-
[Type text]
ELT Voices – India Volume 3 Issue 4 | August 2013
ISSN 2230-9136 (Print) 2321 – 7170 (Online)
© Ignite (India) Publishing, Bhavnagar, Gujarat – India
www.eltvoices.in
ELT Research Paper 4
The Correlation between Creativity and Openness to Experience
and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading Comprehension
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi, Ph.D. & Amir Reza NematTabrizi,
Ph.D. Department of English, Ahar Branch, Islamic Azad University,
Tabriz, Iran.
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
44 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Abstract
The present study was designed to investigate the possible
relationship between
creativity and openness to new experience and Iranian EFL
college students’ Reading
Comprehension skill. A total of 100 intermediate learners (all
female) studying at
Urmia and Salmas Universities participated in this study. At the
first step, two
questionnaires of creativity and openness to new experiences
were distributed to the
participants. At the next step, Reading Comprehension Test was
given to them.
Through a detailed collection of data, using Pearson Correlation
Coefficient, the
following findings were obtained: 1) There was a positive
relationship between
creativity and Iranian EFL college students’ Reading
Comprehension skill; 2) There
was a positive relationship between openness to new experiences
and Iranian EFL
Reading Comprehension skill.
Key Words: Openness to experience, Creativity, Reading
Comprehension
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
45 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Introduction
In psychology, the Big Five personality traits are five broad
domains or dimensions of
personality that are used to describe human personality. The
theory based on the Big Five
factors is called the Five Factor Model (FFM). The FFM comprises
five trait domains:
neuroticism (N), extroversion (E), openness (O), agreeableness
(A) and conscientiousness
(C). Each dimension has subscales (facet scores) within the
overall construct. The FFM is
assessed using either the 240-item NEO Personality Inventory
(Costa & McCrae, 1992), or a
shorter, facet-score free 60-item NEO-Five Factor Inventory
(Costa & McCrae, 1992). The
FFM has been widely demonstrated cross-culturally (Schmitt,
McCrae & Benet-Mart´ınez,
2007), and has substantial cross-situational and longitudinal
consistency (Murray et al.,
2003).
The idea of five major dimensions encompassing much of
personality is long standing (Fiske,
1949; Norman, 1963). Openness to experience is one of the
domains which are used to
describe human personality in the Five Factor Model. Openness
involves active imagination,
aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings,
preference for variety, and intellectual
curiosity. A great deal of psychometric research has
demonstrated that these qualities are
statistically correlated. Thus, openness can be viewed as a
global personality trait consisting
of a set of specific traits, habits, and tendencies that cluster
together. Openness tends to be
normally distributed with a small number of individuals scoring
extremely high or low on the
trait, and most people scoring moderately. People who score low
on openness are considered
to be closed to experience. They tend to be conventional and
traditional in their outlook and
behavior. They prefer familiar routines to new experiences, and
generally have a narrower
range of interests. Openness has moderate positive relationships
with creativity, intelligence
and knowledge (McCrae & John, 1992). Openness to experience
correlates with creativity, as
measured by tests of divergent thinking (McCrae, 1987). Openness
has been linked to both
artistic and scientific creativity as professional artists and
scientists have been found to score
higher in openness compared to member of the general population
( Feist, 1998).
Literature Review
The idea of personality traits may be as old as human language
itself. In the 1940s many
investigators focused on intensive studies of individual traits.
According to Allport’s (1937)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traitshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychometrichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distributionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativityhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/453033/personality-traithttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/16636/Gordon-W-Allport
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
46 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
textbook, traits represent structures or habits within a person.
Psychological traits are
characteristics that describe ways in which people are different
from each other. Saying that
someone is shy is to mention one way in which he or she differs
from others who are more
outgoing. Traits also define ways people are similar. For
example, people who are shy are
similar to each other in that they are anxious in social
situations, particularly situations in
which there is an audience focusing attention on them.First,
they help everyone to describe
people and help they understand the dimensions of difference
between people. Second, traits
are useful because they may help they explain behavior. The
reasons people do what they do
may be partly a function of their personality traits. Third,
traits are useful because they can
help they predict future behavior—for example, the sorts of
careers individuals will find
satisfying, who will tolerate stress better, and who is likely
to get along well with others.
