Tarbawy: Jurnal Pendidikan Islam

ISSN: 2407-4462 (Cetak), 2614-5812 (Elektronik)

Vol. 6, No. 2, 2019, Hal. 113-123
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32923/tarbawy.v6i2.1239

Student Self-Concept and Achievement Motivation of High

School Students

Ihda Husnayaini1
1
IAIN Syaikh Abdurrahman Siddik Bangka Belitung

Info Artikel ABSTRACT

Diterima 17 Juni, 2019 Learning English have been challenging for many students in Bangka Belitung,
Direvisi 28 November, 2019 especially for vocational school students. This can be related to the students’ self-concept.
Dipublikasikan 31 Desember 2019 Self-concept refers to an individual’s overall self-awareness. Self-concept is particularly
important in studies related to education and learning because a lot of studies suggested
that it has a correlation with academic achievement. This study was aimed to find out
whether there is a correlation between the student self-concept and achievement
motivation using the sample of high school students in Bangka Belitung. The findings
suggested that the students had a good self-concept - especially when it comes to self-
regard and parental acceptance aspects and positive achievement motivation. Those two
aspects depict their self-image and self-esteem, the two most dominant components in
self-concept. Regarding gender, the writer did not find any significant difference between
female and male students in terms of self-concept and academic achievement. However,
it was found that there was no correlation between self-concept and achievement
motivation. This can be influenced by different characters, backgrounds, situations and
expectations each student had.
Kata Kunci:
Self-Concept ABSTRAK
Achievement Motivation Belajar Bahasa Inggris telah menjadi tantangan bagi banyak siswa di Bangka
High School Students Belitung, terutama bagi siswa sekolah kejuruan. Hal tersebut dapat terkait
dengan konsep diri siswa. Konsep diri mengacu pada kesadaran diri individu
secara keseluruhan. Konsep diri sangat penting dalam studi yang berkaitan
dengan pendidikan dan pembelajaran karena banyak penelitian menunjukkan
bahwa konsep diri memiliki korelasi dengan prestasi akademik. Penelitian ini
bertujuan untuk mengetahui apakah ada hubungan antara konsep diri siswa
dan motivasi berprestasi dengan menggunakan sampel siswa sekolah
menengah kejuruan di Pangkalpinang, Bangka. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa
siswa-siswa tersebut memiliki konsep diri yang baik - terutama yang berkaitan
dengan aspek harga diri dan penerimaan orang tua dan juga memiliki motivasi
berprestasi yang positif. Kedua aspek tersebut menggambarkan citra diri dan
harga diri mereka, dua komponen yang paling dominan dalam konsep diri.
Mengenai jenis kelamin, peneliti tidak menemukan perbedaan yang signifikan
antara siswa perempuan dan laki-laki dalam hal konsep diri dan prestasi
akademik. Namun, hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa tidak ada korelasi
antara konsep diri dan motivasi berprestasi. Hal tersebut bisa jadi dipengaruhi
oleh karakter, latar belakang, situasi dan harapan yang beragam yang dimiliki
oleh setiap siswa.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited. ©2019 by author.
Koresponden:
Ihda Husnayaini,
Email: [email protected]

Introduction
In Indonesia, vocational schools have been one of alternatives for those who have graduated from
junior high schools to continue their study in high schools, due to their interest in a certain area of study
and an opportunity to be (hopefully) shortly in a work field – in this case, they can find a job after
graduating and they are not required to continue their study to a college or a university. This can also be
related to financial obstacles the students have since tertiary education mostly needs a relatively high
tutorial fee and high cost overall (HERMINA & FIRMANSYAH, 2015; Maryati, 2009; Yuliansah, 2017).
English has been one of the subjects taught in vocational schools in Indonesia, especially in Bangka
Belitung, yet it has been designed to be more corresponding to the school programs, therefore, commonly,

