The Relationship of Five Personality Traits and Anger in Teachers

Abstract

Some teachers tend to get angry. The anger of a teacher could destroy interpersonal relationships with students. It could weaken students’ learning motivation, academic achievement and social behavior. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship of teachers’ five personality traits and anger. The sample consisted of 157 Lithuanian teachers of general education schools. The NEO-FFI Personality Trait Questionnaire (Costa, McCrae, 1992) and the Multidimensional Anger Inventory (Siegel, 1986) were used to measure personality traits and anger. Correlation analysis of the research data revealed a positive correlation between neuroticism and anger, anger arousal, hostile outlook and anger-in. Extraversion and conscientiousness negatively correlated with anger, anger arousal, range of anger-eliciting situations, hostile outlook and anger-in. Openness to experience had the negative correlations with anger, anger arousal, anger-in and anger-out. The trait of agreeableness was not related to anger and its dimensions. The results obtained can be useful in organizing anger management programs for teachers or selecting future teachers.