research tool aimed at determining
the presence of certain words or concepts within texts or sets of texts. It is a
research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of
manifest content of communications. It is a technique for making inferences by
objectively and systematically identifying specified characteristics of messages.
2. In documentary analysis, researchers gather documents such as exam papers,

memos, minutes of the meeting, essays, etc. and analyze these documents based on
what is being determined. For example, students essays can be analyzed if we
have a study on how students do on grammar and creative writing. Exam papers
can be analyzed to determine which topics students have most difficulty of
answering and to which they find easy and can help teachers modify their teaching
style.