Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents

Duckworth, A. L., & Seligman, M. E. (2005). Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents. Psychological science,16(12), 939-944.‏

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.368.8509&rep=rep1&type=pdf

My piano teacher, who was raised in the Soviet Union, has many complaints about "Israeli" parents (by "Israeli" she means parents who are not of Russian origin…).  These parents, she says, ask their children: "Did you enjoy the lesson?"  My teacher thinks this question is not right, since learning to play the piano isn't supposed to be fun!  As she says: "Now you work hard, and the pleasure comes later."  Students who "survive" years of study with this excellent teacher, who combines demands and expectations with a lot of support, play very well and enjoy it very much. 

In order to persevere with piano lessons, as with every other demanding activity, one needs to have self discipline and an ability to delay gratification.  Indeed, greater ability to delay gratification measured at age 4 predicted higher academic and social functioning more than a decade later. Self-discipline was found to be the only one among 32 measured personality variables (e.g., self-esteem, extraversion, energy level) that predicted college grade point average (GPA) more robustly than SAT scores did. Similarly, high self-discipline distinguished Phi Beta Kappa undergraduates from nonPhi Beta Kappa students of equal intellectual ability.

This paper describes two studies by Martin Seligman and Angela Lee Duckworth, who is known to the readers of this blog due to her excellent TED talk.  Duckworth and Seligman asked what predicts achievement better: self discipline or intelligence.  

Seventy one percent of the eighth grade students of a certain high school chose to participate in the first study (the paper gives no information about the grade point average and the estimated self discipline of the students who did not choose to participate).  At the beginning of the school year, the students completed self report questionnaires about impulsivity and the ability to regulate thoughts, emotions, impulses and actions.  They also completed questionnaires about their hypothetical ability to delay gratification: each question had the student choose between an immediate, small reward and a delayed, larger one (the choice was hypothetical).

The students' parents completed questionnaires about their children's self control as opposed to their tendency for impulsivity (on the same scale), their ability to control their impulses and their ability to obey rules.

Here I have to say that throughout the paper, there seems to be a dichotomy between "self control" and "impulsivity". I think this dichotomy is not correct.  A child can have low self discipline (for example, he may begin to study for a test late at the evening before the test) – and not have any problems with impulsivity. 

Seven months later, at the end of the school year, the authors gathered information about the student's academic achievements.  The information consisted of report-card grades, a standardized achievement test, attendance, and selection into the school's high school program.  The students' self discipline was assessed again using the same self report questionnaires.

Eighty three percent of the eighth grade students of the consecutive year chose to participate in the second study (again, no information is given about the grade point average and the estimated self discipline of the students who did not choose to participate). 

At the beginning of the school year the students, their parents and their teachers completed the same questionnaires as in the previous study.  In addition to that, each child received an envelope containing a 1$ bill.  The student could choose to take the dollar, or to return the envelope and receive 2$ the following week.  The students also took a group intelligence test – Otis Lennon School Ability Test.  This test assesses verbal, quantitative, and figural reasoning skills.  I'm not sure whether this unknown group administered test is comparable with one of the renowned individually administered intelligence tests.   In addition to that, the students were asked to answer questions about their study habits and lifestyles (for example: "What time do you usually start your homework?").

As in the first study, seven months later, at the end of the school year, the authors gathered information about the student's academic achievements.

Both studies showed that highly self-disciplined adolescents outperformed their more impulsive peers on every academic-performance variable, including report-card grades, standardized achievement-test scores, admission to a competitive high school, and attendance.   Highly self-disciplined adolescents also spent more time on their homework, watched less television, and started their homework earlier in the day.   Self discipline measured in the fall predicted more variance in each of these outcomes than did IQ, and unlike IQ, self-discipline predicted gains in academic performance over the school year.

Most correlations between self-discipline and academic-performance variables ranged from medium to large in effect size, and all were statistically significant. In contrast, correlations between IQ and academic-performance variables were at most medium in magnitude, and only half were statistically significant in the predicted direction

 In  Study 2, the correlation between self-discipline and final GPA (r = .67) was twice the size of the correlation between IQ and final GPA (r = .32).

This is the paper's epilogue:

"Underachievement among American youth is often blamed on inadequate teachers, boring textbooks, and large class sizes. We suggest another reason for students falling short of their intellectual potential: their failure to exercise self-discipline. As McClure (1986) has speculated, "Our society's emphasis on instant gratification may mean that young students are unable to delay gratification long enough to achieve academic competence" (p. 20). We believe that many of America's children have trouble making choices that require them to sacrifice short-term pleasure for long-term gain, and that programs that build self-discipline may be the royal road to building academic achievement".