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the English is more specific than the one taught in general high schools (Widodo, 2015). The students of
SMK Negeri 3 are mostly average in English skill, based on their achievement and practical skill in the
classroom, according to their teacher. On the other hand, English skill is one of the required skills for
them, especially in the work field. Therefore, this study will discuss the students‘ self-concept and their
achievement motivation.
Like other aspects of psychology (e.g. self-perception, motivation, etc.) self-concept is related to
behavior and students‘ achievement at school (Chen, Yeh, Hwang, & Lin, 2013; Fink, 1962; Ghazvini,
2011). This is what encourages the writer to conduct a study related to self-concept and achievement
motivation of high school students. She is interested to find out whether their self-concept and
achievement motivation are correlated or not, especially the ones of vocational high school students‘ since
commonly it is non vocational high school students who become the subjects of many studies in
Indonesia.
Furthermore, according to Gross, generally there are psychological differences between male and
female, in almost every aspect (Gross, 2015). Therefore, the writer would like to see if there is any
correlation and difference of self-concept and achievement motivation between male and female students
as well.
Education and psychology are two fields of study that cannot be separated. Education deals with the
methods and problems of teaching. It also means the knowledge, skill, and understanding that we get from
attending a school, college, or university (by Merriam-Webster, 2018). In education, students or learners
learn not only to improve their knowledge and skill in a certain area, but also to gain mental enhancement.
This is related to psychology. Psychology is the study of mind and behavior in relation to a particular field
of knowledge or activity (by Merriam-Webster, 2018). Behavior is used to be called mind and mental
process (Gross, 2015). In other words, both education and psychology are concerned with human
mentality, which started from the very early period of human life i.e. childhood.
One of the approaches in psychology is developmental psychology. In this approach, psychologists
study the biological, cognitive, social and emotional changes that occur in people overtime, it is a lifelong
process, not confined to childhood and adolescence (Gross, 2015). One area in developmental psychology
is self-concept. It is a theory each one of us develops about who we are and how we fit into society. It
keeps changing, especially during childhood in term of cognitive development and social experience
(Schaffer, 2004).
‗Self-concept‘ is often used interchangeably with ‗Self‘, but they both refer to an individual‘s overall
self-awareness. According to Murphy, ‗the self is the individual as known to the individual‘ (Murphy,
1947), and Burns defines it as ‗the set of attitudes a person holds towards himself‘ (Burns, 1980). Staines
stated that the self is recognized as being theoretically and empirically important for personality and
behavior. It also has significance in learning and teaching since it is considered critical for the strength of
personality in term of its role as a base in all behavior. In personality, self is something related to culture
and can be learned so it can be only continuously distinguished and evolve in an appropriate learning
environment. Therefore, the Self is a main concern in both normal and disordered personality (Staines,
1963).
Self-concept is particularly important in studies related to education and learning because a lot of
studies showed that it has a correlation with academic achievement (Craven, Marsh, & Print, 2000;
Fleming & Whalen, 1990; West, Fish, & Stevens, 1980; Zhang & Li, 2010). Students with positive or high
self-concept usually have good grades or achievement, and those who have negative or low self-concept
commonly have low academic achievement. On the other hand, there was one study suggested that there
was no significant correlation between self-concept and academic achievement (Deepika & Geetha 2018).
Another psychological aspect related to learning is motivation. According to Rubin & McNeil (1983),
motives are a special kind of cause that ‗energize, direct and sustain a person‘s behavior (including hunger,
thirst, sex and curiosity)‘. Similarly, motivation refers, in general, to processes involved in the initiation,
direction, energization of individual behavior. Therefore, the study of motivation is the study of all those
pushes and prods – biological, social and psychological – that defeat our laziness and move us, either
eagerly or reluctantly, to action (Geen, 1995).
Studies related to motivation and achievement motivation have been conducted by many researchers,
such as Rothes, Lemos, and Goncalves, Menchaca, Marsh and Barimah (Korantwi-Barimah, Ofori,
Nsiah-Gyabaah, & Sekyere, 2017; Marsh, 2004; Menchaca, 1993; Rothes, Lemos, & Gonçalves, 2017).
Most of the studies showed that there was a relationship between motivation and academic achievement.
The more positive the motivation, the higher academic achievement the students gained.
There have also been lots of studies concerning self-concept and motivation with various variables and
objectives of study. One of them was by West, Fish and Stevens (West et al., 1980) They exposed General

