The Relationship between Big Five Personality Traits and Procrastination among Students of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)

Abstract

Background: The current study examines the relationship between the Big Five personality traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) and Procrastination (Active and/or Passive) among the undergraduate students of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). Sample: The participants of this study are 101 covering undergraduate students of IIUM that includes 20 male and 81 female, age ranging from 19 to 28 years old. (M = 22.81, SD = 1.7) who participated in this study. The research design of this study is Cross sectional survey design and participants were chosen by Convenient Random Sampling. Methods: Personality traits were measured using Big Five Inventory (BFI) and procrastination was measured using “Tuckman Procrastination Scale” and “Active Procrastination Scale”. Findings: Karl Pearson’s correlation indicates that this study supports some of the hypotheses. This study found significant relationship between different personality traits and passive procrastination and different dimensions of active procrastination. From the result of this study, it can be observed that conscientiousness has a relationship with both passive and active procrastination. Agreeableness positively correlated with only active procrastination. Neuroticism negatively correlated with both type of procrastination whereas extraversion positively correlated with passive procrastination and active procrastination.