The Interactive Effect of Personality Types and Learning Setting on Performance in Accounting Courses

ABSTRACT This paper examines whether students’ personality types influence their performance in two masters-level accounting courses: one traditional lecture setting (Financial Accounting) and one active learning setting (Accounting Research). Research has shown that accounting student performance is related to personality types (Nourayi and Cherry 1993; Lawrence and Taylor 2000). However, the accounting profession is pushing for active learning to emphasize the importance of communication and critical thinking skills (Pincus, Stout, Sorensen, Stocks, and Lawson 2017). Our study is the first to relate personality types to performance in learning settings in the accounting area. We also extend prior personality type research to examine masters-level accounting student performance. We find that Extrovert students outperformed Introvert students in the active learning setting and Sensing students outperformed Intuitive students in the traditional lecture setting. Combining personality types into four personality temperaments and four MBTI cognitive function groups also resulted in significant effects on student performance. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request.