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International Journal of Education, Learning and Training

www.ftms.edu.my/journals/index.php/journals/ijelt

Vol. 1 (No.1), November, 2016 ISSN: 2289-6694 DOI: 10.24924/ijelt/2016.11/v1.iss1/1.13

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

A study on Personality differences of Accounting students and Computer Information System (CIS) students

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to study personality differences of Accounting students and

Computer Information System (CIS) students. 120 questionnaires have been evenly used to collect

data from the Accounting students and Computer Information System (CIS) students of ASA

College respectively. The quantitative method has been implemented to obtain the relevant data

from respective respondents. The independent variable used in this research is extroversion,

neuroticism and conscientiousness and the dependent variable are Accounting students and (CIS)

students. The study used quota non probability sampling method which categorizes the Accounting

students and (CIS) students. This study in use of the histogram, Homoscedasticity scatterplot,

descriptive analysis, One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Cronbach's Alpha reliability

statistic, Levene's Homogeneity test and Robust tests of Equality of Means are the appropriate data

analysis that have been done for this research which the results are from the SPSS source. Hence,

the results on personality differences of Accounting students and (CIS) students are significantly

impacted by the independent variables in terms of extraversion, conscientiousness and neuroticism.

This study will also examine the acceptance and rejection of null hypothesis according to Levine's

Homogeneity test and Robust test of Equality of Means the result was null hypothesis is accepted

for extroversion and neuroticism variable but rejected for conscientiousness variable will benefit

future researchers related to personality mainly in educational sector. The future research is

encouraged to conduct a study on various sectors and countries so this may help them to check the

difference or similarities on the result of their findings.

Ragunesh Rao School of Accounting and Business Management FTMS

College, Malaysia raguneshrao@yahoo.com

Sahibzada Muhammad Hamza

School of Accounting and Business Management FTMS College, Malaysia

sahibzadahamza6@gmail.com

Zubair Hassan School of Accounting and Business Management

FTMS College, Malaysia Zubai7@gmail.com

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Key words: Personality, Accounting students, Computer Information System students,

Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Extroversion.

1. INTRODUCTION

The Purpose of this study is to investigate the personality differences of accounting students and

the computer information system students in Malaysia. There are many past researches done on

personality. The earlier research of Barrick (1991) and Harrison (1993) investigated influence of

personality dimensions and performance measurement; Then Davidson (1995) and Baril (1998)

have done research on personality and critical thinking of accounting students. Wolk (1997) has

done research on personality types of undergraduate and graduate accounting students. The

current state of research showing there are more studies to come about student's personality as in

Jaffa (2013) aims to study the accounting undergraduate personality profiles that has relationship

towards career preferences. The three researches of Shazad (2013), D'Souza (2014) and Jones

(2014) have similar purpose on personality that aims undergraduate students that is accounting or

non-accounting students to make their decision on their majoring choice or academic programs.

Similarly, the scope of this research is on personality difference of accounting students and

Computer Information System (CIS) students

Accounting students seems to be more in practical or logical style but some accounting students

are being more creative and has a visionary style rather than being practical in recent years does

this makes personality differences because (CIS) students are known as creative and visionary

gentry but they have also been practical which can been seen in the research conducted by Kruck

(2014) towards (IT) students. Therefore, the personality differences of students are still being an

issue that has been discussed until now in recent years. The research of Shazad (2013) shows there

is a significant impact of Big 5 personality traits on students. The results have been made from

selection of business or non-business undergraduate programs. Jones (2014) and D'Souza (2014)

results indicates that future career of students depends on personality traits that they will fit in and

there is no actual differences on the impact of gender or their grade marks.

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1.1 Research Objectives

To examine the personality differences of Accounting students and Computer

Information System students in terms of extraversion.

To examine the personality differences of Accounting students and Computer

Information System students in terms of neuroticism.

