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Abstract
Many young college students participate in Greek life to involve themselves with a group of people similar to themselves and to engage in life on campus. The intent of this research is to measure the relationship between Greek membership and/or involvement and personality. Data from Spit for Science: the VCU Student Survey will be examined to analyze this relationship. The participants included freshman fall and sophomore spring survey participants from the 2012 Spit for Science cohort. The measures for the study were the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and the UPPS impulsive behavior scales.
The BFI includes the personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness. The UPPS scales include the domains of lack of perseverance, lack of premeditation, negative urgency, positive urgency, and sensation seeking. Results indicated that individuals who scored higher on traits of extraversion (r = 0.209), sensation seeking (r = 0.108), and conscientiousness (r = 0.098) spent more time involved in fraternity or sorority parties and events. Additionally, individuals who are members of Greek life scored higher on traits of extraversion (r = 0.098) and conscientiousness (r = 0.067), but lower on agreeableness (r = -0.062). We found that personality traits are associated with membership and involvement in Greek organizations. This study provides insight on personality characteristics correlated with the Greek system involvement and highlights areas of research potentially related to previous findings on alcohol consumption in Greek life.
Publication Date
2015
Current Academic Year
Junior
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Danielle Dick
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Kenneth Kendler
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Amy Adkins
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Elizabeth Long
Rights
© The Author(s)