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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS

Running Head: EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS

UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN

FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
BACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCE (HONS) PSYCHOLOGY
UAPG1013 STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE I
Year 1 Trimester 3
(201501)

EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS

Lecturer: Mr Tan Soon Aun
Tutorial Class: T9
Group members:
No
1
2
3
4
5
6

Name
Ching Lee Ying
Lai Ke Li
Lam Yew Sin
Lee Hai Zheng
Methene Ganesan
Wan Fook Wai

ID
1303662
1302348
1306114
1301476
1306713
1302909

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS

UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN

FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
BACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCE (HONS) PSYCHOLOGY
UAPG1013 STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE I
Year 1 Trimester 3
(201501)
MAIN PROJECT MARKING SCHEME (18%)
: Extroverts are more likely to help than Introverts

Topic
Tutorial Class :

T9

Group members :
No
1
2
3
4
5
6

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Name
Ching Lee Ying
Lai Ke Li
Lam Yew Sin
Lee Hai Zheng
Methene Ganesan
Wan Fook Wai

Abstract
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Literature Review
Chapter 3 Method
Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Result
Chapter 5 Conclusion
References & Appendixes
Penalty for _____________________ (if any)
TOTAL

ID
1303662
1302348
1306114
1301476
1306713
1302909

/
/
/
/
/
/
/

10 marks
10 marks
15 marks
15 marks
25 marks
15 marks
10 marks

: _______ /100 marks*

*100 marks is to be converted to 18%

Abstract

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
In the study of Statistical Technique Behavioral Science 1, a lot statistical techniques
which can be applied in this assignment is learned. The title chosen for this assignment is
people who are high in extraversion are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior than those
who are low in extraversion. The purpose of this research is to measure whether the tendency
to engage in prosocial behavior is influenced by the level of extraversion of the participants.
This hypothesis is attempted to be proven applicable by distributing survey questionnaires to 52
participants. The method of sampling is convenience sampling as the participants were selected
from the population who are available in Block L of University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar,
Perak. Results were similar to the hypothesis proven previously. Male has higher levels of
extraversion than females, females score higher in prosocial tendencies and other-oriented
empathy than males, and males scored higher than females in terms of helpfulness. Participants
with higher levels of extraversion also obtained higher scores for prosocial tendencies, otheroriented empathy, and helpfulness. Besides that, it is also found that participants from rural areas
have higher levels of prosocial tendencies than participants from urban areas, which have the
lowest levels of prosocial tendencies among the three home areas. However, there is no
significant influence of family income on extraversion.

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
TABLE OF CONTENT
Chapter 1 Introduction ...5
Chapter 2 Literature ...7
Chapter 3 Method .13
Chapter 4 Data analysis and Result ..16
Chapter 5 Discussion 25
References 28
Appendix ......30

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction
This paper will discuss about the topic Extrovert are more likely to help than introvert. By
finding this result, level of extraversion (EPQ-RS; Eysenck, Eysenck and Barrett, 1985) and
prosocial personality tendency (Penner, Fritzsche, Craiger, & Freifeld, 1995) are used.
1.2 Background of Study
A known relationship between extroverts and introverts has triggered the interest of people
for centuries. There is a question in mind that whether introverts or extraverts are going to feel
more rewarded in social situation. Eysenck describe extroverts as sociable, impulsive, lively,
optimistic, quick-witted person, whereas introverts are quiet, pessimistic, unsociable, careful,
well-reserved, thoughtful, sober, peaceful person (Schultz and Schultz, 2013, p.226). Eysenck
also mention that extraverts get more social rewards because they thrive under arousal while
introverts avoid social rewards because they think that it is unnecessary or it can cause over
stimulation. As propose by Eysenck, people with high level of extraversion have a more
dominant extraverted personality and vice versa (Schultz and Schultz, 2013). Prosocial behavior
means an action performed with the purpose of helping the other person while benefiting to him
or her. (Penner, Dovidio, Paliavin, Schroeder, 2005).
There have been cases where there are so many bystanders around during an accident but no
one is willing to offer help. After an accident happened, people will blame those bystanders who
not willing to offer help which causes the victims to suffer more severe injuries or worsen their
situation. Therefore, it has become a significant topic of research on why people help others or
not in certain situations and also whether introverts are more likely to engage in prosocial
behavior or extroverts. As there is a need to understand why people help, two hypotheses are

