PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF RURAL ALTRUISTIC ADOLESCENT STUDENTS AT SECONDARY LEVEL

The present study investigated the nature of Big Five Personality Traits (BFPT) of rural altruistic adolescent students. Sample comprised of 400 rural adolescent students of secondary level. Altruism Scale (AS) and Big Five Personality Inventory (BFPI), both adopted by the investigators, were used to assess Altruism and Big Five Personality Traits respectively. Descriptive survey method was used for the investigation. The result revealed significant gender difference in altruism as well as in two of Big Five Personality Traits. Rural altruistic adolescent boy students scored higher on Extraversion than rural altruistic adolescent girl students whereas the later scored higher on Agreeableness than the former. One notable point is that there was no significant gender difference in Openness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism. High Altruistic adolescent students possessed more Extraversion and Agreeableness than both Medium and Low Altruistic adolescent students. Again there were significant differences between the students of Medium Altruistic group and Low Altruistic group in respect of Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness favoring the former group. The study further indicated that three personality traits namely, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness were essential for construction of altruistic personality of rural adolescent students as regression equations confirmed the ability of altruism of rural adolescent students to predict those traits.