Career maturity in grade 9: The relationship between accuracy of self-appraisal and ability to appraise the career-relevant capabilities of others

Abstract

This study used a ninth-grade sample of public school students to test the proposition that “individuals who can accurately appraise the career-relevant capabilities of others are good self-appraisers” (J. O. Crites 1978 Theory and research handbook for the career maturity inventory, p. 26). The Self-Appraisal scale of the Career Maturity Inventory Competence Test, the Accuracy of Self-Appraisal scale, and the Differential Aptitude Tests were administered to a heterogeneous sample of 365 ninth-grade public high school students. The Pearson correlations between the Self-Appraisal scale and the Accuracy of Self-Appraisal scale were found to be insignificant and near zero. The data do not support the proposition that individuals who can accurately appraise the career-relevant capabilities of others are good self-appraisers. These results suggest that one can predict nothing about ninth-grade students' accuracy of self-appraisal from their scores on measures of ability to appraise others. Significant race and sex differences were found in ability to appraise others, but not in ability to accurately appraise oneself. Scholastic aptitude accounts for four times as much variance in ability to appraise others as it does in ability to appraise oneself. Students significantly overestimated all of their aptitude scores.