To examine the personality differences of Accounting students and Computer

Information System students in terms of conscientiousness.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Funder (2004), when an individual's emotion and behavior get into psychological

aspects it will shape up the characteristic of a person. Besides that, Larsen & Buss (2005), defines

personality is an organized psychological traits of an individual that is influenced and connected

with different types of environment such as social and physical. Mayer (2007), stated that an

organized and develop personality system of a person will give collective action to the person's

psychological subsystems majorly.

Empirically numerous theories has been addressing the personality issue in detail. Jung's theory

uses past experiences of an individual to recognize personality development method in the present.

Jung's personality theory apply Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test to know personality

similarities and differences. It can also indicate the attitudes of extraversion and introversion

(Hanewitz, 1978). In addition, Allport's theory is also in the shelf that is stimulated well with the

study of personality and it has been a landmark in studies on this area. Gordon Allport have has

been a proactive psychologist in personality studies. The Allport's theory is mainly about

expressive behavior which can be explained as a non- purpose behavior. It can be viewed as

spontaneous behavior which lack of conscious awareness (Allport, 1937). Another is the big 5

factor model in this arena that have been used till date by the current researchers for it’s widen

radius framework; Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness

(Anderson, John, Keltner and Kring, 2001). Lucas & Diener (2001) proves that there is significant of

positive emotions when it comes to extraversion factor. So, those who are highly extraverted will

handle social surroundings in a good way only if the environment too in a good manner. Lastly, The

Maslow's theory has done studies on self-actualization but there is no experimental or correlation

methods included in his research. After some years, Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) is

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implemented in this theory to measure the correlation studies of this research in terms of behavior

and personality. (Williams & Page, 1989)

Hence, Personality is also been a widely appreciated topic in scholarly circles since last numerous

decades and have grasp more attention in the recent times. Shazad (2013) did a research on

personality differences for a comparative study on business and non-business students in Pakistan.

The sample size used by the researcher is 254 undergraduate students. The variable used by the

researcher is the extroversion, agreeableness, emotional stability, conscientiousness and openness

from Big 5 Model (Goldberg, 1999). The findings shows that business students has high score for

extroversion and emotional stability and low scores agreeableness, openness and

conscientiousness.

Kruck (2014) did a research on personality in Computer Information System course performance in

United States. The sample size used by the researcher is 864, students from year 2008 - 2013. The

variable used by the researcher is MBTI (Extraversion-Introversion, Sensing-Intuition, Thinking-

Feeling, and Judging-Perceiving). The findings show that thinking and judging type students

performed better then feeling and perceiving students.

Norton (2014) did a research on personality types for pathology professions and the

communication sciences and disorders majors in United States. The sample size used by the

researcher is 385. The variable used by the researcher is MBTI (Extraversion-Introversion, Sensing-

Intuition, Thinking-Feeling, and Judging-Perceiving). The findings show that there are similarities

and difference for both types of students that use individual dichotomies to know the personality

result as a whole.

Baro (2014) did a research on personality traits for comparative study on physical education and

general education teachers in Assam, India. The sample size used by the researcher is 100 which

are distributed evenly. The variable used by the researcher is only extraversion. The findings show

that there are insignificant differences personality traits between those two type of teachers and

physical education teacher is more extrovert then general education teacher.

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2.1. Conceptual Framework-Big Five Personalities

Source: Adopted from Anderson, John, Keltner and Kring (2001)

Extraversion is a very popular personality trait among the students. Almost all the theories that

have reviewed above do have effect on this type of personality. So, this variable will help my

research to know the personality differences of accounting students and (CIS) students. Baro

(2014) did a research on personality traits for comparative study on physical education and general

education teachers in Assam, India which gives insignificant differences of personality in terms of

extraversion variable. Neuroticism is very important aspect in terms of student's personality and

this variable is common in the big 5 model. There is high neuroticism which gives attributes such as

depression, metal distraction, moody and worried feeling where else if low neuroticism it gives

attributes such as encouragement, secured and hopeful.(Martin, Watson & Wan, 2000).

