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UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Personality and the College Experience: How Extraversion-Introversion Measures Shape
Student Involvement and Satisfaction
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0gk9k5jv
Author
Toma, Shannon Paige
Publication Date
2015
Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles
Personality and the College Experience:
How Extraversion-Introversion Measures Shape Student
Involvement and Satisfaction
A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy
in Education
by
Shannon Paige Toma
2015
© Copyright by
Shannon Paige Toma
2015
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
Personality and the College Experience:
How Extraversion-Introversion Measures Shape Student
Involvement and Satisfaction
by
Shannon Paige Toma
Doctor of Philosophy in Education
University of California, Los Angeles, 2015
Professor Patricia M. McDonough, Chair
The current work examines the role of individual, personality-linked characteristics in
student involvement and associated outcomes. Personality characteristics of interest, tied to the
extraversion-introversion trait domain, include reflectivity, responsiveness, sociability, reward
sensitivity, and sensory-processing sensitivity. Four questions guided the inquiry: (1) How are
introverted and extraverted students involved in college? (2) What aspects of students'
extraversion-introversion are associated with their student involvement, and in what ways are
they associated? (3) How do extraverts and introverts achieve congruence between their
personalities and their involvement? And (4) How are involvement and congruence tied to
college outcomes for extraverted and introverted students? To address the above questions, a
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select population of UCLA undergraduate students completed personality inventories. From
these, a sub-sample of introverts and extraverts then participated in one-on-one interviews.
Personality-linked differences surfaced in the ways students divided their time and
energy across academic pursuits and non-academic extracurricular pursuits. Academic
involvement of students in the extraverted group exhibited a preference for higher levels of
outward activity and interaction. Stronger responsiveness continued to characterize involvement
of the extravert outside of academics, as did low sensory-processing sensitivity and unique social
preferences in line with reward sensitivity. Among the introverted group, involvement in and out
of academics evidenced stronger preferences for reflectivity; outside of class, high sensory
processing sensitivity and unique social preferences also surfaced. Students generally achieved
person-environment congruence in college less through personal and more through
environmental shifts. A high amount of environmental diversity at the study site helps to explain
this finding. Still, personal change did occur. It was the introverted students who tended to
speak of substantial challenges associated with personal shifts deemed necessary to achieve
congruence. Only limited evidence supported the prediction, in line with the fourth research
question, that students' satisfaction with college and progress toward the degree would be
positively associated with their perceptions of congruence between their own personalities and
their environments, which reflected their involvement choices. The overall conclusion arrived at
is that, like socioeconomic status and ethnic or cultural background, personality is an important
variable to consider when examining student involvement in college.
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The dissertation of Shannon Paige Toma is approved.
Christina A. Christie
Jane E. Pizzolato
Calvin G. Normore
Patricia M. McDonough, Committee Chair
University of California, Los Angeles
2015
iv
For my father
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................................... viii
Vita .............................................................................................................................................................. xi
1. Problem Statement .................................................................................................................................... 1
2. Review of Literature ............................................................................................................................... 10
Student Involvement Theory ................................................................................................................... 10
Student Involvement Research................................................................................................................ 12
Personality Trait Theory: The Extraversion-Introversion Dimension .................................................... 17
Personality Trait Research: Characteristics and Influences of Extraversion and Introversion ............... 19
Characteristics of Extraversion and Introversion ................................................................................ 20
Influences Underlying the Extraversion-Introversion Trait ................................................................ 28
Applying the Extraversion-Introversion Construct to Student Involvement Theory .............................. 32
3. Person-Environment Congruence as Integrating Framework ................................................................. 36
Person-Environment Congruence Theory and Research ........................................................................ 36
A New Understanding of Person-Environment Congruence .................................................................. 44
4. Research Design ..................................................................................................................................... 47
Study Site ................................................................................................................................................ 48
Sample Recruitment ................................................................................................................................ 50
Data Collection and Analysis .................................................................................................................. 53
Validity and Reliability ........................................................................................................................... 60
Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 61