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Self-Concept, Self-Concept of Academic Ability and School Achievement. The others were by Marsh
(Marsh, 2004) with the title ‗Negative effects of school-average achievement on academic self-concept‘.
While Fleming and Whalen (Fleming & Whalen, 1990) focused on factor structure of personal and
academic self-concept and gender differences in high school and college by using PASCI (Personal and
Academic Self-Concept Inventory). Another study was by Menchaca (Menchaca, 1993) who addressed
achievement motivation in Mexican-American eight grade students and Motivational Profiles of Adult
Learners by Rothes, Lemos and Goncalves (Rothes et al., 2017).
Another study related to self-concept was conducted by Craven, Marsh and Print (Craven et al., 2000).
They elaborated academic and non-academic self-concepts, motivation orientations and correlated them
with achievement tests and compared them between gifted and talented students with two different
backgrounds. The outcomes of all variables showed that there were no significant gains by the two groups.
On the other hand, Everett explored self-concept of high, medium and low academic achievers of a college
in Australia. The result suggested that there were differences between the self-concept configurations of
high, medium, and low academic achievers (Everett, 1971). A study by Von Bergen from Louisiana Tech
University and Nicholls State University presented self-concept confusion and self-esteem between males
and females in the United States. The result showed that high self-esteem subjects exhibited significantly
quicker reaction times across all items (Von Bergen & Soper, 1996).
A gender related self-concept study was also exposed by McFarland, Murray, and Phillipson with the
sample of elementary school students in Australia. They attempted to find a relationship between student-
teacher relationships and student self-concept. It revealed that for boys, closeness with their teachers did
not predict their self-concept although conflict in their relationships negatively affected self-concept. While
for girls, both closeness and conflict predicted self-concept, with conflict having a greater effect on self-
concept than closeness (McFarland, Murray, & Phillipson, 2016).
In this study, the writer would like to present the relationship between student self-concept and
achievement motivation of high school students in Bangka, and a gender based difference.

a. Self-Concept
According to Leary (Leary, 2004), the self is a cognitive structure that permits self-reflection and
organizes information about oneself. It also has motivational features, in particular:
- Self-consistency (to maintain, if not verify, one‘s existing view of oneself)
- Self-evaluation (self-assessment – to see oneself accurately)
- Self-enhancement (to maintain a positive image of oneself)
One‘s existing view of oneself is one‘s self-image, and our evaluation of ourselves determines our
self-esteem. Self-enhancement can be both private and public.

- Private self-enhancement also relates to self-esteem. According to Greenwald (1980), the self-
esteem motive acts like an authoritarian government which conceal information and create a story
of their own version. In the same way, the ‗totalitarian ego‘ distorts facts about the self and rewrites
one‘s memory of personal history in order to maintain one‘s own positive evaluation.
- Public self-enhancement relates to self-presentation (or impression management), or deliberate
attempts to influence others‘ impressions of us.
The public self refers to three distinct entities:
1. The image we convey to others (including reputation and roles)
2. Our beliefs about our public image (how we think others perceive us)
3. The impressions others actually form about us.

b. Components of the Self-Concept

The self-concept is a general term that normally refers to three major components: self-image,
self-esteem and ideal self.
1. Self-image
Self-image refers to the way we describe ourselves, what we think we are like. One way of
investigating self-image is to ask people the question ‗Who am I?‘ 20 times (Kuhn &
McPartland, 1954). This typically produces two main categories of answer:
a. Social roles are usually objective aspects of the self-image (e.g. son, daughter, brother, sister,
student). They are ‗facts‘ that can be verified by others.

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b. Personality traits are more a matter of opinion and judgement, and what we think we are
like may be different from how others see us. But how others behave towards us has an
important influence on our self-perception.
2. Self-esteem
While the self-image is essentially descriptive, self-esteem is essentially evaluative. It refers to
how much we like and approve of ourselves, how worthy a person we think we are.
Coopersmith defined it as ‗a personal judgment of worthiness, that is expressed in the attitudes
the individual holds towards himself‘ (Coopersmith, 1967).
3. Ideal self
If our self-image is the kind of person we think we are, then our ideal self is the kind of person
we would like to be. This can vary in extent and degree. Generally, the greater the gap between
our self-image and our ideal self, the lower our self-esteem.

