Performance, Achievement, and Success in Psychological Research: Towards a More Transparent Use of the Still Ambiguous Terminology

The present study focused on the terms performance, achievement, and success that have often been used in an ambiguous manner in psychological research. The way in which the meaning of the domain-specific constructs referred to with the terms was established for measurement purposes was investigated on a sample of 262 articles that stemmed from 35 randomly selected journals covering the full range of psychological research. The operational definitions of the constructs referred to with the terms performance, achievement, and success were analysed and compared in both inter- and intra-domain fashion. Additionally, we assessed the match among the observed operational definitions and general conceptual definitions available in the extant literature. The results revealed terminology-related issues in educational and occupational research. Within these domains, lack of adherence to the multidimensionality of the constructs of academic performance, academic achievement, academic success, job performance, and career success was identified as a general issue. Further, the tendency to measure job performance via indicators based on self-rating was considered inadequate given the objective nature of the term performance. In educational research, the overlap of the academic performance, academic achievement, and academic success constructs was confirmed, resulting from the tendency to use GPA as a universal indicator of academic outcomes. Based on the present findings, we provided several recommendations in order to encourage future research towards a more transparent way of dealing with the particular constructs referred to with the terms performance, achievement, and success. We suppose the present study may help researchers in the full range of psychological disciplines to add clarity to their own research.