The Study
This study by Don Hamachek, professor of educational psychology in the College of Education at Michigan State University, summarizes 25 years of research concerning the interactive and reciprocal relationship between self-concept and school achievement. It also proposes an informal inventory that can be used as a tool by teachers and counselors to assess whether a student’s self-attitudes are making positive or negative contributions to the dynamics between self-concept and achievement.

The Findings
Self-concept and achievement are dynamically interactive and reciprocal; each is mutually reinforcing to the extent that a positive (or negative) change in one facilitates a commensurate change in the other. Academic self-concept is more highly correlated with academic achievement than is general self-concept. The reciprocity of the relationship between academic achievement and self-concept is particularly noticeable by the middle school years, when children are better able to interpret feedback from their academic performance. High self-concept students tend to approach school-related tasks with confidence, and success on those tasks reinforces this confidence. The opposite pattern is likely to occur for children with low academic self-concepts.

What It Means to You
By asking these questions, school people can assess a student’s self-concept. Is the student upbeat or self disparaging, popular or unpopular with peers, happy and motivated or unhappy and unmotivated? Does the student attribute successes to ability or good luck, failures to lack of effort or bad luck or lack of ability? Is the student able to be assertive or does s/he give in easily to others? Does s/he set realistic, reachable goals versus unrealistic, unreachable goals? Does s/he experience few, if any, school failures versus numerous school failures? Is s/he task-persistent or non-task persistent? Is school work taken seriously or non-seriously? Can the student work independently or has s/he difficulty in working independently? Is s/he highly curious or not? Does s/he demonstrate a preference for challenging school work or lose interest in it? Is s/he intrinsically motivated or needing extrinsic motivators to become academically competent? Is s/he likely or unlikely to have supportive parents?

For More Information
Consult Hamachek, D., “Self-Concept and School Achievement: Interaction Dynamics and a Tool for Assessing the Self-Concept, Component,” March/April 1995, Journal of Counseling and Development, volume 73, pp 419-425.  

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