Thus, personality is useful in describing, explaining, and
predicting differences between
individuals. Gordon Allport, the father of modern personality
theory, very briefly defined
personality as an organization of psychodynamic processes that
creates the person’s
characteristic patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings. He
wrote the influential book,
“Personality” in 1937. He developed his ideas about “traits”
viewing these as the basic
structural elements of personality. According to Allport (1937),
traits have an actual physical
location in the nervous system; they are inferred their
existence because of consistency of
behavior. He also made the distinction as to whether traits
could be used to describe people in
general or just a single individual. Nomothetic traits were
trait units that could be applied to
all people. Idiographic traits were those unique to the
individual. Applying this concept to
personality, Allport and Odbert (1936) were looking at “natural
language.” In 1936 Gordon
Allport and H. S. Odbert hypothesized that those individual
differences that are most salient
and socially relevant in people’s lives will eventually become
encoded into their language;
the more important such a difference, the more likely is it to
become expressed as a single
word. This statement has become known as the Lexical Hypothesis.
The Five Factor Model
is a theory of personality assessment and measurement which was
founded in factor analysis.
In the process of factor analysis the researcher gathers a large
number of subjects for a broad
study.
The subjects are all tested in the same manner, and from the
test results, the theorist searches
for common variables/factors. In other words, the theorist
attempts to first isolate broad
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
47 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
similarities or underlying factors. This step is called
"reloading'' or "factor loading''. After
factor loading, the theorist then measures the extent to which a
subject/subjects are affected
by the individual underlying factors. Once the underlying
factors are determined and are
categorized, the theorist can devise a more efficient system
than the original factor analysis
for measuring the underlying factors. The extent to which given
subjects rate among these
five factors is determined through analysis of trait adjectives,
factor analysis, and analysis of
existing personality inventories (often made by other
theorists).
The usual test for this is called the Revised NEO Personality
Inventory (NEO-PI-R). Through
this process of factor analysis Tupes and Christal first
originated the theory of five underlying
factors which are the basis of personality measurement in 1961.
Big five taxonomy is a
scientific classification system. It involves ordering, naming
and systematically
distinguishing between things. Should help individuals
understand how things differ. In
Personality Psychology, the Science of Individuality (1998),
Nathan Brody and Howard
Ehrlichman, defined personality in this way that the term
personality implies the existence of
a living being with an inner mental life consisting of thoughts,
feelings, desires, and goals as
well as behaviors.
Personality is not merely a description of behavior, but
involves processes in the person that
are responsible for this behavior. People behave as they do, at
least in part, because of their
personalities. To say a person is sociable or aggressive or
honest is to say there are inner
characteristics that cause him or her to be sociable or
aggressive or honest. The field of
psychology is filled with numerous personality models. To some
extent, the many models
seem similar to a roadway filled with various vintages of
automobiles. As technology
improves, automobile designs change; and likewise, as research
improves, personality models
change. To say that any particular personality model is right or
wrong seems similar to saying
that a particular automobile design is right or wrong. Instead,
most engineers develop
different automobile designs based on the technology available
at the time of development.
Naturally, if a person decides to drive across the country in
the twenty-first century, that
person will probably choose a late-model automobile. Prior to
World War II, personality
models were based entirely on inference. These inference
theories started with Socrates
around 2500 years ago and continued through the time of Jung in
the early to Mid-1900s. The
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
48 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Socrates model measures personality across four factors
(choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic,
and sanguine) based on the level of four body fluids. Some
twentieth century personality
models use similar factors. Despise the common use of these
personality terms, absolutely no
empirical research validates his model or any of the inference
models. By the Mid-1930’s,
however, several personality theorists started to develop
phenomenological theories. These
theories explain what is seen and observed rather than what is
inferred. Allport (1937)
initiated modern personality assessment by observing the words
used in language. James
Beck (1999) explains the logic of the linguistic approach such
as this manner that with a little
reflection, one can see the simple logic of using a linguistic
approach.
