Dimensional comparisons in the formation of domain-specific achievement goals

in Motivation Science (2021), 7(3), 306318

Illusory gender-equality paradox, math self-concept, and frame-of-reference effects: New integrative explanations for multiple paradoxes

in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2021)

Students’ Personality Relates to Experienced Variability in State Academic Self-Concept

Scientific Conference (2020, November 11)

Attaining a positive academic self-concept (ASC) is linked to many desirable educational outcomes. Research on which student attributes relate to the formation of ASC is therefore considered to be central ... [more ▼]

Attaining a positive academic self-concept (ASC) is linked to many desirable educational outcomes. Research on which student attributes relate to the formation of ASC is therefore considered to be central. Past research on the association between personality traits and ASC has taken an interindividual perspective, while the intraindividual perspective has been disregarded. The present research explored the relation between students’ Big Five traits and intraindividual variability in state general-school ASC in everyday school life for the first time using intensive longitudinal data. We drew on N=294 German ninth and tenth graders who completed a three-week e-diary and a previously presented 60-item Big Five questionnaire (BFI-2; Danner et al., 2016; Soto & John, 2017) assessing Open-Mindedness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Negative Emotionality as well as their respective subfacets (i.e., resulting in 15 subfacets). To assess state ASC, students completed three items after every single lesson across four different subjects (resulting in Mlessons = 21.12). We ran six mixed-effects location scale models: one specified with all five Big Five domains, and five (one for each Big Five domain) with the subfacets as predictors of intraindividual variability in state ASC. We found that Open-Mindedness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Negative Emotionality as well as at least one subfacet of each Big Five trait were significant predictors of levels of state ASC independently of students’ gender and reasoning ability, and the narrower subfacets Organization (Conscientiousness) and Depression (Negative Emotionality) predicted variability in state ASC independently of students’ gender and reasoning ability. These findings thus provide first evidence that students’ ASC undergoes short-term fluctuations from school lesson to school lesson and that this intraindividual variability can be partly explained by students’ personality. Our results thus contribute to a more complete map of the formation of ASC and the role of personality therein. [less ▲]

Does Conscientiousness Matter for Academic Success? Considering Different Facets of Conscientiousness and Different Educational Outcomes

Poster (2020, April)

Conscientiousness is the strongest BIG-5 predictor of academic success. Both conscientiousness and academic success are broad concepts, consisting of multiple lower level facets. Conscientiousness facets ... [more ▼]

Conscientiousness is the strongest BIG-5 predictor of academic success. Both conscientiousness and academic success are broad concepts, consisting of multiple lower level facets. Conscientiousness facets might display differential relations to different indicators of academic success. To investigate these relations, conscientiousness facets need to be measured in an economic and valid way. We conducted two studies, validating a short conscientiousness scale measuring seven facets of conscientiousness (Industriousness, Task Planning, Perfectionism, Procrastination Refrainment, Tidiness, Control, Cautiousness), and testing the relations of these facets with GPA, test scores, school satisfaction, and engagement. The results supported the validity of the scale. Industriousness, Perfectionism, and Cautiousness revealed the highest relations to academic outcomes. GPA and test scores showed differential associations with the different conscientiousness facets. [less ▲]

Students’ perceptions of instructional quality: Validating 3 dimensions on a lesson-to-lesson basis

Scientific Conference (2020, January 17)

Religiosity predicts unreasonable coping with COVID-19

in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (2020)

The stability of academic self-concept profiles – a latent transition analysis

Poster (2019, November 06)

Dimensional and Social Comparison Effects on Domain-Specific Academic Self-Concepts and Interests with First- and Third-Grade Students

Scientific Conference (2019, November 06)

Academic self-concepts (ASCs) are self-perceptions of one’s own academic abilities. The internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model (Marsh, 1986) explains the formation of domain-specific ASCs ... [more ▼]

