GENDER AND PERSONALITY TYPE AMONG PURE AND APPLIED SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCIENCE STUDENTS IN A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

The gender gap explains the differences between males and females, usually in terms of statistics concerning the roles, decisions, styles, and behaviour. In addition to the biological characteristics, males and females are different due to various factors, such as personal discipline, thinking method, emotional level, and behaviour, which may lead to a significant gender gap (Stumpf et al., 2010). At the same time, the gender gap is also influenced by the cultural norms and practices of the society in addition to individual personality, all of which influence the individual thoughts, emotions, cognitive skills, behaviour, and action towards something (Daly & Wilson, 1988).
Individuals with different personality types may show differences in behaviour (Oliver & Srivastava, 1999) as well as in choosing a programme at the university level (Ciorbea & Pasarica, 2013; Weisberg, Deyoung, & Hirsh, 2012). There is a huge gender gap in career choice among males and females in science and engineering related careers (Xie & Shauman, 2003), and there are always fewer females than males (Barres, 2006). However, the student population in the Malaysian National University currently shows a huge gender gap that is dominated by female students in many programmes (Latifah, 2015). Consequently, there could be fewer professional males in the job market in the future (Zumilah, Norehan, & Faten Bazlin, 2016).