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
created, which are extroverts are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior and introverts are
more likely to engage in prosocial behavior. The aim of this research is to measure whether the
tendency to engage in prosocial behavior is affected by the level of extraversion of the
participants. The objectives of this research is to find out why people help others or not in certain
situations, and to know more about the factors that might prevent people from engaging in
prosocial behavior.
1.2 Research Question
1) Is there gender differences in level of extraversion and tendency of prosocial behavior?
2) Do high level of extraversion indicate high tendency of prosocial behavior?
3) How is the influence of respondents at home area on the tendency of prosocial behavior?
4) Does higher family income indicate higher level of extraversion?
The first research question serves the purpose of measuring whether males or females are
more likely to engage in prosocial behavior according to his or her level of extraversion. The
second research question is developed in order to find out whether high levels of extraversion
affect the probability of the particular person to help. The third research question attempts to find
out if there is a significant relationship between the participants type of home area and their
tendency to engage in prosocial behavior. The last research question is aimed at determining
whether the participants family income affect their level of extraversion.

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 The Big Five and prosocial Personality aspect
The aim of this study is to present evidence of the relationship between the five-factor model of
personality, and aspect of prosocial behavior and also the empathic tendencies, in relevance of
the context of gender, field of study and experience in volunteerism, through presenting them in
the form of statistic model. In attempt to obtain the data needed, sample of population are
selected from 1454 high school and university members, with their age ranging from 15 to 22
years old. This paper consists and also contain the application of knowledge that are related to
the field of psychology such as the five-factor personality model, prosocial tendencies and also
empathic tendencies that are correlate to the phenomenon of volunteerism. Ergo, the methods
that are chosen to obtain data include measurement and inventory which are listed as below:

NEO Five-factory inventory, by P.T. Costa, R.R.McCree (1989).

PTM-Prosocial Tendencies Measure, by G. Carlo a B. A. Randall (2002).

IRI-Interpersonal Index Reactivity, by M. H. Davis (1980, 1983, 1996).

MCSDS-Marlow-Crown Social Desirability Scale, by D. P. Crown a D. Marlow (1960).

When comes to the analysis of the statistics, the method that was utilized by this paper are the
multivariate analysis of variance. (Mlcak, 2010)
During the discussion part of the literature, they discovered that the females sample are
displaying significantly higher levels of psychological quality that are related to altruistic
behavior comparing to male participant, as in the factors of neuroticism, agreeableness, altruistic
behavior, empathic concern, perspective taking, personal distress and empathic fantasy. However

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
in contrast with those high mental capacities, females display much lower activities level of
public behavior when compared to the males. This might be suggesting that although females are
more empathetic than male in psychological wise, it is the male members that are way more
likely to offer a helping hand. (Mlcak, 2010)
Dimensions regarding the relationship and correlation between prosocial behavior and the five
factors personality model are, however in relation to the assignment only the findings about the
significance that extraversion that plays in prosocial tendencies will be discuss here. There is a
positive relationship found between the level of extraversion and the tendencies of an
individuals active behavior during the moment of crisis, and emotionally challenging event.
Also, this journal also cites other research that was previously complete to support their findings.
(Mlcak, 2010)
Lastly, during conclusion it is mentioned that the determinant of prosocial tendencies are less
related to factors such as gender and profession, rather it is more closely related towards the
personal differences that are found between the samples. (Mlcak, 2010)
2.2 Gender Differences in Patterns of Association between Prosocial Behavior, Personality,
and Externalizing Problems
This article conducted study about the relationship between the difference of gender, personality
traits and prosocial behavior and tendencies to externalizing problems. They proposed that
although there are previous studies that investigated the relationship of personality traits and
prosocial tendencies, however it is suggested that variables such as gender differences had not
been study profoundly.(Pursell et al., 2008) Studies that are done are related to the tendencies of
youth behavior and adolescence delinquency. In this journal, the researcher hypothesize that The

