Effect of Personality upon the Learning Motivation amongCollege Freshmen ——The Mediating Function of Self-Efficacy

The Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory(abbreviated version), General Self-efficacy Scale and College Students Academic Motivation Inventory were employed to examine the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between personality and academic motivation among 465 college freshmen. Significant correlation is found among the scores of thoroughness, openness to experiences, extraversion, self-efficacy, academic motivation. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that data of the model were well-fitted with χ ²/df=1.866,CFI=0.994,TLI=0.983,RMSEA=0.047,SRMR=0.020. By Bootstrap test, the mediating effect of self-efficacy upon the conscientiousness, openness to experiences and extraversion through academic motivation, were 0.094( 95% CI: 0.051 ～ 0.152), 0.078( 95% CI: 0.036 ～ 0.134), and 0.029( 95% CI: 0.007 ～ 0.064)respectively. The results showed that: the thoroughness, openness to experiences and extraversion had positively direct effect upon academic motivation, and personality,indicating clearly a mediating effect.