Conscientiousness is well important because it shows a student's discipline; responsibility,

persistent and it will also show students action that being careful or careless. Lower attributes in

neuroticism and conscientiousness will be a positive indication. This has been proven by research

that been conducted mostly using The Five Factor Model, (Anderson, John, Keltner, &Kring, 2001).

Personality Differences between IT and Business students

Extroversion Neuroticism

Conscientiousness

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3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Investigation Method

The investigation method for this study will be descriptive research. Descriptive method will help

the researcher to achieve the objective of this research that is to examine personality differences of

accounting students and computer information system (CIS) students.

3.2 Research Methodology

The research methodology that used by this research will be quantitative method. This is justified

because it can examine the proposition, have a larger set of data, which is more derived towards

this research objectives (Creswell, 2003).

3.3 Data Collection

This research will be conducted using the primary data. The main reason of this consideration in

primary data is there is choice for a researcher to go on with a direct or indirect analysis or the

analysis can be done by a survey using questionnaire. This research will be doing a survey to collect

from a particular college and the students there will be the participant for the given questionnaire.

The data from primary research will be accurate and trustworthy rather than the secondary data

because the information will be gained for the first time. (Hramiak, 2005)

3.3 Population and sampling methods

The population that has been targeted for this research is accounting students and computer

information system students (CIS) from private college, known as ASA College. The total students

are around 1200 students. Population that has been targeted might be impossible to satisfy entirely

thus it can be taken from a particular population which is reachable whenever conducting a

research but must ensemble with the resources (Yount, 2006). A total of 120 questionnaires

distributed evenly to the students of this courses. The sampling methods that have been applied in

this research are quota non-probability sampling method. This method is implemented because the

quota sampling method has set a target population of specific groups that the research are

interested on the targeted population according to the targeted size of population (Battaglia,2008).

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3.4 Data Collection Methods

According to Saunders et al. (2009) questionnaires can be design in three ways such as implement

the same question that was design in the previous questionnaire, comply past questions to the

questionnaire or establish a brand-new questionnaire. In this research there will be a Likert scale

for this questionnaire which can be describe as 1-strongly agree, 2-agree, 3-neither agree or

disagree, 4-disagree and 5-strongly disagree.

3.5 Ethical consideration and limitation

This research has some limitation such as the financial issues should be covered by own, there is

also time limitation which we have to follow the time regulation given by the college and this means

our personal timing might get effected. Finally, the result of this study is entirely dependent on the

participant so their involvement or commitment is essential in that case we will be more

responsible on which may affect other task.

3.6 Data Analysis Plan

The data analysis will be done using SPSS software for this research. Apart from that, SPSS software

is essential when the researcher wants to examine descriptive analysis and One-way Anova

analysis.

4. DATA ANALYSIS

4.1 Leven's Test for Homogeneity of variances:

Table 1: Levene’s test for Homogeneity of Variances

From the above Table 1, it can be seen that Levene's statistics test is analysed by deviating the data

set of the group mean of both Accounting students and (CIS) students and the comparing the

absolute values which has relationship between F statistic and ANOVA. Furthermore, the indication

of P value should be less than .05 to known the violated assumptions. Let's say if there is a violation

the probability to conduct a research without any assumptions on the analysis will be further

relevant. Thus, in this research homogeneity of Extroversion and Neuroticism not significance but

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positive for this test because it doesn't violated assumptions as shown in the Table 1 for

Conscientiousness (P=0.002) which is lesser than the given value of (.05). This means there is no

significant differences of Mean values of Extroversion and Neuroticism suggesting that the means

values are normally distributed among the groups. However there is a significant differences in

Mean values among the CIS and Accounting students in terms of Conscientiousness. This suggests

to conduct further analysis to confirm the robustness of the Mean value variance among the two

groups.

