Stable Dispositions such as conscientiousness predict academic success partly through effort, with some independence from cognitive ability¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoretical r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Dispositions such as conscientiousness, grit, and stable motivational orientations are robust predictors of academic success, often operating through academic effort and somewhat independently of cognitive ability. → Wortha 2026

Evidence¶

Wortha 2026¶

Wortha, F., Gerjets, P., Azevedo, R., Bernacki, M., Brucker, B., Bühler, B., Ehlis, A.-C., Kasneci, E., Miyake, A., Murayama, K., Nagengast, B., Roberts, B., Tibus, M., & Trautwein, U. (2026). A Conceptual Framework to Integrate Research Programs on Self-Regulation in Education. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10196-7

q2 · i? · theoretical · r3

The review reports this synthesis of educational research on Stable Dispositions, citing De Raad & Schouwenburg, Poropat, and Rimfeld among others. It also notes longitudinal and meta-analytic work linking personality with motivation, achievement, and to a lesser extent learning strategies.

"Research in educational contexts has highlighted the significant role of dispositions such as conscientiousness (Costa & McCrae, 1998), grit (Duckworth et al., 2007), and stable motivational orientations (Trautwein et al., 2015) as robust predictors of academic success, often operating through their influence on academic effort and with a degree of independence from cognitive ability"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Personality Traits — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Conscientiousness shows the strongest links to SRL and robustly predicts academic performance even after accounting for cognitive ability — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Mathematics achievement correlates more strongly with learners' knowledge, skills and cognitive abilities than with their personality traits, goals or emotions — reports the opposite
• Learners invest more effort in tasks they perceive as interesting, personally important, or useful to their future goals. — related
• Learners' task-specific self-efficacy beliefs predict whether they initiate, persist through, and recover from difficulty on academic tasks. — related
• Emotion regulation variables predict academic outcomes (GPA and academic honors) beyond Big Five personality traits and gender in high school students — related
• A CCSR research review concludes that four academic mindsets (belonging, growth beliefs, self-efficacy and value) increase perseverance and improve academic behaviors — related
• Conscientiousness is robustly associated with academic performance across primary, secondary, and tertiary education, with openness the next strongest predictor — a broader claim this one bears on
• Conscientiousness is a reliable meta-analytic predictor of academic achievement — related