Decoding Mind: Exploring Personality Traits and Metacognition among College Students

Abstract

The mind of the college students in the present stress and strain era is being decoded by the academicians to identify the interplay between inner resources and cognitive performances. Attempt has been made to promote mental abilities by applying various indigenous intervention programmes. The students who have practiced NCC and Art of living courses have witnessed a notable increment in their cognitive abilities by plummeting allostatic load and psychological vulnerabilites. In the present study a pioneer attempt has been made to decipher the mind of the college students by establishing connection between personality traits and metacognitive abilities among N = 300 college students (100 Art of Living program + 100 National Cadet Corps + 100 Normal students) divided into two comparable halves based on the Gender that comprised of N = 50 subjects in each group. They were assessed by using NEO Five-Factor Inventory of (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and the Metacognitive Skill Scale (Gupta & Suman, 2017). The results based on correlation analysis revealed that the Extraversion and Conscientiousness dimensions of the personality traits were positively and significantly correlated (p<.01) with all sub-dimensions of metacognitive abilities, whereas openness (p< .05) only with the evaluation skills. Specifically, the most notable correlation was found in the Art of Living group followed with NCC and the control groups. This suggests that personality traits played a pivotal role in the cognitive abilities of college students.