Correlations among extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

Part One: The relationship between extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

Correlation Coefficient

Table 1 below presents the Pearson correlation coefficients depicting the relationship between each pair of variables.

Table 1: Correlation Matrix

Correlation Matrix

 

 

EXTRA

NEURO

AGREE

EXTRA

Pearson\'s r

—

 

 

 

p-value

—

 

 

NEURO

Pearson\'s r

-0.243

*

—

 

 

p-value

0.015

—

 

AGREE

Pearson\'s r

0.299

**

-0.046

—

 

p-value

0.003

0.649

—

Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

  There is a statistically significant negative association between extraversion and neuroticism as shown by the Pearson correlation value of r = -0.243 and the p-value of .015, which is lower than the p=0.05 significance level. Negative correlation values range from 0 to -1, where -1 indicates an extremely strong negative association between the variables (Christmann & Badgett, 2009). The r value of -0.243 points to a weak negative association between extraversion and neuroticism (Christmann & Badgett, 2009). The implication is that a unit increase in the level of extraversion decreases neuroticism by 0.243 units. At the same time, the association between agreeableness and extraversion is positive and statistically significant at the p=0.05 significance level given the Pearson correlation value of r = .299 and the p-value of .003. The association is weak, indicating that a unit increase in extraversion increases agreeableness by 0.3 units or 30 percent. The association between agreeableness and neuroticism is insignificant as the p-value of 0.649 is greater than 0.05.

Figure 1: Scatterplot for the Relationship between Extraversion and Agreeableness

Figure 2: Scatterplot for the Relationship between Extraversion and Neuroticism

Figure 3: Scatterplot for the Relationship between Agreeableness and Neuroticism

Part Two: Students’ Perceived Advisor Support

Table 2 below presents the Cronbach Alpha test results for the fourteen variables measuring perceived advisor support.

Table 2. Cronbach Alpha Reliability Test

Scale Reliability Statistics

 

Cronbach\'s ?

scale

0.919

Note. items \'PAS12\' and \'PAS13\' correlate negatively with the total scale and probably should be reversed

 Interpretation

The Cronbach Alpha measures the internal consistency of a set of items used to measure a given variable in a data set (Saliya, 2023). Cronbach Alpha values range from 0 to 1, with values above 0.7 indicating that the data set is highly reliable (Saliya, 2023). The acceptable range for Cronbach Alpha coefficients is 0.7 to 0.9 (Saliya, 2023). The Cronbach Alpha value of 0.91 for the fourteen variables measuring students’ perceived advisor support indicates a very high level of internal consistency between the fourteen variables, implying that the data set is highly reliable.

However, the results indicate that items 12 and 13 on the data set correlate negatively with the scale and may need to be reverse scored to increase the data set’s reliability further. Table 3 below presents the Cronbach Alpha results after reverse scoring the two items.

Table 3. Cronbach Alpha Results after Reverse Scoring Items 12 and 13

Scale Reliability Statistics

 

Cronbach\'s ?

scale

0.967

  After reverse scoring items 12 and 13, the Cronbach Alpha coefficient increases to 0.967, which is a higher level of internal consistency and an indicator of an increase in the reliability of the data set. Thus reverse scoring items that are negatively correlated improves the reliability of a scale or data set.

Correlation between average perceived advisor support variable and ID

Table 4 below presents the correlation results between the variable ID and the computed average perceived advisor support variable.