Arab Educational Information Network

This study aimed to identify the relationship between the big five factors of personality and the attitudes towards manual job among a sample of male and female secondary students, to identify the differences between males and females in the big five factors of personality, and to identify the differences between males and females in the attitudes towards manual job. The researcher used the descriptive correlational method, and the sample consisted of (318) students (162 males – 156 females) randomly chosen from the governmental secondary schools in Yanbu Albahar. The range of their age was from (16) to (22) years old. The researcher applied the attitudes towards manual job scale (Lingawy 1990) and the five-factor personality inventory (Costa & McCrae 1992) translated by (Alrwaita 2007). The study results showed that there was a negative statistically significant correlation between neuroticism dimension of the big five factors of personality and the attitudes towards manual job, and a positive statistically significant correlation between conscientiousness dimension and the attitudes towards to manual job. The study also showed that females had higher scores than males in neuroticism and openness, and showed that there was not differences between males and females in other dimensions. The results also showed that there was not differences between males and females in the attitudes towards manual work. The researcher concluded with some recommendations that derived from the results of the study, and the most important was the need to help students to reveal their attitudes and preferences towards different jobs by appropriate scales, especially the students that think they have positive attitudes towards manual work. (Published abstract)