Long-term costs of inflated self-estimate on academic performance among adolescent students: a case of second-language achievements.
Past studies suggest that the adaptive or maladaptive consequences of inflated self-estimate, one form of positive illusions, require further investigation. 308 freshmen at a junior college (164 women, 144 men; M age = 19.8 yr., SD = 1.1) participated in a longitudinal study during a 2-yr. period. There were three assessments of short- and long-term effects of overly positive self-estimates on second-language achievement. Students' overestimation of subsequent performance appears to be associated with lower achievement. Those students with apparently inflated self-estimates performed marginally better on the first assessment but worse in the second and final assessments. Students with more accurate self-estimates showed improvement on all assessments. The findings suggested that overinflated self-estimates, i.e., positive illusions, among adolescent students might lead to a lower achievement over the long-term.
Yang
Mu-Li
ML
Department of Mass Communication, Chang Jung Christian University.
Chuang
Hsueh-Hua
HH
Chiou
Wen-Bin
WB
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D019303:Multilingualism; D012649:Self Concept; D012945:Social Values; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013624:Taiwan; D055815:Young Adult