Language reflects human experience. When people want to
communicate with each other
about some new observation, they invent words and grammar
through which they
communicate that material to others. For instance, if an ancient
ruler was selecting members
of the court who could advise and counsel the ruler, some
assessment of the personality
strengths and weaknesses of the prospective advisors would
undoubtedly take place. Officials
would likely have to assess the person’s trustworthiness,
reliability and honesty, among other
things. So, a growing and developing language to describe all of
these personality attributes
would facilitate the task. The older and more developed the
language, the more it would have
the ability to describe these subtleties of personality.
The biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek both contain a large
number of nouns,
adjectives and verbs that provided the writers with vocabulary
with which to describe people
and their behavior. In 1936, Gordon Allport culled 17,936
adjectives that describe personality
from an unabridged English dictionary. After eliminating
duplicate words or words that did
not describe personality unambiguously, he derived 4,504
descriptive terms. However, the
state of statistical science remained inadequate to reduce the
number of terms any further. In
1942, British researcher Raymond Cattell implemented a newly
developed statistical
technique called factor analysis. In spite of all its
complexities, factor analysis is simply a
statistical method that identifies the common factors that
describe a large body of data. Since
computers were not yet invented, Cattell employed an army of
graduate students to perform a
laborious hand-computed factor analysis on the personality
terms. Cattell identified twelve
factors to which he added on his own four additional factors
(John, 1990). The resulting
sixteen factors became very well known as the 16PF (personality
factors).Later investigators
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
49 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
re-analyzed Cattell’s data using the computational power of
modern computers. However, no
research has substantiated Cattell’s twelve factors. Although
Cattell’s manual calculations
identified twelve factors, his data yields only five factors
when a factor analysis is performed
on a computer (Digman, 1996).
In 1961, Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal (in a project
sponsored by the U. S. Air Force)
attempted the first computer-based factor analysis of Allport’s
terms. Their factor analysis
found that as few as five factors describe personality:
Openness, Conscientiousness,
Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. These are often
remembered with the acrostic,
OCEAN. Soon afterward, an independent analysis by Norman (1963)
reconfirmed the Five-
Factor Model (FFM). Since the late 1970’s, researchers have
demonstrated that five broad
personality factors explain the full range of personality
differences more completely than any
of the previous theories. Factor analysis research in 28
different languages has consistently
found five personality factors in analyses of Arabic, Croatian,
Czech, Dutch, Estonian,
Finnish, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Icelandic, Japanese,
Korean, Tagalog, Mandarin,
Cantonese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish,
Norwegian and Swedish,
among others. Recent research findings in languages from five
distinct language families
strongly suggest that personality trait structure is universal
(McCrae & Costa, 1997). Thus,
the FFM seems to provide a language-independent and
culture-independent personality
assessment instrument. The FFM seems so broad, compared to other
models, that it provides
the ability to explain nearly every other personality model. It
is the only model that is derived
from research, instead of inference or theory. In summary, the
English language includes
thousands of terms to describe aspects of personality, and
analysis after analysis has found
five similar factors (Costa & McCrae, 1992).The FFM is not
the sum total of what is needed
to know about personality, but everything that presently should
be known about personality is
explained in the FFM. The FFM provides the most accurate, most
comprehensive, and most
robust tool available to understand the individual, including an
assessment of each
individual’s strengths, weaknesses and information relevant to
interpersonal style, character,
levels of emotional well-being, aspiration levels, and a wide
range of other psychologically
relevant information (Piedmont, 1998). It also provides a means
for a clinical differential
diagnosis, a means for empathy and rapport, and a means to match
treatments to clients.
Piedmont notes that matching treatments to clients probably
provides the most important
contribution. The most widely known version of the FFM generally
takes 60-70 minutes to
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
50 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
complete. Recognizing that 60-70 minutes per assessment
translates into a substantial cost
when applied across the tens of thousands of military recruits,
Raymond Christal and the Air
Force Research Laboratory developed a research project to reduce
the required assessment
time. After seven years of research using many thousands of
subjects, they developed a new
FFM instrument in 1994. The new software enables a personality
assessment within 15 to 20
minutes, depending on the reading speed of the individual. Thus,
the project shortened the
entire assessment process to about 1/3 of the time required for
other FFM instruments while
refining and retaining measurement of the finer facets that
comprise each factor.