c. Motivation
The study of motivation is the study of all those pushes and prods – biological, social and
psychological – that defeat our laziness and move us, either eagerly or reluctantly, to action (Miller
& Buckhout, 1973). Motives may vary with regard to a number of features or dimensions,
including:
- Internal or external
- Innate or learned
- Mechanistic or cognitive
- Conscious or unconscious

Several attempts have been made to classify different kinds of motives. One that is particularly
unique is by Maslow, known as Maslow‘s hierarchy needs (Maslow Abraham, 1954). According to
Maslow, we are subject to two quite different sets of motivational states or forces:
1. Those that ensure survival by satisfying basic physical and psychological needs (physiological,
safety, love and belongingness, and esteem)
2. Those that promote the person‘s self-actualization – that is, realizing one‘s full potential,
‗becoming everything that one is capable of becoming‘, especially in the intellectual and
creative domains (Maslow, Frager, Fadiman, McReynolds, & Cox, 1970).

Motivation includes the various psychological and physiological factors that cause us to act a
certain way at a certain time. It started from instinct theory, drive-reduction, incentive, and the latest
one is cognitive motivation theory. Instincts are natural or inherited tendencies of an organism to
make a specific response to certain environmental stimuli without involving reason. Instincts occur
in almost the same way among all members of a species. However, instincts do not explain behavior;
they simply label behavior (Kasschau & McTighe, 2014).
Another theory of motivation is drive-reduction. A drive is an internal condition that can change
over time and orients an individual toward a specific goal or goals. For example, hunger drives us to
eat and danger drives us to run.
Due to the fact that there are many types that cannot be explained by drive-reduction theory,
psychologists suggest incentive theory. While the drive-reduction theory emphasizes the internal
states of organism, incentive theory stresses the role of the environment in motivating behavior. An
incentive is the object we seek or the result we are trying to achieve through our motivated behavior.
Incentives are also known as reinforces, goals, and rewards, and people tend to pursue positive
incentives, instead of the negative ones, for example, the incentive of food may draw you to the
refrigerator. However, this theory needs to be completed with cognitive aspect that leads to the
emergence of cognitive theory. Cognitive psychologists propose that motivation is the result from the
forces coming from the inside and outside of human being. Extrinsic motivation refers to employ
actions to obtain incentives or external rewards. Intrinsic motivation refers to employ actions in
order to gain personal benefit or because engaging in them fulfills our beliefs or expectations.

d. Achievement Motivation
Achievement is something that has been done or achieved through effort, a result of hard work.
Another one is the state or condition of having achieved or accomplished something (by Merriam-
Webster, 2018). Achievement motivation is one of social motives, and it has been many

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psychologists‘ concern rather than biological motives (e. g. a motive to seek food when hungry)
because they are dynamic, since they involve relationship between human beings and they are
learned from people‘s interactions with others (Kasschau & McTighe, 2014).
The achievement motive concerns the desire to set challenging goals and to persist in trying to
reach those goals despite obstacles, frustrations, and setbacks. A tool for measuring social motives
has been designed by David McClelland in 1953, named Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
(McClelland, 1999).

e. Gender and Psychology

Feminist psychologists distinguish between sex and gender. Sex refers to the biological facts
about us, usually summarized as ‗male‘ and ‗female‘: it‘s a multidimensional variable related to
biological aspects. On the other hand, gender, by contrast, is what culture makes out of the ‗raw
material‘ of biological sex: it‘s the social equivalent or social interpretation of sex (Gross, 2015). In
other words, ‗sex is to gender as nature is to nurture; that is, sex pertains to what is biological or
natural, whereas gender pertains to what is learned or cultural (Rubtsov, Rubtsova, Kappler, &
Marrack, 2010).
Gender (or sex) role refers to the behaviors, attitudes, values, beliefs, and so on that a
particular society either expects from, or considers appropriate to, males and females on the basis of
their biological sex. To be masculine or feminine, then, requires males or females to conform to
their respective gender roles. Gender (or sex) stereotypes are widely held beliefs about psychological
differences between males and females, which often reflect gender roles (Gross, 2015). Therefore,
gender related differences have always been one of the focuses in studies related to psychology as
well as education.