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
predicting factor of the tendencies of externalizing problems, in other words, delinquency
behaviors are negatively relate to Prosocial tendencies, which are in turn, responsible by the
personal traits and characteristic of on individual youth, and that these traits factors does indeed
have a difference found between the genders. However in contrast to the above hypothesis
mentioned, it is also stated that there are exception to the theory. For instance, due to the reason
that antisocial behavior are found particularly amongst individual with low level of
agreeableness and conscientiousness, therefore, although females who tend to score higher than
male on agreeableness and conscientiousness, there are no evidence that can conclude the
significance of these two factors. (Pursell et al., 2008)
The method that are employ in this study are Peer reports, self-reports and maternal reports.
Participants are selected from adolescents ranging from 12 to 15 years old, and among that 128
are girls and 103 of them are boys. Also in order to obtain peer and maternal reports from the
peers, all students in the schools where the sample individual was obtain from were ask to
complete peer nomination surveys. In addition, 724 mothers of the adolescents who had
completed the surveys were asked to complete another survey. Of the total of them, 231 of the
mothers returned the personality and behavior problems inventories which are sent to them. After
the data had been collected, it is then analyze with multiples group mediation models.(Pursell et
al., 2008)
Finding suggested by the data indicates that agreeableness and conscientiousness has mediated
the association for girls in prosocial behavior and aggression. As such, girls who display more
agreeableness and conscientiousness are linked closely to prosocial behavior. However, in
comparison these two factor had fail to predict prosocial behavior in boys, as there is no
significant statistical indication.in concluding the article, the researcher mentioned that one

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should not conclude easily or simply drawn assumption based on the result collected, as there are
many factors that can lead to different interpretation of the data. For example, the affect that bias
social perception towards girls and boys prosocial behavior can lead to different interpretation.
There is also the mentioning of the limitation of the data collected, stating that for example the
bias perception on gender differences could have an confounding effect on ones perception
between prosocial behaviors and personality that would indicate prosocial tendencies. An
example would be peers would only identify prosocial behavior in boys based on observable
actions while based the prosocial tendencies of girls on solely their personal traits. Finally, this
article close with the notion that finding suggested that people interpret attribution of prosocial
behavior differently according to gender difference, and that agreeableness and
conscientiousness are view as quality traits of a prosocial individual when both are identify on
girls but not boys.(Pursell et al., 2008)
2.3 Gender Differences in Personality Traits across Cultures: Robust and Surprising
Findings.
The study is conducted in an attempt to further expand the limitation of the previous study
conducted by Feingold during 1994 in examination on the gender differences in personality. This
journal however will be able to examine the difference in all 30 traits of personality on the NEO
Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R: Costa &McCrae, 1992) with the availability of new data,
compared to the research completed by Feingold which only be able to examine 9 traits.
In the study, the researcher claim that Extraversion are consists of two dimensions, which are
consists of dominance and love. This claim is derived from another research which is the Sex
Role Inventory conducted by Bem in 1974, and was referred by the author in the article.(Costa et

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
al., 2001) Bums study was completed with orthogonal scales which, for extraversion trait,
consist of two dimension mentioned above, Love and dominance. The author hypothesize that
woman should score lower compare to man in this section because comparing between
extraversion and agreeableness, which, its orthogonal was consists of submission and love,
woman should be scoring higher on the agreeableness traits which based on the premise that
woman are more submissive and loving in nature. However, contrasting to the hypothesis, the
finding by Feingold claims that women are slightly higher in extraversion, however there are
also other studies that support the hypothesis of the author. In effort to build on the hypothesis,
the author theorizes as to why the traits are different amongst men and women using theory
based on evolution psychology and also social role model theory. (Costa et al., 2001)
Secondary data that was found from literature search was used before process to be analyzed. All
samples are from previous studies conducted by a variety of researches that had translated the
NEO-Pi-R and collected data on this inventory for their own researches. In the journal, refer to
table 1 for a summary of the characteristic of the samples. (Costa et al., 2001) These samples are
international and cross-cultural in order to cover relevant factors. In measurement, the NEO-PI-R
was use to access traits and to define them into the category within the five factor model of
personality, which consists of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and
conscientious. Finally the data obtain was then compared. Due to the variety of data used, the
result produced is also cross-cultural.
The results for woman are indeed generally agreeing with the previous study, which shows that
women are consistently scoring higher in agreeableness and lower in extraversion. However, it is
found out that in the NEO-PI-R scales woman are found to be scoring higher compared to
measurement used in previous study, due to the fact that different inventory putting different