Research Methodology
This section describes the research methodology used in this
study. Included are descriptions
of the participants, assessment instruments, procedures,
research design, and statistical
analysis.
Participants
Participants in this study were students studying Teaching
English as a Foreign Language at
Islamic Azad University, Urmia and Salmas Branches. 100 students
took part in this study.
They included 100 females and no male with ages ranging from
19-22 years old. These
totally 100 learners were randomly selected from among the
students of 5 Reading
Comprehension classes. They were voluntarily ready to take part
in this study.
Instruments
The instruments in this study included two questionnaires of
Creativity and Openness to new
experiences and one Reading Comprehension Test.
Neo-five factor inventory (NEO-FFI ) college form S
The Persian adaptation of NEO Five Factor Inventory (Costa and
McCrae, 1999) was used
for measuring personality. The NEO-FFI is a self-report paper
and pencil questionnaire
which covers the five main domains of the Big Five model. The
five dimensions of
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
51 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
personality measured by this inventory are: Neuroticism,
Extraversion, Openness,
Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. The inventory consists of
60 items that are scored
according to the Likert- type scale of five points ranging from
“strongly disagree” to
“strongly agree”. Each personality dimension on this inventory
is measured by 12 items. Here
the purpose of this study was to consider 12 items of openness
to experience domain. The
NEO-FFI is a 60 item survey that takes approximately 30 minutes
to complete. The scoring
method of the items is like Likert-type scale that has five
answer options that respectively
included these: (0) strongly disagree, (1) disagree, (2) I don’t
have any idea, (3) agree, and (4)
strongly agree. Some questions are graded in the reversed way.
This is the grading method of
this inventory.
Creativity questionnaire
Dr. Azam Abedi’s creativity questionnaire has 60 items with 3
answer options from “A” to
“C’’. The options show creativity level from low to high that
scores respectively from 0 to 2
are belonged to the items.
The option ‘A’ in each item has posed the lack of ability in
performing activity that 0 score
will be given to this answer option.
The option ((B)) in each item has posed the ability in
performing activity that 1 score will be
given to this answer option.
The option ((C)) in each item has posed the ability in
performing the full performance that it
reveals creativity and a score of 2 is assigned to it.
These scores are collected in four groups and thus a total score
can be obtained for creativity
subjects with the sum of these four scores. The range of scores
in this test is between 0 to 120
and the participants were scored according to the following five
levels. Those who score
below 50 have very low level of creativity. Those who score
between 50-75 have low level of
creativity. Those who score 75-85 have intermediate level of
creativity. Those who score
between 85-100 have high level of creativity. Those who score
between 100-120 have very
high level of creativity.
This questionnaire has been divided into four sections. The
first section (fluency) has been
included 22 questions. The second section (elaboration) has been
included 11 questions, the
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
52 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
third section (creativity) has been included 16 questions, and
the last section openness to
experience (flexibility) has been included 11 questions.
Reading Comprehension Test
At the final step the Reading Comprehension Test was given to
the learners. This test was
chosen from TOEFL Test Practices Book by Keith S. False. They
were totally included 20
multiple choice questions.
Procedures
Firstly, in order to determine the learners’ creativity level,
DR. Abedi’s creativity short
version 60 items questionnaire was given to them. Then the
openness to experience
questionnaire was completed by the learners. In this study
‘NEO-FFI self-report short version
inventory’ is used, which has 60 items with 5 domain scales and
each domain included 12
items but the aim of this study is to measure only the openness
to experience domain by
making statements relating to openness and having participants
rate the statements in relation
to themselves: from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree.
After that, their reading
comprehension performance was measured by reading comprehension
test. And finally the
correlation between Iranian EFL learners’ creativity and
openness to experience and reading
comprehension was demonstrated.
Design
This study was employed a cross-sectional descriptive and
paper-pencil survey research
design. Especially the Pearson Correlation technique was used. A
set of brief descriptive
coefficients that summarizes a given data set, which can either
be a representation of the
entire population or a sample. The measures used to describe the
data set are measures of
central tendency and measures of variability or dispersion.
Measures of central tendency
include the mean, median and mode, while measures of variability
include the standard
deviation (or variance), the minimum and maximum variables.
