Predicting School Achievement from Motivation and Personality
Abstract
Abstract. The present study aims at comparing the predictive power of motivation and broad personality traits for school performance and contributes to an understanding of the nomological network of personality. A sample of German adolescent students (N = 342 11th and 12th graders, age M = 16.94, SD = .71) gave self-reports of need for achievement, domain-specific ability self-concepts and task values in German and Math as well as the Big Five of personality. Grades in German and mathematics as well as grade-point average served as performance criteria. On a bivariate zero-order level, the motivational constructs showed the hypothesized positive associations with school achievement in Math, German, and GPA. With respect to personality, only Conscientiousness was consistently positively associated with grades, whereas Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Agreeableness were either not or weakly associated with one or two out of three performance criteria. Hierarchical and stepwise regression analyses were performed with grades in Math and German as well as GPA as dependent variables. When comparing motivation and personality, domain-specific ability self-concepts were the strongest predictors of all performance criteria. Together, the present results confirm the predominance of motivational concepts over the Big Five of personality for the prediction of performance criteria and substantiate the importance to integrate trait conceptions of motivation into the nomological network of personality.
Zusammenfassung. Die Studie untersucht die unterschiedlichen Beiträge von Motivation und breiten Persönlichkeitsfaktoren bei der Vorhersage von Schulerfolg, was gleichzeitig der Spezifizierung des nomologischen Netzwerkes von Persönlichkeit dient. An einer Stichprobe von N = 342 deutschen Schülerinnen und Schülern (Alter: M = 16.94, SD = .71) wurden das Leistungsmotiv, domänen-spezifische Fähigkeitsselbstkonzepte und Aufgabenwertzuschreibungen in den Fächern Mathematik und Deutsch sowie die Big Five der Persönlichkeit erfasst. Als Leistungskriterien dienten Noten in Mathematik, Deutsch und die Durchschnittsnote des Halbjahreszeugnisses nach der Testung. Bivariate Korrelationen zeigten die erwarteten positiven Zusammenhänge zwischen Schulerfolg und den verschiedenen motivationalen Konstrukten. Hingegen war von den Persönlichkeitsfaktoren nur Gewissenhaftigkeit konsistent positiv mit Noten assoziiert, während Neurotizismus, Extraversion, Offenheit für Erfahrungen und Verträglichkeit entweder keine oder nur schwache Zusammenhänge mit einem oder zwei von drei Leistungskriterien aufwiesen. Hierarchische und schrittweise Regressionsanalysen wurden durchgeführt, wobei die Noten in Mathematik und Deutsch sowie der Notendurchschnitt als abhängige Variablen dienten. Domänen-spezifische Fähigkeitsselbstkonzepte waren für alle drei Leistungskriterien die besten Prädiktoren. Zusammenfassend belegen die vorliegenden Ergebnisse die Überlegenheit motivationaler Konzepte im Vergleich zu den Big Five bei der Vorhersage von schulischer Leistung und untermauern die Notwendigkeit, eigenschaftsbezogene Konzeptionen der Motivation in das nomologische Netzwerk von Persönlichkeit zu integrieren.
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