Method
The study the writer conducted was quantitative in the form of correlational research. Correlational
research provides information about the strength of relationships between variables though the researcher
might report a correlation coefficient of a minus, indicating a strong negative correlation between the two
variables (Ary, Jacobs, Irvine, & Walker, 2018).
In addition, this study used census sampling. Census sampling is a technique of sampling when all the
population is used as a sample (Riduwan, 2012). In this correlational research, actually the researcher did
not use a sample due to the fact that she conducted a study that covers the entire population of interest,
which is called census, although according to Riduwan, it is a type of sampling. The sample of this study
was all the tenth graders of SMKN 3 Pangkalpinang (Public Vocational High School). However, due to
some unmatched class schedules and other matters, there were only about 153 students who were able to
participate in this study. This vocational high school has 4 study programs (related to Culinary and
Tourism) out of 47 programs according to UNESCO-UNEVOC (UNEVOC, 2013).
The data in this study were collected by distributing questionnaire sheets to the sample. The
questionnaires used are Student Self-Concept Inventory by J.S. Fleming (Fleming & Whalen, 1990) and
Achievement Motivation Inventory by Schuler, Thornton, Frintrup & Muller-Hanson (Schuler, Thornton,
Frintrup, & Mueller-Hanson, 2004). Student Self-Concept Inventory consists of 45 items, however, the
writer decided to use only 43 of them after an adapting process. Furthermore, after the validity test, there
were 36 items left. Therefore, each group of items does not have the same number of item: some consist of
3 items (at least) and the others have 4, 5 and 9 (at most). Both questionnaires had been translated first into
Bahasa Indonesia by the writer since the sample was EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in
order to obtain valid and reliable data.
The questionnaire of Self-Concept covers 8 groups of statements: Self-Regard (3 items), Self-
Acceptance (4 items), Academic Ability (9 items), Verbal Ability (4), Physical Appearance (4), Physical
Ability (3), Parental Acceptance (4), and Social Anxiety (5 items). In addition, the writer then also
grouped the questionnaire items into more general (3 groups), based on the theory of self-concept: self-
image, self-esteem and ideal self. After the process of adaptation, the writer used a five point Likert scale
for the response options, i.e. always (represented by score 5), usually (4), sometimes or rarely (3), very
rarely (2), and never (1). However, some items with negative statements are valued the opposite way, e.g.
always is represented by score 1, usually is scored 2, and so on.
Achievement Motivation Inventory consists of 32 statements using the same scale format of the first
inventory (Likert scale). It comprises points of completely agree, mostly agree, agree to some extent,
mostly disagree, and completely disagree. The scoring weights given to these responses were 5, 4, 3, 2, and

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1 respectively. This scoring scheme ensured that higher scores higher levels of achievement motivation and
lower scores indicate lower levels of achievement motivation.

Results and Discussions

a. The Average Score of Student Self-Concept
The scores of the student self-concept are determined by the responses the students gave to each of
the 36 statements in the questionnaire that comprises 8 groups of statement. They are presented not
exactly the same as in the theory of self-concept (which consists of 3 components), for it is specified for
elementary and high school students, yet it covers all the three components.
The groups of statement in the student self-concept inventory cover self-regard, social acceptance,
academic ability, verbal ability, physical appearance, physical ability, parental acceptance, and social
anxiety. The result of the responses showed that there are two degrees of scoring result, those are ‗high‘
and ‗medium‘, as presented in the table below:

Table 5
The Average Score of Student Self-Concept
Total
No. Student Self-Concept Female Male Category
Average
1 Self-Regard 3.7 3.6 3.7 High
2 Social Acceptance 2.5 2.7 2.6 Medium
3 Academic Ability 2.9 2.8 2.8 Medium
4 Verbal Ability 2.9 2.9 2.9 Medium
5 Physical Appearance 2.9 3.1 3.0 Medium
6 Physical Ability 2.9 3.2 3.0 Medium
7 Parental Acceptance 3.9 4.0 3.9 High
8 Social Anxiety 2.8 2.8 2.8 Medium
Total Average 3.0 3.1 3.1 Medium

