ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF OPENNESS TO NEW EXPERIENCES PERSONALITY TRAIT ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN NORTH EAST, NIGERIA

The study aimed to investigate the impact of openness to new experiences personality trait on academic achievement of undergraduate students in North East, Nigeria. One research question and one hypothesis were formulated for this study. A correlational research design was adopted. A multi-stage sampling approach was used to select a total of 330 undergraduate students from the target population of 4,177 undergraduate students in North East, Nigeria. 418 samples size were used for the study through multistage sampling techniques. Two key instruments were employed for data collection: a proforma and the Big Five Inventory by McCrae and Costa (1992). The reliability coefficient of the Big Five personality trait instrument was established at 0.875 using Cronbach's alpha. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used, and the null hypothesis was tested at a significance level of 0.05 using linear regression analysis in SPSS v21. The findings from the study indicate that undergraduate students' academic achievement is strongly influenced by their openness to new experiences. The regression equation was statistically significant at (F1, 315) = 523.738, p = 0.000 (p < 0.05), with an R2 of 62.46% for openness to new experiences. It was concluded that higher levels of openness to new experiences are associated with improved academic achievement among undergraduate students in North East, Nigeria. Therefore, it is recommended that the government and stakeholders should encourage students more to engage in their studies effectively.