US-China Education Review B, ISSN 2161-6248
November 2013, Vol. 3, No. 11, 847-857
Self-efficacy, Achievement Motivation, and Academic
Procrastination as Predictors of Academic Performance
Firouzeh Sepehrian Azar
Orumieh University, Orumieh, Iran
The purpo of this study was to determine the relationship between academic lf-efficacy, achievement
motivation, and academic procrastination with academic performance, and investigate predictive validity of them
with academic performance and interaction of them with gender to academic performance. To achieve this aim,
中学生自我评价samples of 200 students (100 males and 100 females) were lected by multi-stage cluster sampling from high
schools of Orumieh. All participants were asked to complete Lay’s academic procrastination scale, Herman’s
achievement motivation scale, and lf-efficacy scale. The data were analyzed using mean standard deviation, t-test,
and regression analys. The result of multiple regression analysis reveals that academic lf-efficacy is the best
乔迁新居祝福语4个字predicator and academic procrastination inverly is a significant predictor of academic performance. Also, extra
result of t-test reveals that there is no significant difference between the mean score of girls and boys in academic
procrastination (T = 0.47, P = 0.640) and academic lf-efficacy (T = 0.29, P = 0.730).Furthermore, There is a
significant difference between boys and girls, in terms of the level of achievement motivation (T = 2.06, P = 0.040)
and academic performance (T = 2.66, P = 0.009).
All Rights Rerved.
Keywords: lf-efficacy, achievement motivation, academic procrastination, academic performance, gender
Introduction
Academic Performance
Academic performance is one of the top priorities for schools. It is the outcome of education, and it refers to the extent to which a student, a teacher, or an institution has achieved their educational goals. There are two
traditional indicators of academic performance, namely, grades and highest level of educational attainment.
The two indicators are arguably the most important to educators, students, their parents, and tho people
who make public policy decisions.
Academic performance is commonly measured by examinations or continuous asssment, but there is no general agreement on how it is best tested or which aspects are the most important.
The educational psychology literature decisively indicates that the psychological variables have an important role in academic performance (Ackerman, Chamorro-Premuzic, &Furnham, 2010).Recent studies
on school children (Deary, Strand, Smith, & Fernandes, 2007) and university students (Rohde & Thompson,
2007) have confirmed this.
Some psychological factors play an important role to promote or decline academic performance, such as
lf-efficacy, achievement motivation, and academic procrastination. So, it is very important to recognize that
Firouzeh Sepehrian Azar, Ph.D., associate professor, Faculty of Humanities, Orumieh University.
SELF-EFFICACY, ACHIEVEMENT MOTIV ATION, AND ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION 848
and u them to improve the academic performance of students.
Self-efficacy
A growing body of literature supports the relationship between students’ lf-efficacy beliefs for academic
tasks and their academic performance. Some rearchers (Paul & Gore 2006; Lilian, 2012) have investigated
the role that academic lf-efficacy beliefs play in predicting college success. They suggested that a positive
relationship could be obrved between the two variables. For example, in a study conducted in Spain (Valle,
2009), the rearcher studied the relationship between university students’ lf-efficacy for performance and
learning and their effort regulation. It was found that when students possd a higher lf-efficacy, they were
more likely to put more efforts into their academic studies. Self-efficacy is commonly defined as the belief in
one’s capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome. It affects every area of human endeavor, by determining the
beliefs a person holds regarding his or her power to affect situations, thus, strongly influencing both the power
什么是象牙塔a person actually has to face challenges competently and the choices a person is most likely to make
(Luszczynska & Schwarzer, 2005). Self-efficacy is the measure of one’s own competence to complete tasks
and reach goals (Ormrod, 2006). Self-efficacy refers to the judgments of a person’s capabilities, and it is a
capability to carry out the actions needed to succeed in a task. It is one of the strongest factors predicting
performance in domains as diver as sports, business, and education. Klasn, Krawchuk, and Rajani (2008)
believed that lf-efficacy strongly influences our task, choice, level of effort, persistence, and resilience. In
academic ttings, lf-efficacy is a strong predictor of performance (Klasn et al., 2008). Vuong,
Brown-Welty, and Tracz’s (2010) study examined the effects of lf-efficacy on academic success with a
sample of 1,291 college sophomores recruited from five of the 23 California state university campus. The
investigators showed that lf-efficacy beliefs had a significant and positive effect on the academic All Rights Rerved.
achievement of students. Adeyemo’s (2007) study with a sample of 300 students who are in their first or cond
year at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, demonstrated that academic lf-efficacy had a significant and
positive effect on academic achievement.
