At Green River Community College, Robert D. Brehm employed Raymond Cattell's test of 16 primary personality factors to test whether students enrolled in "College Experience," a freshman orientation course, showed any personality differences when compared with students randomly selected from the freshman class. The investigator omitted part-time and evening students, and only tested the students who remained enrolled in "College Experience" at the end of the fall quarter of 1994.
The results reveal no significant personality differences between the two groups of students. Specifically, no distinctions emerge in the following descriptions of characteristics: "warm, easygoing;" "insightful, fast learning;" dominance, assertiveness;" "polished, socially aware;" and "anxiety." The Freshman Year Experience Newsletter, Volume 8, No.4, Spring 1994 p. 8
Of particular note, however, was that in both groups anxiety, dominance, and shrewdness, were between the 60-77 percentile. For further information of the research manuscript click here, or email Robert Brehm.