Study finds no link between personality and college major
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2010 21:53 PM

An individual's personality can often reflect the kind of hobbies or activities they decide to pursue. However, a new study is suggesting that while some believe that interests are linked to personality, a person's college major is not.

Research that was published in Psychological Reports found that there was no strong relationship between someone's personality traits and the major in which they decided to pursue their education.

Participants of the study were subjected to a questionnaire that evaluated their professional interests, a questionnaire about their leadership abilities and a personality test to determine their traits. The test subjects were between 17 and 20 years old, and nearly an even split between boys and girls.

"The data shows us that there is no strong relationship between the choice of university degree (vocation) and personality traits," said Manuel Antonio García Sedeño, main researcher of the study and professor of Evolutionary and Educational Psychology at UCA. "As a result the use of personality questionnaires in career guidance processes will have to be reconsidered and taken as relevant information."