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
emphasis on different dimension on the extraversion scale, for example the NEO-PI-R are on
warmth. Because of this, in this study the author created new variables to show the
distinctiveness of the variables between the genders. These categories are, E1: Warmth, E2:
Gregariousness, E3: Assertiveness, E5: Excitement seeking, and E6: positive emotions. The
results were concluded that Men score higher in E# and E% and women higher in E1, E2 and E6.
(Costa et al., 2001)
In conclusion, the author reported surprising findings due to the fact that the differences between
the scoring in these personality factors are magnified where they are instead were expected to
reduced predicted by the social role model, whereby woman from country where sex role
ideologies are more pronounced should leading to no significant differences when it comes to the
scoring because of the idea that woman are equal to man and therefore no differences are to be
expected. However, the result might had supported the other hypothesis the author claim, which
are based on evolutionary point of view, which suggested that gender differenced are
predetermined by genetics.(Costa et al., 2001)

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
Chapter 3 Method
3.1 Statement of problem
One of the challenges that society face today is why there are so many bystanders during
an accident but no one is willing to offer help. After an accident happened, people will blame
those bystanders who not willing to offer help which causes the victims suffer more severe
injuries in the situation. Therefore, it has become a significant part of research on why do people
help or not help others in certain extant and also whether introverts are more likely to engage in
prosocial behavior or extroverts.
3.2 Objective
1. To find out why do people help or not help others in certain extant.
2. To know more about the things that might get in the way of people engaging in prosocial
behavior.
3.3 Hypothesis
1. Extrovert is more likely to engage in prosocial behavior.
2. Introvert is more likely to engage in prosocial behavior.
3.4 Participants
A sample of 52 students from University Tunku Abdul Rahman were asked to fill in the
questionnaire, which included 18 males and 34 females. There were supposed to be 50 students
selected to answer the questionnaires, but because 7 incomplete questionnaires were received, an
additional 9 sets of questionnaires were distributed to other students to meet the minimum
requirement of 50 participants.

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS

3.5 Instrument
The questionnaire is made up of three sections, which are Section A for demographic
information, Section B for personality and Section C for prosocial behavior. The demographic
information is to collect the relevant data, the question for personality is retrieve from Shortscale Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-RS; Eysenck, Eysenck and Barrett,
1985) and the prosocial behavior questionnaire in retrieve from Prosocial Personality Battery
(Penner, 2002).
The Short-scale Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire consists of 12 questions and
there are two subscales which are YES or NO. The instrument is designed to determine the
participant level of extraversion.
The Prosocial Personality Battery contains 30 questions, which are divided into three
different parts, where participants are required to rate from a scale of 1 to 5. For part 1 and part 2,
the scale ranges from strongly disagree, disagree, uncertain, agree, to strongly agree. However,
for part 3, the scale ranges from never, once, more than once, often, to very often. In order to
determine overall prosocial tendency, Prosocial Personality Battery considered two-factor
solution. The first factor, other-oriented empathy reflect five individual scales social
responsibility, empathic concern, perspective taking, mutual reasoning and other oriented
reasoning. Meanwhile the second factor, helpfulness consist of only two scales which are
personal distress and self-report altruism.
Overall the Prosocial Personality Battery is designed to examine the prosocial personality
tendency. To feel empathy and worry for others, and to behave in a manner that benefit others.
The other-oriented empathy indicate the tendency to feel empathy and concern of others. The

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
second factor, helpfulness indicate the tendency to perform helpful acts, mostly is based on past
experience (Penner, Fritzsche, Craiger, & Freifeld, 1995).
3.6 Procedure
The sampling method used for this research is convenience sampling. 50 questionnaires
were prepared and distributed to respondents in Block L. An inform consent was attached to the
questionnaire to notify the participants about the confidentiality and the purpose of the research.
7 questionnaires were found to lack of complete answers. Additional of 9 questionnaires were
then distributed to convenient participants in UTAR. All of the 9 respondents completed the
questionnaires by themselves successfully. After that, all the data collected from the participants
to be analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Science 17.0 (SPSS) and carried to
determine whether the hypothesis is proven or not proven.

