Research Links Dependent Personality to Higher GPA
Men with dependent personalities are more likely to have a significantly higher grade-point average than men with non-dependent personalities.
That's according to Dr. Robert F. Bornstein, professor of psychology at Gettysburg College, PA, and author of the book, The Dependent Personality. The licensed psychologist completed a 1994 study on the topic, Interpersonal Dependency and Academic Performance, which was published in the Journal of Personality Disorders.
"Dependent persons are more willing than non-dependent persons to seek the help and guidance when confronted with a challenging task," says Bornstein. "They also are highly motivated to please figures of authority and particularly sensitive to negative evaluations by others."
Most of the empirical studies on dependency have focused more or less exclusively on the negative aspects.
"This study points to a positive aspect of it," says Bornstein.
Forty-eight first-year Gettysburg College students--25 women and 23 men--completed self-report measures of interpersonal dependency in the study. They then provided information regarding their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores and overall high school grade-point averages (GPAs).
The mean high school GPA in members of the sample was 3.16. The mean GPA for the dependent men was 3.25, non-dependent men had a mean GPA of 2.78.
While dependent men had significantly higher high school GPAs than non-dependent men, a parallel relationship between dependency and
academic performance was not found in women, says Bornstein. The mean GPA for dependent women was 3.29, and 3.33 for non-dependent women.
"The finding that dependency was unrelated to academic performance in women may reflect a ceiling effect," says Bornstein. "Women, in general, tend to show high levels of certain dependency- related traits that promote strong academic performance in high school."
Bornstein notes that the women participating in the study showed significantly stronger academic performance than the men.
Dependent and non-dependent subjects did not differ with respect to combined SAT score. The mean SAT score for dependent subjects was 1088.50, where as the mean SAT score for non-dependent subjects was 1051.10.
Editors: Feel free to contact Dr. Bornstein at 717-337-6175 (office). Please contact Steve Infanti of Dick Jones Communications at 814-867-1963 if you would like a copy the study.
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