Self Concept and Academic Performance

Self-concept is the overall image or awareness people have of themselves. It includes all those perceptions of I and me together with the feelings, beliefs and values associated with them. It governs the way people experience their bodies and determines our choice of activities; our intensity of efforts, and our persistence in the face of obstacles and unpleasant experiences, in part by reducing the anxiety that might interfere with the performance of activity. It is known to exert a powerful influence, affecting the way people perceive, judge and behave. That is, as situations and people around change, self concept has a function of reassuring them that they are basically the same person they were the previous day. For this reason self-concept is a driving force in peoples endeavour to realise their needs. This means that persons with high self concept are more effective and do better at a given level of intelligence than persons with low self-concept. It also implies that positive attitudes towards self indicate positive achievement while negative attitudes indicate failure. Self concept helps to explain academic performance of students in academic performance.

Autorentext

Jonathan Muema Mwania is a lecturer in the department of Educational Psychology at South Eastern University College, Kenya. He received his Doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Dar es Salaam. He has contributed immensely in refereed international journals particularly in the area of self concept.