Underachiever

For the Pitchshifter song, see Underachiever (song). For the hip hop duo, see The Underachievers.

An underachiever is a person who fails to achieve their potential or does not do as well as expected by their peers.

Of particular interest is academic underachievement. Studies of individuals who have not realized their apparent potential have identified learning disabilities, ADHD, and many other educational problems, and subsequently enabled methods of addressing these problems. Gifted students can also be at risk for underachievement. Current theories among academic scholars prefer to address underperformance problems with remedial help.

The term is also used more generally; for example, a sports team that contains many star players but still loses games against teams with relatively little obvious talent might be termed underachieving. A stock which achieves poor profit and/or capital gains despite sound underlying business and/or assets may be called underachieving.

See also

• Achievement gap in the United States
• Overachievement
• Social mobility
• Twice exceptional
• Underearners Anonymous
• Tang ping (a.k.a. "lying flat")

Further reading

• Peterson, John (1963). "The Researcher And The Underachiever: Never The Twain Shall Meet". The Phi Delta Kappan. 44 (8): 379–381. ISSN 0031-7217. JSTOR 20342974.
• McCall, Robert B. (1994). "Academic Underachievers". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 3 (1): 15–19. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.ep10769838. ISSN 0963-7214. JSTOR 20182251. S2CID 220595255.
• Cohen, Harold (2016). "Do You Think You're an Underachiever?". Psych Central.