The Relationship Between Self and Achievement/Performance Measures

TLDR

This meta‑analysis investigates how self‑rated measures relate to objective performance and achievement outcomes. The authors pooled 128 studies (202,823 participants) into 1,136 correlation coefficients, then examined moderators such as grade level, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, ability, self‑term, test name, performance measure type, and measurement reliability. Correlations ranged from –0.77 to 0.96 with an overall mean of 0.21, and the average association varied systematically with the moderators listed above.

Abstract

This meta-analysis examines the relationship between the various self-measures and measures of performance and achievement. The statistical results of 128 studies are transformed to a common measure, namely, correlation coefficients. These studies represent a total sample of 202,823 persons and produce a data base of 1,136 correlations between self-ratings and performance measures. A range in the relationship of —.77 to .96 was reported with an “average” correlation of .21. It was found that this average relationship was modified by a number of variables. The more significant modifiers of the average relationship were the grade-level of subjects, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, ability of subjects, self-term used in the study, name of self-test used, type and name of performance/achievement measures, and the reliability of both the self-ratings and performance/achievement measures.