REFERENCE ENTRY
Authors: Azizi Yahaya, Jamaludin Ramli, Yusof Boon, Mohammed Najib Abd Ghaffar, Zurihanmi Zakariya
Copyright: 2009
Title of the article: Relationship between Self Concepts and Personality and Students’ Academic Performance in Selected Secondary Schools
Url: http://www.eurojournals.com/ejss_11_2_11.pdf Online Journal: European Journal of Social Sciences
Yahaya, A., Ramli, J., Boon, Y., Ghaffar, M.N.A., & Zakariya, Z. (2009). Relationship between self concepts and personality and students’ academic performance in selected secondary schools. European Journal of Social Sciences, 11. Retrieved from http://www.eurojournals.com/ejss_11_2_11.pdf

ABSTRACT:

The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship between the self-concept and personality of students with academic achievement. The sample consists of 270 students from six secondary schools were chosen by using stratified randomly method in Kluang,
Johor. The pilot study was done in order to determine the reliability and suitability of the questionnaires. Meanwhile Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaires. The reliability value of Cronbach Alpha for the whole set of questionnaires used was 0.8432. The questionnaire for self-concept was modified from
Tennessee Self-concept Scale that was created by Fitts (1971). Meanwhile the questionnaire for personality was modified from the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory
(JEPI) that was created by H. J. Eysenck (1967). The descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the dominant dimension in student’s self-concept. Other than that, inferential statistic such as t-test was used to analyze the difference between the self-concept and personality of students according to gender. Meanwhile, Pearson correlations were used at significant level 0.05 to analyze the relationship between self-concept and personality of students with their academic achievement. The research finding showed that the dominant dimension of self concept was family self-concept. Besides that, t-test analysis showed that there was no significance difference between dimension of self-concept and personality of students according to gender. Pearson correlations analysis showed that there were no significance relation between dimension of self-concept and personality with student’s academic achievement. Therefore, suggestions were made to increase the student’s self-concept and the tendency of their positive personality in order to enhance their academic achievement.

METHODOLOGY:
This study is a descriptive study that aims to identify the relationship between self concept and personality with the academic achievement of secondary school students. Respondents were selected randomly grouped, from six secondary schools in Kluang, Johor. The data is obtained using questionnaires, used as instruments of the study. The questionnaire consists of three parts, that is Part A, the demographic information of the students, Part B, set of questions on the student personality, using Likert 3-scale, and Part C, set of questions on self concept using Likert 5-scale (Azizi Yahaya, Shahrin Hashim, Jamaludin Ramli, Yusof Boon and Abdul Rahim Hamdan, 2006).
Further on, the study data is analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 12.0. In this study, descriptive analysis is used, such as min, percentage, frequency and standard deviation. The inferences analysis that is being used is Pearson correlation, to see the relationship that exists based on the study hypothesis. While t-test is used to see the difference or difference between the variables.

CONCLUSION:
Findings of the study also show that, on the whole, majority of the students have excellent academic achievement. This may be because they received good attention and care, and high appreciation from their peers, parents and the students around them; enabling them to improve their self concept and have positive impact on their learning process. Findings of this study are contrary to the study by Azizi & Kamaliah (2006) in which, studied the relationship of personality dimensions with academic achievement in rural schools in Batu Lintang, Kuching in Sarawak. This study concluded that only a minority of the students are excellent achievers and also a minority of them still performed less than satisfactory.
Analysis of this study is expected to give information about the self concept and personality of students which can affect their academic achievement. It is hoped that the findings can help students, teachers, school administrators, parents and the government (MOE); to be used as a guide in programmers to be organized within or outside of school; to instill the high self concept and positive personality; to prepare them as the generation of the future leaders.

RECOMMENDATION:
According to the findings of the study and also from the discussion, researcher would want to bring up some suggestions to be applied and implemented. The suggestions are:
a). Mother and Father
Results of the study shows that the self concept – family dimension is the most dominant self concept dimension which recorded the highest min compared to social and personal self concept. Thus, parents are recommended to take heed and give attention to the internal and external factors which may influence the self concept. Parents are also suggested to consider important environmental factors that influence their children’s personality. This is because these factors give a very large impression to the students’ academic achievement.
In addition, parents need to know about their children’s social beings, not only at home but also in school and outside home. This is because parents, friends and peers and the community, have great influence and impact on personality and self concept of children. According to McClun, L. A., & Merrell, K. W. (1998) parents need to realize the need to build a positive family atmosphere because it helped to establish a more positive self concept which in turn can improve academic achievement and eradicate behavioral problems.
b). Teachers, Administrators and School Management
Findings of the study, reveals that the highest min for the dimensions that affects self concept is the self concept – social dimension. In addition, the findings also revealed that majority of the students have neurotic personality. It is known that school is one of the social agents. Hence, school administrators are recommended to be more concerned about the social issues among the students and not focusing only to the academic achievement.
Accordingly, the school counselor may conduct tests to identify the self concept and students’ personality. Thus prevention step can be done by dealing with the students with low self concept and personality problems such as depression. The school is recommended to use the Personality Test JEPI and Tennessee Self Concept Scale as used by many researchers. School counselors also play a very important role in providing the feedback and information about the problems faced by students. School counselors need to encourage students towards instilling superior personality, a positive self concept, and aiming to achieve excellent academic achievements.
c). Students
Findings of the study show that based on neurotics scale, majority of the students have neurotic personality. Findings also revealed that the most dominant self concept dimension is family. Thus, it is recommended that students should be more involved with the activity-based society, to judge and evaluate them and build a winning personality to overcome their personality problems. This is because unstable emotions are actually due to a tendency of wanting to be alone and not wanting to mingle with other students. Furthermore, students also need to do more activities with their family to maintain good relations between the family members. Family ties have a great impact on the self concept and also on their academic achievement.
Students should also be exposed to activities which can enhance their self esteem, identity and the team spirit to train them to interact with the community. Such activities should be implemented in the co curricular activities or any special programmed to motivate them.
d). The Ministry of Education (MOE)
Year 2006 PMR results indicates that majority of students are achieving excellent result. Thus, the MOE should organize programmers or intensive courses for teachers and students to maintain these performances. Furthermore, findings also revealed that on the whole the students have positive self concept.
However, there are a number of students who still have negative self concept. Hence, it is recommended that MOE should organize various programmers, coordinates with the school programmers, to improve the students’ self concept and their positive personality to impose excellent achievement. The MOE should ensure that the curricular and co curricular activities in schools have the goal to improve the students’ self concept as well as their academic achievement.