Most of the student self-concept results are categorized as medium, only two of them are classified as
high, and none of them are in low classification. The ones in high category are self-regard and parental
acceptance with the average score 3.7 and 3.9 each. While the rest are classified as medium, those are
social acceptance with 2.6, academic ability (2.8), verbal ability (2.9), physical appearance and physical
ability is 3.0 each, and social anxiety (2.8).
Furthermore, male and female students have similar results: 3.1 and 3.0 each, where male students
only have a slightly higher result. They even have the same average scores in verbal ability (2.9) and
social anxiety (2.8). For the overall result, it is classified as medium. The scores will be then classified
based on gender as in the following table:

Table 6
The Average Score of Student Self-Concept Based on Gender
No. Student Self-Concept Female Category Male Category
1 Self-Regard 3.7 High 3.6 High
2 Social Acceptance 2.5 Medium 2.7 Medium
3 Academic Ability 2.9 Medium 2.8 Medium
4 Verbal Ability 2.9 Medium 2.9 Medium
5 Physical Appearance 2.9 Medium 3.1 Medium
6 Physical Ability 2.9 Medium 3.2 Medium
7 Parental Acceptance 3.9 High 4.0 High
8 Social Anxiety 2.8 Medium 2.8 Medium
Total Avg. 3.0 Medium 3.1 Medium

The results of each male and female students show that they are in the same category for each group
of inventory items. Both have high category in self-regard and parental acceptance, and the rest are in
medium category.
As explained in the previous part, student self-concept is actually based on the self-concept theory
which consists of three components, those are Self-Image, Self-Esteem and Ideal Self. The statement items

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in the inventory are mixed of those three components. Therefore the writer attempted to present it in
the table below:

Table 7
Each Component of Self-Concept
Self-Concept
No. Male Female Category
(General) Total Avg.

1 Self-Image 3.1 3.0 3.0 Medium

2 Self-Esteem 3.1 3.0 3.0 Medium

3 Ideal Self 3.0 2.8 2.9 Medium

Total Average 3.0 2.9 3.0 Medium

The male students have once again surpassed female in all components of self-concept though they
are very slightly different: 3.0 (male) and 2.9 (female) each.

b. The Average Score of Achievement Motivation

The achievement motivation response was scored based on the total average of male and female
students as the subjects of study. The result can be seen in the table below:

Table 9
Achievement Motivation Average Score

No. Gender Total Avg. Category

1 Female 3.7 High

2 Male 3.7 High

Total Average 3.7 High

Since the achievement motivation inventory is not divided into certain categories – it only presents
positive and negative or high and low result, the writer presents only the overall result i.e. the division
of female and male subjects of study with the total average score and the category. It reflects that both
female and male students have the same average score (37) and category (high).

c. Correlational Analysis

The correlational analysis was conducted to see if there is any correlation between student self-
concept variable and achievement motivation variable of high school students. The overall score of
student self-concept response was correlated with the overall score of achievement motivation by using
Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The correlational analysis is described in the table
below:

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Table 10
Correlations
Achievement
Self-Concept Motivation
Self-Concept Pearson Correlation 1 .097
Sig. (2-tailed) .232
N 153 153
Achievement Pearson Correlation .097 1
Motivation Sig. (2-tailed) .232
N 153 153

