An analysis of influence factors for academic performance about personality traits and thinking styles of students: Use a C programming language course in college as an example

Academic performance is one of the indicators to evaluate the achievement of college students, which plays an important role in individual development. However, it is worth mentioning that personality traits and thinking styles have an influence on academic performance. To further study the correlation among personality traits, thinking styles and academic performance, we carry out a series of experiments using certain C programming language course in certain college as an example. Firstly, we eliminate the overlap of personality traits and thinking styles by principal component analysis (PCA). Then, three groups of regression analysis on C programming language course grade are performed, i.e., the personality traits with course grades, the thinking styles with course grades, the principal components of the personality traits and thinking styles with course grades. Finally, the experimental results show that Agreeableness has a positive influence on C programming language grades, while Local has a negative influence on C programming language grades. Meanwhile, the personality traits and thinking styles and C course grades are generally not related and the irrelevance is not caused of the multiple collinearity between personality traits and thinking styles.