1 Southeastern Journal of Psychology Copyright 2014 Georgia Psychological Society 2014, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1-8. Personalities of Pre-Service Teachers and Non-Teaching Majors Sonya L. Sanderson and Heather M. Kelley Valdosta State University Abstract Currently over half of the teachers employed in a professional teaching setting, in the United States, change ca- reer paths within five years of their start date (Wilhelm, Dewhurst-Savellis, & Parker, 2000). To further explore teaching‟s high attrition rate, this study sought to investigate the personalities of collegiate pre-service teachers and collegiate non-teaching majors by using the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP-NEO). Results of this study indicated that pre-service teacher‟s personality traits were less neurotic and less open to new experiences compared to non-teaching majors. No differences were found in other personality factors such as extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Implications of this study may lead to a better understanding of common personality types of those in the educational field. Keywords: Pre-Service teachers, BIG-5 Personality Factors, International Personality Item Pool (IPIP- NEO), college students A number of studies have attempted to link personality characteristics to teacher selection and teaching suc- cess by linking personality dimensions of the Myers- Briggs scale to employment outcomes (Chauvin, Mil- ler, Godfrey, & Thomas, 2010; Harrington & Loffredo, 2001). The Myers-Briggs scale identified profiles for teachers at primary and secondary school grades, as well as specific profiles for different academic subjects. For instance, teachers should have high levels of Sens- ing-Feeling-Judging (SFJ). Sensing-Thinking- Perception (STP) is the profile for K-12 art, music, and physical education teachers. While promising, the ma- jor limitations in use of the Myers-Briggs scales in- clude lack of statistical rigor in scaling characteristics (Coffield, Moseley, Hall, & Ecclestone, 2004) and lack of reliability and validity (Pittenger, 2005). Given the- se criticisms, an alternative approach to assessment of personality and behavioral adjustments to job settings has been the use of the Five Factor Theory (Cooper, Knotts, McCord, & Johnson, 2012) with established re- liabilities and validities as an alternative to the Myers- Briggs scales. The NEO-Five Factor Inventory is based off the Five- Factor Model of personality, also known as the “Big Five,” measures five personality types: Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Openness to Experience (O), Agreeableness (A), and Conscientious (C) (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Rolland, Parker, & Stumpf, 1998). Re- searchers interested in personality often use the NEO- FFI, in addition to other versions of the NEO. Similar to the NEO-FFI developed by Costa and McCrae (1992), the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP- NEO) also estimates a person‟s personality on five do- mains. Each of the five domains is further detailed in- to six lower order domains used to suggest a best-fit personality type. The IPIP-NEO was developed in or- der to shorten the original 240 items to 120 items (Goldberg, Johnson, Eber, Hogan, Ashton, Cloninger, & Gough, 2006). The IPIP-NEO experimental classification can only approximate an individual‟s true personality. It gener- ates a report that classifies individuals as low, aver- age, or high with scores that are based on percentile ranks. Individuals assessed as low are in the bottom 30 th percentile, average scores range between the 31 st and 69 th percentile and high scores are in the top 70 th percentile and beyond. Extremely high or low percen- tiles are usually accurate depictions of an individual‟s personality classification; however, an average score, or a score close to higher or lower percentiles, carries a risk of misclassification. If an individual is at risk for a misclassification, the six sub-domain scores may be more a more accurate measure than the broad domain scores. Purpose of Study This study aimed to assess personality factors of pre- service teachers and non-teaching majors by using the IPIP-NEO personality aptitude test. This study sought to add to the existing knowledge base that the person- alities of pre-service teachers and non-teaching ma- jors‟ aptitudes may vary (DeAngelis, Wall, Che, 2013). Address correspondence to Sonya L. Sanderson, De- partment of Kinestheloogy, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA 31698-0100, e-mail: ssander- son@valdosta.edu