Descriptive statistics provide
a useful summary of data when performing empirical and
analytical analysis.
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
53 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Data Collection
Results from this research study were analyzed with the
Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS) software Version 20 using Pearson Correlation.
SPSS is one of the most
popular statistical analysis software packages available.
Description of data
The data in this study is consisted of 100 female students’
answer samples of creativity and
openness to experience questionnaires and the reading
comprehension test. In this section
data analysis are described.
Data analysis
Table1. The descriptive statistics indexes of openness to
experience variable
Frequencies
Openness
N Valid 100
Mean 27.3300
Median 27.0000
Mode 29.00
Std. Deviation 5.08723
Variance 25.880
Minimum 17.00
Maximum 39.00
In table 1descriptive statistics indexes of Openness to
experience variable was reported. The
mean, median, mode of its scores are respectively equal with
27/33, 27, and 29. The Standard
deviation and variance of its scores are respectively 5/09, and
25/88. The minimum and
maximum of scores are 17 and 39.
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
54 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Figure1. Histogram diagram and scores distribution of openness
to experience variable
In figure 1-1, histogram diagram and normal distribution of
Openness to experience scores
were reported. According to the values of central indexes (mean,
median, and mode), the
scores curve distribution figure of Openness to experience had a
negative slope.
Table 2. The descriptive statistics indexes of creativity
variable
Frequencies
Statistics
Creativity
N Valid 100
Mean 71.9100
Median 74.0000
Mode 79.00
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
55 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Std. Deviation 13.26048
Variance 175.840
Minimum 36.00
Maximum 96.00
In table 2 descriptive statistics indexes of creativity variable
was reported. The values of
central indexes (mean, median, and mode) of creativity scores
are respectively: 71/91, 74,
and 79. The values of standard deviation and variance of
creativity scores are 13/29 and
175/84. The minimum and maximum of the scores are respectively
36 and 96.
Creativity
Figure2. Histogram diagram and normal distribution of creativity
scores
In figure 2 histogram diagram and normal distribution of
creativity scores was reported. With
regard to the figure of diagram and values of central indexes,
scores had a negative slope. It
means that most of them had high creativity scores rather than
mean score.
Table 3.The descriptive statistics indexes of reading
comprehension variable scores
Frequencies
Statistics
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
56 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Reading
N Valid 100
Mean 6.9300
Median 7.0000
Mode 7.00
Std. Deviation 2.24398
Variance 5.035
Minimum 2.00
Maximum 10.00
In table 3 descriptive statistics indexes of reading
comprehension scores were reported. The
values of central indexes (mean, median, and mode) respectively
are: 6/93, 7, and 7.The
values of standard deviation and variance of the reading scores
are 2/24, and 5. The minimum
and maximum of the reading scores are respectively: 2 and
10.
Reading
Figure 3.Histogram diagram and normal distribution of reading
comprehension scores
In figure 3histogram diagram and normal distribution of reading
comprehension scores were
reported. The scores had a negative slope with regard to the
values of central indexes (mean,
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
57 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
median, and mode) and the shape of diagram, and it means that
most of individuals had high
scores rather than mean score.
Table4. The descriptive statistics indexes of reading
comprehension and openness to experience scores
Correlations
Descriptive statistics
Mean Std. Deviation N
Openness 27.3300 5.08723 100
Reading 6.9300 2.24398 100
In table 4descriptive statistics indexes of openness to
experience and reading comprehension
scores were indicated. As shown in this table the mean and
standard deviation for openness to
experience scores are respectively: 27.33, and 5.09, and the
mean and standard deviation for
reading comprehension scores are respectively: 6.83, and
2.24.
Table 5. The correlation coefficient of reading comprehension
and openness to experience scores
Correlations
Openness Reading
Openness
Pearson Correlation 1 .582**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 100 100
Reading
Pearson Correlation .582** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 100 100
For examining the hypothesis, the correlation coefficient test
as is given in table 5 is used.