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
4.0 Data Analysis and Result
After the elimination and accession of data, the result for extraversion dimension of
Short-scale Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and Prosocial Personality Battery is
calculated according to the scoring system. The result of the two section and the demographic
information were then be recorded in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), 17.0
version to further generate tabulated data and graphical report.
Figure 9 and Table 6 (see Appendix) shows female occupy approximately 65.4% while male
occupy 34.6% in the sample. Figure 10 (see Appendix) shows that participant mostly from urban
area which is 33 participants; suburban is 13 participants and rural with 6 participants. Table 5
(see Appendix) shows the age (M = 20.12; MD = 20; = 0.81; R = 4), extraversion (M = 7.10;
MD = 7; = 2.53; R = 10), prosocial personality tendency (M = 98.15); MD = 97.5; = 10.29;
R = 67), other-oriented empathy (M = 76.15; MD = 76; = 8; R = 56) and helpfulness (M = 22;
MD = 22; = 4.65; R = 21).
4.1 Is there gender differences in level of extraversion and tendency of prosocial behavior?
Table 1, Figure 1, 2 and 3 show the mean of extraversion, prosocial personality tendency,
other-oriented empathy and helpfulness for male and female. On the extraversion measure, male
obtained higher level of extraversion (M = 7.50) compare to female (M = 6.88) with mean
difference (R = 0.62). On the other hand, female has higher prosocial personality tendency (M =
98.29) than male (M = 97.89) with mean difference (R = 0.40). In contrast of the other-oriented
empathy and helpfulness, female has higher other-oriented empathy (M = 76.65) than male (M =
75.22) with mean difference (R = 1.43). Meanwhile, male has higher helpfulness (M = 22.67)
than female (M = 21.65) with mean difference (R = 1.02).

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Table 1
Gender Difference in Extraversion,
Personality Tendency, Other-oriented
Empathy and Helpfulness
Gende
r
Extraversion

Mean

male

18

7.5000

female

34

6.8824

male

18

97.8889

female

34

98.2941

Other-oriented male
empathy
female

18

75.2222

34

76.6471

Helpfulness

male

18

22.6667

female

34

21.6471

Prosocial
Personality
Tendency

Figure 1
Gender Difference in Extraversion

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Figure 2
Gender Difference in Prosocial Personality Tendency

Figure 3
Gender Difference in Other-oriented Empathy and Helpfulness

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4.2 Do high level of extraversion indicate high tendency of prosocial behavior?
In order to answer this question, total sample mean for extraversion is used to determine
high level of extraversion and low level of extraversion. Table 2, Figure 4, 5 and 6 show high
level of extraversion possess higher prosocial personality tendency (M = 98.57), other-oriented
empathy (M = 76.46) and helpfulness (M = 22.11). Low level possess lower prosocial
personality tendency (M = 97.13), other-oriented empathy (M = 75.40) and helpfulness (M =
21.73). The mean difference is prosocial personality tendency (R = 1.44), other-oriented empathy
(R = 1.06) and helpfulness (R = 0.38).
Table 1
Prosocial Personality Tendency, Otheroriented Empathy and Helpfulness in
Level of Extraversion
Extraver
sion
Prosocial
Personality
Tendency

Mean

>= 7.00

37

98.5676

< 7.00

15

97.1333

Other-oriented >= 7.00

empathy
< 7.00

37

76.4595

15

75.4000

Helpfulness

>= 7.00

37

22.1081

< 7.00

15

21.7333

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Figure 4
Mean of Prosocial Personality Tendency between high and low Level of Extraversion

Figure 5
Mean of Other-oriented Empathy between high and low Level of Extraversion

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Figure 6
Mean of Helpfulness between high and low Level of Extraversion

4.3 How is the influence of respondents at home area on the tendency of prosocial
behavior?
Table 3, Figure 7 and 8 display the respondents home area and the tendency of prosocial
behavior. Rural areas respondents possess highest prosocial personality tendency (M = 99.83)
along with suburban (M = 99.38) and urban (M = 97.36) However, rural areas respondents has
lowest other-oriented empathy (M = 74.67) while urban (M = 75.55) and suburban (M = 78.38)
placed moderate and highest respectively. In the helpfulness factor, rural (M = 25.17) possess
highest along with urban (M = 21.81) and suburban (M = 21.00).