5. Findings .................................................................................................................................................. 63
Participant Demographics ....................................................................................................................... 63
Academic and Extracurricular Involvement ........................................................................................... 68
Global Assessments of Involvement ................................................................................................... 70
Personality Traits and Involvement ........................................................................................................ 91
Personality Traits and Academic Involvement for the Introvert: The Role of Reflectivity ................ 91
Personality Traits and Academic Involvement for the Extravert: The Roles of Responsiveness and
Sociability ........................................................................................................................................... 98
Personality Traits and Extracurricular Involvement for the Extravert: The Roles of Responsiveness,
(Low) Sensory-Processing Sensitivity, and Sociability .................................................................... 107
Personality Traits and Extracurricular Involvement for the Introvert: The Roles of Reflectivity,
Sensitivity to External Stimuli, and Sociability ................................................................................ 123
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Person-Environment Congruence ......................................................................................................... 142
General Findings ............................................................................................................................... 143
Extraverts Achieving Congruence Through Environmental Shifts ................................................... 145
Extraverts Achieving Congruence Through Personal Shifts............................................................. 146
Introverts Seeking Congruence Through Environmental and Personal Shifts .................................. 148
Student Satisfaction .............................................................................................................................. 154
Person-Environment Incongruence and Moderate Satisfaction Among Introverts........................... 155
Person-Environment Incongruence and High Satisfaction Among Extraverts ................................. 156
Changes in Satisfaction Over Time .................................................................................................. 157
Positive Attributions ......................................................................................................................... 158
Negative Attributions ........................................................................................................................ 161
6. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................... 168
Summary and Discussion of Findings .................................................................................................. 168
Limitations ............................................................................................................................................ 174
Implications for Theory ........................................................................................................................ 178
Implications for Research ..................................................................................................................... 183
Implications for Practice ....................................................................................................................... 189
Appendix A: Table of Characteristics Associated with Extraversion and Introversion ........................... 198
Appendix B: Interview Protocol ............................................................................................................... 199
Appendix C: Table of Theories and Protocol Items Informing Research Questions ................................ 205
Appendix D: Demographics Tables Comparing UCLA, Survey, and Interview Samples ....................... 206
Appendix E: Tables of Interview Participants’ Background and Involvement by Personality ................ 210
Appendix F: Table of Trait-Related Involvement Preferences and Interests of Interview Sample .......... 212
References ................................................................................................................................................. 213
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express tremendous gratitude to the students who participated in this
project. Without you I would not have a study. Because you took the time to share your
experiences, I was able to have data. I'm further indebted to you for the personal privilege of
hearing your stories. You inspire me and give me hope for the future.
To my committee members, Pat McDonough, Calvin Normore, Tina Christie, and Jane
Pizzolato, I am honored to have your guidance and mentorship throughout this process. Pat, you
have the rare talent of strengthening your students’ projects while opening space for their
personal expression. Our interactions have transformed my work and me into better versions of
our past selves. Calvin, thank you for the incredible generosity with which you have shared your
time, your wit and thought-provoking insights. Although I often left our visits with more
questions than answers, one thing I could always be sure of was that a day when I met with you
would be a good day. Tina, I am deeply grateful for your aid with survey development and for
your offering feedback that I needed to hear. Regardless of your schedule, you made time to talk
and took care to uplift me with encouragement. Thank you, Jane, for the thoughtfully written
comments on my drafts. Thank you also for the refreshing enthusiasm of your contributions and
the personal anecdotes that brought relevance to my work. And to Marc Levis-Fitzgerald, my
honorary committee member and the greatest mentor professionally and personally, I am forever
indebted. You have always been behind me, always seen the good in me and the value of my
interests. You made it impossible for me to give up.
I further owe much gratitude to Susan Cain, whose book on introversion led me to
develop an old term paper into a dissertation. Her words reminded me of the value in quietude,
and the research mentioned in her book guided my initial literature search.
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