According to the table, two ranges at the level %1 are
significant because the calculated
values of correlation coefficient is (r = + %58), and (sig=
0.001
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
58 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Reading
Figure4.Linear regression diagram of reading comprehension and
openness to experience scores
Table 6. The descriptive statistics indexes of reading
comprehension and creativity scores
Correlations
Descriptive Statistics
Mean Std. Deviation N
Creativity 71.9100 13.26048 100
Reading 6.9300 2.24398 100
In table 6 descriptive statistics indexes of creativity and
reading comprehension scores
were reported. The mean and standard deviation of creativity
scores are respectively:
17.91 and 13.5. The mean and standard deviation for reading
comprehension scores
are respectively 6.93 and 2.24.
Table 7.The correlation coefficient of reading comprehension and
creativity scores
Correlations
Creativity Reading
Creativity
Pearson Correlation 1 .578**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
59 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
N 100 100
Reading
Pearson Correlation .578** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 100 100
For examining the hypothesis, the Pearson correlation
coefficient test as given in table 7 is
used. According to the table, the calculated value of
correlation coefficient is (r= =0.578),
and therefore two ranges at level %1 are significant (sig=
0.001
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
60 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Discussion:
There is a significant correlation between openness to
experience and reading comprehension
scores. In table 4 descriptive statistics indexes of openness to
experience and reading
comprehension scores were reported. The mean and standard
deviation for openness to
experience scores respectively are: 27.33, and 5.09, and the
mean and standard deviation for
reading comprehension scores respectively are: 6.83, and 2.24.
For examining the hypothesis,
the correlation coefficient test as is given in table 5is used.
According to this table, the
correlation between them at range (sig =2-tailed) at the level
%1 are significant because the
calculated values of correlation coefficient is (r = + %58), and
(sig= 0.001
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
61 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Conclusion
The major aim of this study was to develop a model which could
enable university
language learners to view reading comprehension skill from
different perspective, it
means each learner can look to this skill from different
viewpoints because each has
different character that is unique, and character of each
learner consists of different
traits and each trait causes variety at learners and in learning
environments.
Uniqueness also bring about to reach various outcomes at each
performance. For this,
it will be good if instructors try to assess the students’
reading comprehension
performances from psychological view during stage of the reading
comprehension
process. Richards and Schmidt (2002) define personality as those
aspects of an
individual’s behavior, attitude, beliefs, thoughts, actions and
feelings which are seen
as typical and distinctive of that person and recognized as such
by that person and
others. Based on this definition, each person has a type of
personality which is
exclusive to him/her. Ehrman (2003) indicates to the fact that
in the recent years the
influence of personality variables on learning styles has
increased greatly. Every
individual uses a series of learning strategies and styles that
are grounded in his/her
personality to handle linguistic tasks and better to say
language learning performance.
Likewise, researchers make use of learning style research with
personality and
cognitive styles to determine ability, predict performance, e.g.
in speaking or reading
comprehension, and improve classroom teaching and learning
(Ehrman, 2001). Young
and Schinka (2001) stated that the five factor model of
personality has become the
dominant model for the investigation of personality. In the
current study, the
researcher chose to use this model because of the clarity of
these factors, its
widespread acceptance, and the relative abundance of research on
the FFM and its
component factors. The mostly widely used instrument to assess
the five factors, the
NEO, was also used in the present study to assess the
personality variables.
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
62 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
Pedagogical implications
The Personality plays an important role that effect academic
achievement. Understanding the
factors influencing academic performance has always been a great
concern for counseling
and educational psychologists. Many researchers are anxious to
know in advance who will
perform well or not in any academic activity. Thus, identifying
the factors determining
academic success is a major concern of researchers for the
purpose of developing an
education curriculum aimed at improving levels of academic
performance. This calls for
examining the reasons for individual differences in students’
academic performance. A
number of studies have identified a positive association between
openness and academic
performance (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnharm, 2005).The
psychological literature suggests
that especially openness to experience is important predictor of
educational success.
Openness to experience is akin to intelligence and bears on
intellectual curiosity and
commitment to assignments (MacCrae& Costa, 1997). Creativity
and resourcefulness are
aspects of openness that are also positively related to
scholastic achievement. Therefore,
teachers should construct learning environments that take into
consideration students’
individual differences and strengths.
References
[1] Allport, G.W. & Odbert, H.S. (1936). Trait-names: A
psycho-lexical
study. Psychological Monographs, 47(211).