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Table 3
Prosocial Personality Tendency, Otheroriented Empathy and Helpfulness in
Respondents' Home Area
N
Prosocial
Personality
Tendency

Urban

33

97.3636

Suburban

13

99.3846

Rural

99.8333

Total

52

98.1538

33

75.5455

13

78.3846

Rural

74.6667

Total

52

76.1538

Urban

33

21.8182

Suburban

13

21.0000

Rural

25.1667

Total

52

22.0000

Other-oriented Urban
empathy
Suburban

Helpfulness

Mean

Figure 7
Mean of Prosocial Personality Tendency in Respondents Home Area

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Figure 8
Mean of Other-oriented Empathy and helpfulness in Respondents Home Area

4.4 Does higher family income indicate higher level of extraversion?

Family income were used as from the demographic part of questionnaire. Table 4 and
Figure 9 show the result that respondents with less than RM 2,000 family income possess highest
level of extraversion (M = 8.20). Respondents with RM 6,000 - RM 7,999 family income has
mean score of 8.00; respondents with RM 4,000 - RM 5,999 family income has mean score of
7.73; respondents with RM 2,000 - RM 3,999 family income has mean score of 6.81; and
respondents with RM 8,000 and above family income which has lowest mean score of 5.00. The
difference between family income highest and lowest level of extraversion is R = 3.20.

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Table 4
Level of Extraversion in
Different Family Income
Extraversion
N

Mean

less than RM
2,000

10

8.2000

RM 2,000 - RM
3,999

21

6.8095

RM 4,000 - RM
5,999

11

7.7273

RM 6,000 - RM
7,999

8.0000

RM 8,000 and
above

5.0000

52

7.0962

Total

Figure 9
Mean of Level of Extraversion in Different Family Income

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Chapter 5 Discussion
The research that has been conducted is titled people with high levels of extraversion are
more likely to engage in pro-social behavior than those who are low in extraversion. To conduct
this research, questionnaires have been distributed to 52 participants in University Tunku Abdul
Rahman, Perak Campus.
The first research question was, Is there gender differences in level of extraversion and
tendency of pro-social behaviour? The results showed that males have higher levels of
extraversion qualities compared to females while females have higher pro-social tendencies
compared to males. In relation to this, there was a study that proved that women were more
motivated to help others and incidentally showed that women scored higher in the factors of
moral obligation, and prosocial role identity (Einolf, C.J, 2011).
For the second research question, Do high levels of extraversion indicate high tendency
of pro-social behaviour? the results obtained was people with high levels of extraversion
possess higher pro-social personality tendencies and vice versa. Based on a study by (Carlo,
Okun, Knight, and de Guzman. 2005) extraversion and agreeableness had a joint indirect effect
on volunteering and prosocial behaviour. It basically showed that extrovert qualities on its own
wont predispose people to being pro-social unless they value the action of helping people.
As for the third research question, How is the influence of respondents at home area on
the tendency of pro-social behaviour? the results showed that respondents from rural areas
possessed the highest pro-social personality tendency, followed by suburban and urban. One
explanation is that people from rural settings are brought up to be more neighbourly and more
likely to trust strangers, (Pearson, 2015). As for people from urban settings, their pro-social
behaviour may be explained by the Milgram hypothesis, urban-overload hypothesis where

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people in cities may keep to themselves to avoid being overwhelmed by all the stimulation they
get.
For the last research question is Does higher family income indicates higher level of
extraversion? the results indicated that there was no significant relationship between
participants family income and level of extraversion. However, the highest level of extraversion
tendencies was among the group of participants with the least family income, which was
RM2,000 and below.
5.1 Limitations
A few hurdles were faced in the completion of this research and one of them was that the
participants involved are mostly UTAR students, particularly students from block L. Hence, the
sample is not widespread. In the future, to overcome this lack of generality, the questionnaires
could be distributed to students from different faculties to ensure that the result obtained is more
applicable to UTAR students.
Next, there is also the problem of a number of participants who handed in incomplete
questionnaires. This is probably due to the fact that the questionnaire contains sensitive
questions, such as family income, and the large number of questions included may cause some
participants to accidentally miss a few questions when they are answering the questionnaire. To
overcome this, extra questionnaires were handed out to ensure that there are enough fully
answered questionnaires to meet the minimum requirement of the research. In the future, to
avoid this from happening, simpler words and less lengthy and less sensitive questions could be
used to encourage participants to finish the questionnaires.

