Personality and Classroom Seating

Abstract

The prediction of actual selected seating location in a classroom from some personality characteristics of students was examined. 34 women and 16 men, enrolled in an undergraduate psychology class, were studied. Seat location in a traditional rectangular classroom was designated by depth as front, middle, and back. Personality traits were measured by the 18 scales of the California Psychological Inventory. A discriminant function analysis was used to identify personality variables related to classroom seat selection. Two discriminant functions were identified which led to 88% correct classification. The first one (discriminated between those sitting in the middle and the front) showed that those sitting in the middle exhibited adaptive personal and social behaviors, personal intellectual achievement, and responsiveness to the inner states of others. The second function (discriminated between front and back) suggested that students at the front tended to be externally oriented, controlling of self and others, accepting of self and others, and relatively intelligent.