PSYCHOLOGY AND NON-PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS ESTIMATION OF THEIR DESIRABLE AND UNDESIRABLE PERSONALITY-TRAITS

The present study examines the relationship between psychology and non -psychology students' actual and self-estimated test scores derived fr om Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R, 1985). One hund red and five final year psychology (58 female, 47 male) and 90 final y ear non-psychology students, mainly from Engineering and Physics disci plines, (40 female, 50 male) rated the degree to which they exhibited extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism on a 13-point scale (0=low, 12=high), and completed the EPQ-R. There was a significant positive c orrelation between participants' actual extraversion test scores and t heir estimates of what those scores would be for both psychology and n on-psychology students. However, only the non-psychology students show ed a strong and significant positive correlation between actual and se lf-estimated neuroticism test scores. There was no significant correla tion between actual and self-estimated psychoticism scores. These resu lts indicate that students are generally better in estimating their de sirable (extraversion) than undesirable personality test scores (neuro ticism, psychoticism) irrespective of their level of scientific knowle dge of those traits. The implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.