The relationship between cognitive style and personality in further education students

A sample of 340 further education students, 16–18 yr old, received the Cognitive Styles Analysis which assessed their position on two style dimensions; the Wholist-Analytic and the Verbal-Imagery. They also completed a series of personality questionnaires which gave measures of extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, impulsiveness, venturesomeness, empathy, state and trait anxiety. A factor analysis gave four factors which were labelled anxiety, activation, empathy and style. The interactive effects of style on measures of the factors showed relationships with neuroticism, impulsiveness and psychoticism. The reasons for these and the educational implications were explored. A possible model in which style acts at a cognitive control level in moderating the underlying sources of personality was suggested.