Theory of lf-efficacy lies at the Center of Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, which emphasizes the role of obrvational learning and social experience in the development of personality. This theory says that there
are three factors that influence lf-efficacy—behaviors, environment, and personal/cognitive factors. They all
affect each other, but the cognitive factors are the most important. Self-efficacy developing from mastery
experiences in which goals are achieved through perverance and overcoming obstacles and from obrving
太阳穴起痘others succeed through sustained effort (Bendura, 1977). High lf-efficacy can affect motivation in both
positive and negative ways.The concept of motivation is ud in many different disciplines to analyze the
“what and why” (Deci & Ryan, 2000) of human action.
Gender differences with regard to perceived lf-efficacy expectations and academic performance reprent an important issue in educational rearch. This may affect enrolment for college cours, career
choices, and the u of knowledge in future work ttings. Busch’s (1995) study on 154 undergraduate students
(77 males and 77 females) of Business Administration in a Norwegian college, indicated that female students
had significantly lower lf-efficacy in computing and marketing and higher lf-efficacy in statistics than male
students, and there was no significant gender difference in academic performance. Abesha (2012) examined the
effect of x of the students on their academic lf-efficacy and academic achievement and found out that x of
the students had a significant effect on their academic achievement, favoring male students (i.e., explained 9.1%
SELF-EFFICACY, ACHIEVEMENT MOTIV ATION, AND ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION 849
of the variance in the academic achievement of students).
Achievement Motivation
Another key to understand academic performance maybe is achievement motivation. Motivation has received much attention from many rearchers with different psychological and philosophical perspectives in
情人节送女朋友different fields of study, especially psychology and education, due to its significant effect on students’ learning,
persistence, and academic achievement.
It is obvious that students who are not motivated to succeed will not work hard. In fact, veral rearchers (Tucker, Zayco, & Herman, 2002) have suggested that only motivation directly affects academic performance;
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all other factors affect achievement only through their effect on motivation. Ahmad and Rana (2012) found out
that motivation influences academic performance of college students. Academic motivation is clo to the term
“motivation to learn”. Obviously, it is also part of academic learning. Hall (as cited in Akinsola, Adedeji Tella,
& Adeyinka Tella, 2007) believed that there is a need to motivate pupils so as to arou and sustain their
interest in learning mathematics. Akinsola, Adedeji Tella, and Adeyinka Tella examined the effect of
achievement motivation on academic achievement and learning outcomes in mathematics with a sample of 450
(260 males and 190 females) condary school students in Nigeria. This investigator reported that students who
在线理财had higher achievement motivation scored significantly high scores on a mathematics achievement test
compared to their counterpart students with lower achievement motivation. Intellectual ability and achievement
motivation were associated positively with academic success (Busato, Prins, Elshout, & Hmaker, 2000). One
study in Malaysia showed a significant and positive correlation between students’ achievement motivation and
their academic achievements (Mahyuddin, Elias, & Noordin, 2009).
Onete, Edet, Udey, and Ogbor (2012) examined the relationship between 750 first year education students’ All Rights Rerved.
achievement motivation and their academic performance.They indicated that neither students’ academic
performance motivation nor students’ social achievement motivation had any significant influence on education
students’ academic performance. Akinsola, Adedeji Tella, and Adeyinka Tella (2007) showed that gender
difference was significant when impact of motivation on academic performance was compared in male and
female students in Nigeria. Faruk (2011) studied the role of academic motivation and academic lf-efficacy on
academic procrastination with 774 students in Turkey. Their study results showed a low relationship between
academic procrastination and lf-efficacy. The study of Nisa, Noureen, and Naz (2011) revealed that
磐石是什么意思achievement motivation and lf-concept are significantly related to academic performance and significant
gender differences were discovered, which were in favor of girls. They suggested that teachers must u
motivational strategies to involve students in academic activities for improving their grades. Shekhar and
Devi’s (2012) study was carried out on 80 undergraduate students of various colleges from Jammu region,
revealing no significant difference between the achievement motivation of male and female college students.
Academic Procrastination
The third key to understanding academic performance is academic procrastination. Procrastination is considered as one of the most rious problems in daily life and educational ttings in modern societies.
Studies throughout history showed that it has been a damaging disaster for individuals at least from three
thousand years ago (Steel, 2007). Procrastination is the tendency to put off an activity to a latter time or to the
last possible minute under one’s control, or even not to do it at all (Gafni & Geri, 2010). Steel (2007) defined
“procrastination” as “a prevalent and pernicious form of lf-regulatory failure that is not entirely understood”.