4.2. Robust test of equality of means:

Table 2: Robust test of Equality of Means

There is an interrelated statement between the Brown-Forsythe & Welch (Robust Tests of Equality

of Means) and Homogeneity test of variances significant value and statistic valuation for both is

parallel (Welch & Brown-Forsythe). In addition, if the significant value falls under the range of .05

in the homogeneity test than the Robust tests of equality of means should be consider. By

robustness, we mean the ability of the test to not falsely detect unequal variances when the

underlying data are not normally distributed and the variables are in fact equal. The Table 2 shows

that in terms of both Tests, there is a significant variance or differences in personality among the

CIS and Accounting students. The significant value range given should be less or equal to.05 and

the adjusted F ratio is also given. In this research, the unreal hypothesis will be rejected even if the

adjusted F ratio is justified to be significant because conscientiousness (.002) variable is under the

significant value range rather than the other two variables which are Extroversion and Neuroticism

which is clearly out of the significant value range suggesting there is no unequal significant

differences in Mean value among the CIS and Accounting students

4.3. One Way analysis of variances (Anova)

Table 3:One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

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Besides that, ANOVA analysis does calculate the sum of squares and mean square which is essential

to determine the effect size calculation from it. The formula is derives as Eta square = sum of

squares between the group divided by total sum of squares. Based on research of Cohen (1988)

found that there is range for the size effect which are (0.01) small effect, (0.06) medium effect and

finally (0.14) big effect. So, for this research personality differences in terms of Extroversion

variable will be (6.302/25.550 = 0.2) which is over the range of big effect. Next, in terms of

conscientiousness variable it will be (5.105/33.912 = 0.15), suggesting a significant difference.

Finally, in terms of neuroticism variable it will be (15.769/45.498 = 0.3) which is over the range ,

indicating a significant differences in personality among CIS and Accounting students . This means

the in terms of Neuroticism, there is a significant difference between Accounting and CIS students.

Descriptive Mean analysis shows that the highest total of Mean is in terms of neuroticism (2.8792)

where else the lowest total of mean is in terms of Extroversion (2.7250) and the mean that have

been in between is in terms of conscientiousness (2.7854). The One-way ANOVA analysis suggests

that the Personality variables (extroversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism) had an outcome in

terms of the mean average and this will interpret the data. As a conclusion, the significant value of

this research is .000 which are less than the given significant value which are in the range of .05 so

this will be resulting that the ANNOVA analysis have statistically significant differences in the

relationship of mean average and the above mentioned personality variables.

5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

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5.1 Conclusion:

According to the empirical studies, the social support for others will be beneficial towards those

students who are being extrovert rather than being introvert (Harrington & Loffredo, 2001). The

three personality attributes shows that there is a significant differences in personality among the

CIS and Accounting students. These three personality differences are Extroversion, Neuroticism and

Conscientiousness. Therefore we conclude that there is significant differences in personality among

the CIS and Accounting students. This may be due to the discipline or due to the um-bringing or due

to the colleague they hand around with. This requires further studies.

5.2 Recommendations

The other variables that can be implemented for personality studies are from the big five factor

model such as agreeableness and openness to experience or adapt to a different type of model for

personality know as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test. There are 16 types of indicator for

(MBTI) such as ESTJ are known as extroverted, sensing, thinking and judging and ISTJ are knows

introverted, sensing, thinking and judging. This has been very popular among the researchers in the

past and even until now. The future researchers can also manipulate the interpreted data to know

why it is significant or not significant to the study. It is important to carryout a research to show

which group of student display which attributes of personality. The future researchers can also do a

study that opposes this topic of research such as a study on personality similarities of students or

can include students from other disciplines of studies.

5.3 Implications and Future research directions

Furthermore, if there is continuity towards this study it will benefit future researchers and those

who related to personality mainly in educational sector. Marketing managers can use this study to

design their marketing campaigns when they promote a certain specific discipline. This will benefit

them to reduce costs and attract more desired target groups. Also lecturers can consider this study

when they deal with students from different disciplines to ensure they understand and to make

them obtain higher grade

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