A personality approach to understanding disruptive behaviour in the classroom

Teachers report that disruptive behaviour in their classrooms consumes a significant amount of their time and attention. Research studying disruptive behaviour often focuses on differences between those pupils who meet categorical diagnostic criteria for developmental disorders and those who do not. However, there is much to be learned about disruption from a normative personality approach to individual differences. This study investigates the relationship between personality and disruptive behaviours in 457 pupils between 11 and 16 years old in UK schools. Our analysis focuses on the relationship between self- and teacher-reported disruptive behaviour, and three measures of personality: Empathy, Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, and Implicit Theories of Intelligence. Disruptive behaviour (measured via both self- and teacher-report) had negative relationships with empathy and incremental learning beliefs. These findings reinforce the importance of understanding disruptive behaviours from a normative individual differences perspective and have implications for research and practice.