[2] Allport, G. W. (1937). Personality: a psychological
interpretation. New York: Holt,
Rinehart, & Winston.
[3] Brody, Nathan, and Howard Ehrlichman.(1998). Personality
Psychology: The Science of
Individuality. Upper Saddle River: Prentice,. Print.
[4] Chamorro-Premuzic, T., &Furnham, A. (2005).Personality
and intellectual competence.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
[5] Costa, P.T. and McCrae, R.R. (1992) Revised NEO Personality
Inventory and NEO
Five-Factor Inventory Professional Manual, Psychological
Assessment
Resources, Odessa, FL.
[6] Schmitt, D.P., Allik, J., McCrae, R.R. and Benet-Mart´ınez,
V. (2007) The geographic
distribu-tion of Big Five personality traits: patterns and
profiles of human
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
63 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
self-description across56 nations. Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology,38,
173–212.
[7] Digman, J. M. (1996). The curious history of the five factor
model. In J. Wiggens (Ed.),
The Five Factor Model of Personality. New York: Guilford
Press.
[8] Ehrman, M.E., 2001. Bringing learning strategies to the
learner: the FSI language
learning consultationservice. In: Alatis, J.E., Tan, A. (Eds.),
Language in Our
Time: Bilingual Education and Official English, Ebonics and
Standard
English, Immigration and the UnzInitiative. Georgetown
University,Washington DC, pp. 41–58.
[9] Ehrman, M.E., Leaver, B.L., 2003.Cognitive styles in the
service of language learning.
System 31 (3),393–415.
[10] Feist, 1998 G.J. Feist, A meta-analysis of personality in
scientific and artistic
creativity, Personality and Social Psychology Review 2 (1998),
pp. 290–309.
[11] F i s k e , D.W . (1 94 9 ) C on s i s t en cy o f t h e f
a c t o r i a l s t ru c t u re s o f
p e r so n a l i t y r a t i n gs f r om d i f f e r en t
sources. Journal of Abnormal
and Social Psychology,44, 329–44.
[12] James R. Beck. (1999). Exploring the Five Factor Model.
Downers Grove: Inter Varsity,
276 pp.
[13] John. 0. P. (1990a). The "Big Five" factor taxonomy:
Dimensions of personality in the
natural language and in questionnaires. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.),
Handbook of
personality theory and research (pp. 66- 100). New York:
Guilford Press.
[14] McCrae. R. R.,& John: 0. P. (1992). An introduction to
the five-factor model and its
applications.Journa1 of Personality, 60, 175-2 15.
[15] Murray, G., Rawlings, D., Allen, N.B. and Trinder, J.
(2003). NEO Five-
Factor Inventory scores: psychometric properties in a community
sample.
Measurement and Evaluation inCounselling and Development,36,
140–9.
[16] Norman, W.T. (1963) Toward an adequate taxonomy of
personality attributes: replicated
factor structure in peer nomination personality ratings. Journal
of Abnormal
and SocialPsychology,66, 574–83.
[17] Piedmont, Ralph. 1998. The Revised NEO Personality
Inventory: Clinical and
Research Applications .NY: Plenum Press.
-
AzraTajhizi, Mahdi Araghi & Amir Reza NematTabrizi: The
Correlation between Creativity and Openness to
Experience and Iranian EFL College Students' Reading
Comprehension
64 | E L T V o i c e s – I n d i a ( V o l . 3 I s s u e 4 ) | A
u g u s t 2 0 1 3 I S S N 2 2 3 0 - 9 1 3 6 ( P r i n t ) 2 3 2 1 –
7 1 7 0 ( O n l i n e )
[18] Richards, J.C., Schmidt, R., 2002.Longman Dictionary of
Language
Teaching and Applied Linguistics, (3rd
ed). Pearson
Education, London.
[19] Tupes, E. C., & Christal, R. E. (1961).Recurrent
personality factors based on trait
ratings. United States Air Force.
[20] Young, M. S., &Schinka, J. A. (2001).Research Validity
Scales for theNEO–PI–R:
Additional evidence for reliability and validity.Journal
ofPersonality
Assessment, 76, 412–420.