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
5.2 Conclusion
The hypothesis of the research was that extroverts have higher pro-social tendencies, as
people with higher levels of extraversion are more likely to have extraverted personality. As a
whole, those with higher levels of extraversion also possess higher scores in prosocial
personality, in terms of thinking, feelings, and behaviour. Through this research, a lot of eye
opening information was gained about the possible factors of what causes certain people to be
more prone to helping or pro-social behaviours compared to others and how gender, the type of
the participants home area and levels of extrovert can play a part in affecting prosocial
behaviour.

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
References
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motives on volunteering: agreeableness, extraversion and prosocial value motivation.
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Costa P.T. Jr., Terracciano, A., McCrae, R.R. (2001). Gender Differences In Personality Traits
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Psychology, 81(2), 322-331
Costa, P. T. Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and
NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological
Assessment Resources.
Einolf, C. J. (2011). Gender Differences in the Correlates of Volunteering and Charitable Giving.
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(6), 10921112.
doi:10.1177/0899764010385949
Eysenck, S. B. G., Eysenck, H. J., & Barrett, P. (1985). A revised version of the psychoticism
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Mlcak, Z.(2012). The Big Five And Prosocial Personality Aspects. Publishing House
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Pearson. (2015). Prosocial Behavior: Why Do People Help?. [online] Available at:
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Penner, L. A. (2002). The Causes of Sustained Volunteerism: An Interactionist Perspective.
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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
Penner, L. A., Fritzsche, B. A., Craiger, J. P., & Freifeld, T. S. (1995). Measuring the prosocial
personality. In J. N. Butcher, & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.) Advances in personality
assessment, (Vol. 12). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Pursell, G.R., Laursen, B., Rubin, K.H., Booth-LaForce, C., Rose-Krasnor, L. (2008). Gender
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Learning.

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
Appendix 1
Table 5

Statistics for Extraversion, Prosicial Personality Tendency, Other-oriented empathy

and Helpfulness
Prosocial
Personality
Extraversion Tendency

Age
N

Valid

Otheroriented
empathy

Helpfulness

52

52

52

52

52

Mean

20.1154

7.0962

98.1538

76.1538

22.0000

Median

20.0000

7.0000

97.5000

76.0000

22.0000

20.00

7.00

92.00

78.00

20.00a

.80814

2.53028

10.29446

7.99604

4.65264

Variance

.653

6.402

105.976

63.937

21.647

Range

4.00

10.00

67.00

56.00

21.00

Minimum

18.00

2.00

67.00

50.00

11.00

Maximum

22.00

12.00

134.00

106.00

32.00

1046.00

369.00

5104.00

3960.00

1144.00

Missing

Mode
Std. Deviation

Sum

a. Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
Appendix 2
Table 6

Frequency Table for Gender Difference

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Percent
Valid male

18

34.6

34.6

34.6

female

34

65.4

65.4

100.0

Total

52

100.0

100.0

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
Appendix 3

Figure 9
Percentage of Gender Difference

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
Appendix 4

Figure 10
Number of participants living in urban, suburban and rural area

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EXTROVERTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HELP THAN INTROVERTS
Appendix 5
Task Distribution Table
Name
Ching Lee Ying

Student ID
1303662

Task
Report Writing Data analysis

Lai Ke Li

1302348

Distribute Questionnaires
Report Writing Method

Lam Yew Sin

1306114

Distribute Questionnaires
Report Writing Introduction, Abstract

Lee Hai Zheng

1301476

Distribute Questionnaires
Report Writing Literature Review

Methene Ganesan

1306713

Distribute Questionnaires
Report Writing Discussion

Wan Fook Wai

1302909

Distribute Questionnaires
Report Writing Data analysis
Distribute Questionnaires
Questionnaire design