Relationship between personality traits, learning styles and academic achievement among students of nursing and midwifery

Intoduction: By reviewing the results of the previous studies, no conclusive comment can be made on the relationship between three variables of personality, learning style, and academic achievement. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between personality traits, learning styles, and academic achievement among students of Zanjan School of Nursing and Midwifery in 2012. In this descriptive and analytical study, among 485 students of Zanjan Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, 235 students were selected by simple random sampling. NEO Five Factor Personality Inventory (NEO-FFI), Kolb Learning Style Inventory (3.1-2005) and demographic form were used of data collection. The collected data were entered into the SPSS version 18 and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson test. there was a significant correlation between the following factors: "Flexibility" in learning style with "reflective observation" (r= 0.171, p=0.013) and "abstract conceptualization" (r=0.143, p=0.040); "Accountability" with learning style "active experimentation" (r= 156, p=0.250); "Flexibility" (r=0.183, p=0.008), "agreeableness" (r=0.242, p=0.001) and "accountability" (r=0.218, p=0.002) with the score of total grade point average(GPA); also learning style "active experimentation" was related with total grade point average score (r=0.136, p=0.050). Among students of nursing and midwifery of Zanjan, there is a correlation between personality characteristic; “Openness" with learning style; "Reflective Observation" with "Abstract Conceptualization". There is also a correlation between the personality trait; “Conscientiousness” with learning style; “Active Experimentation". Between personality characteristics; "Openness" with GPA, there is also an association. The personality trait; "Agreeableness" is association with GPA. Between the personality trait; “Conscientiousness" with GPA was associated. Finally, learning style; "Active Experimentation" was associated with GPA.