The output of the correlation table above shows that there is no significant correlation between self-
concept and achievement motivation since the significant value is above 0.05 (0.232 > 0.05).
Based on the analysis of the self-concept questionnaire, the total average of student self-concept
suggested that most of the students are in medium category in all aspects except Self-Regard and Parental
Acceptance – they are in high category. It means that most of students had relatively good student self-
concept, especially in Self-Regard and Parental Acceptance. In self-regard, they believed enough that
they regarded themselves as a worthwhile person, they liked themselves, and that they are capable
enough in doing many things. These may be due to the fact that they are teenagers, having a high and
positive energy and they also have a good self-confidence. Another factor can be because their teachers
play a significant role in encouraging the students to do their best. This is related to the fact that this
school is one of the best in Bangka Belitung province, especially in Pangkalpinang. This can also be
that they live in a city where they are encouraged to compete each other.
Furthermore, based on the results in Parental Acceptance aspect, it looks like the students come
from a good family background, because they relatively feel that their family holds them in high regard
although on the other hand they feel that their family sometimes does not respect their individuality.
However, they usually feel that their family see them as capable and competent, but, on the contrary,
most of them feel that their family does not accept them for themselves. These facts can be caused by
some factors that their parents in general care about them much enough, they provide anything their
children need, yet they are quite protective towards their loved ones as well as controlling and
demanding.
In general, it was found that female and male students had only a slight difference overall. Male
students‘ average score is 3.1 while the females had 3.0. Only in self-regard aspect did the females
achieve a higher score, 3.7, compared to the males, 3.6. Despite the fact that in psychology differences
can be found between different genders, the result suggested that gender factor did not significantly
make a difference in student self-concept. However, the data suggested that male students had higher
scores almost in all aspects, except in self-regard, academic ability, verbal ability and social anxiety.
Only in Verbal Ability and Social Anxiety they achieved the same score as the females. These facts can
be related to some studies suggesting that males have higher self-confidence, especially in physical
appearance because generally, society is not as much demanding towards males as to females. Females
tend to feel more uncomfortable with their weight, for example.
General self-concept consists of three components, i.e. self-image, self-esteem and ideal-self. The data
from the subjects of study showed that male students achieved higher score than the females, despite
the little difference between the two. In each component, male students‘ score is better than the females
with the lowest score is in ideal self. It is logic when an individual has high self-image and self-esteem
to have low ideal self because self-image and self-esteem reflect self-confidence. On the contrary, ideal
self depicts low self-confidence. As explained above, in general, males have a relatively higher self-
confidence, the most dominant components in self-concept.
On the other hand, achievement motivation difference was not found between male and female
students. They have the same average score of achievement motivation. In this study gender difference
did not influence a difference in achievement motivation, and they both are in high category. It means

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that either male or female, as teenagers, they have a high motivation to achieve their goals. It is a
positive example.
The scores obtained from both questionnaires exhibit relatively medium and high categories. In fact,
achievement motivation inventory score result is categorized high, better than the one of the student
self-concept inventory, which is ranging from medium to high. Unexpectedly, when the writer
attempted to find a correlation between the two instruments, she did not find it. It means there is no
correlation between student self-concept and achievement motivation. Even though both inventories
show positive result, apparently, it did not reflect the higher the score of self-concept, the higher the
score of achievement motivation.
Logically, an individual who has a good self-concept also has a positive motivation to achieve
something. However, the result may suggest that each component or aspect of self-concept (especially
student self-concept) was responded differently because every individual is unique and complex. How
they responded to the inventories could be influenced by their situation, background and surroundings.
In addition, this can also be influenced by the fact that they are teenagers who are still looking for their
identity, who they really are, with many wishes and dreams.

Conclusions
The study result suggested that students of a vocational high school has a good self-concept and
positive achievement motivation. Of the eighth aspects of student self-concept, they achieved the highest
scores in self-regard and parental acceptance, and they are in high category: 3.7 and 3.9 in total average. In the
other aspects they are in medium category with the lowest average score in social acceptance (2.6). These
facts mean that the students of vocational high school have a good student self-concept, especially when it
comes to self-regard and parental acceptance aspects. Those two aspects depict their self-image and self-
esteem, the two most dominant components in self-concept.
Regarding gender, the writer did not find any significant difference between female and male students.
They both had almost the same score in every aspect, despite the fact that male students got higher scores
in four aspects: self-acceptance, physical appearance, physical ability, and parental acceptance, while the
females had higher scores in self-regard and academic ability. It means that both female and male students
had good self-concept because there were only slight differences in scores for each aspect. Furthermore, in
achievement motivation, both female and male students had the same total average scores, 3.7 which
means they also have a good achievement motivation since it belongs to the category of ‗high‘.
Based on the correlational analysis, it was found that there was no correlation between self-concept and
achievement motivation despite the relatively good scores they had in both self-concept and achievement
motivation. Complex and various factors of different characters, backgrounds, situations and expectations
each student had, especially in learning English might have led to such a result.

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