The paper reports preliminary findings on
The relationship between personality traits
and gender differences in the selection
of academic major
among Malay students. The sample consists of 451 matriculation
students attending various matriculation centers in the country. Instruments used
were the NEO PI-R Personality Inventory (Revised)(Costa & McCrae 1992) which was successfully translated into Malay version (Mastor, Jin & Cooper 2000) and a self-designed questionnaire about choosing academic major. Dependent variables were level of satisfaction, confidence, commitment and difficulties in making decisions. Results indicated that there were significant differences among gender in satisfaction and difficulties in making decision. Male students were more satisfied and experienced less difficulty selecting their major of studies. Female students were found to have a higher means of Neuroticism than male students. Correlation coefficients indicated that there were significant correlations between Neuroticism, Extraversion and Conscientiousness with all the perceived decisional attributes. Implications on the selection process and career development of students were discussed.
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