Personal adjustment and prediction of high school achievement

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate (1) whether or not the prediction of academic records in high school on the basis of intellectual apptitude is influenced by personal emotional adjustment as defined by Group Inkblot Test, and (2) the relationship between personal adjustment and a) level of intellectual ability and b) school records.A hypothesis to be tested was that “better” adjusted students would be more predictable than the maladjusted. Predictability here was determined by correlation coefficients between test scores of apptitude-general intelligence, verbal and mathematical and 3rd-year school records-Japanese language, social science, mathematics, natural science and foreign language. The subjects consisted of 257 high school male students who were classified into three groups “better”, “average” and “worse” adjusted according to the number of check points on the ten maladjustment scales of Group Inkblot Test.Comparisons of the groups on correlations between apptitude test scores and high school records confirmed that “better” adjusted students were more predictable than the maladjusted. However, simple analysis of variance among the groups on both levels of intellectual ability and of high school achievement revealed that the “better” adjusted group was superior to the average group only in verbal ability and foreign language. But a further analysis of data indicated that in mathematics, natural science and foreign language the “better” adjusted group obtained higher records than the group which was checked on FC′+C′F+C′+C′sym (emotional factor in personal adjustment) in the maladjustment scales of Group Inkblot Test, although mean differences for each of apptitude test scores between these groups were not statistically significant.These results indicated that (1) no clear relationship existed between total degree of adjustment diagnosed on the ten maladjustment scales and a) levels of intellectual ability and b) high school records, but (2) there were positive relationships between emotionality scale and high school records, and (3) the prediction of high school achievement was markedly influenced by personal adjustment as defied by Group Inkblot Test.