Academic self-concepts (ASCs) are self-perceptions of one’s own academic abilities. The internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model (Marsh, 1986) explains the formation of domain-specific ASCs through a combination of social (i.e. comparing one’s achievement in one domain with the achievement of others in the same domain) and dimensional (i.e. comparing one’s achievement in one domain with one’s achievement in another domain) comparisons. This results into positive achievement-self-concept relations within the math and verbal domains, but into negative achievement-self-concept relations across these domains. The generalized internal/external frame of reference (GI/E) model (Möller, Müller-Kalthoff, Helm, Nagy, & Marsh, 2015) extends the I/E model to the formation of other domain-specific academic self-beliefs such as interest. Research on the validity of the (G)I/E model for elementary school children is limited, especially for first-graders. This study examined the associations between verbal and math achievement and corresponding domain-specific self-concepts and interests for first-graders and third-graders. Two fully representative Luxembourgish first-grader cohorts and two fully representative third-graders cohorts (N=21,192) were used. The analyses were based on structural equation modeling. The findings fully supported the (G)I/E model for third-graders: Achievement was positively related to self-concept and interest within matching domains. Negative relations were found between achievement and self-concept and between achievement and interest across domains. For first-graders, achievement was positively related to self-concept and interest within matching domains. However, the majority of cross-domain relations were non-significant, except for the negative path between math achievement and verbal interest. Hence, while the formation of domain-specific ASCs and interests seem to rely on social and dimensional comparisons for third-graders, only social comparisons seem to be in operation for first-graders. Gender and cohort invariance was established for both grade levels. The findings are discussed within the framework of ASC differentiation and dimensional comparison theory applied to elementary school students. [less ▲]

Examining grades, achievement test scores, and three intelligence facets within an extended I/E model

Scientific Conference (2019, September 10)

Domain-specific academic self-concepts (ASCs) are mental representations of one’s abilities that are specific to a particular school subject. According to the internal/external frame of reference (I/E ... [more ▼]

Domain-specific academic self-concepts (ASCs) are mental representations of one’s abilities that are specific to a particular school subject. According to the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model, achievement influences the formation of ASCs via social and dimensional comparison processes: within one domain students not only compare their achievement with their peers (social comparison) but also with their own achievements in other domains (dimensional comparison). However, students’ intelligence as an indicator of achievement has been neglected within the I/E model framework. Yet, intelligence is known to be an important determinant of academic success and thus it can be assumed to influence the formation of academic self-concepts, too. Hence, this research examined the links between verbal, numerical, figural intelligence and domain-specific ASCs while controlling for grades and achievement test scores. We drew on N = 382 German students to analyze verbal, numerical, and figural intelligence, German and math achievement, domain-specific self-reported grades and ASCs in math, physics, German, and English. We performed structural equation modeling using Mplus 8 with grades, achievement scores and intelligence facets specified as manifest predictors and domain-specific ASCs as latent criteria. Positive within-domain relations indicating social comparison effects were found between math, physics, German, and English grade to their corresponding self-concept as well as from math achievement to math ASC. Dimensional comparison effects are implied by a positive cross-domain path between physics grade and math ASC and by negative cross-domain paths from math grade to German, physics, and English ASC. Further, a positive cross-domain relation was found between math achievement and physics ASC while a negative cross-domain path was found between German achievement and math ASC. With regard to the intelligence facets, positive paths were found between numerical intelligence and physics ASC as well as between verbal intelligence and English ASC. Our findings thus suggest numerical and verbal intelligence to be valid predictors of ASC formation in an extended I/E model beyond grades and test scores. Overall, the proposed I/E model permitted meaningful relations to be drawn between domain-specific achievement indicators and ASCs suggesting that these variables provide incremental validity. [less ▲]

Entwicklung und Validierung eines Kurzfragebogens zur Erfassung von sieben Facetten von Gewissenhaftigkeit

Scientific Conference (2019, September)

Die Rolle von Persönlichkeitsvariablen für den Schulerfolg rückt immer stärker in den Fokus wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen. Insbesondere Gewissenhaftigkeit zeigt eine hohe prädiktive Validität für die ... [more ▼]

Die Rolle von Persönlichkeitsvariablen für den Schulerfolg rückt immer stärker in den Fokus wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen. Insbesondere Gewissenhaftigkeit zeigt eine hohe prädiktive Validität für die Schulleistung (Poropat, 2009). Zur näheren Untersuchung des Konstrukts der Gewissenhaft haben MacCann, Duckworth und Roberts (2009) einen aus 68 Items bestehenden Fragebogen zur Erfassung von acht verschiedenen Facetten von Gewissenhaftigkeit im Sekundarschulalter entwickelt. Dieser ist jedoch zu umfangreich für die Verwendung in large-scale Studien, die in der pädagogischen Forschung von zunehmender Bedeutung sind. Der vorliegende Beitrag präsentiert daher die Entwicklung und Validierung einer Kurzform eines Fragebogens zur Erfassung von sieben Facetten von Gewissenhaftigkeit. Die Entwicklungsstichprobe umfasste die Schüler aller neunten Klassen in Luxemburg in 2017 (N1 = 6.325). Die Schüler beantworteten deutsche oder französische Adaptionen eines aus 59 Items und sieben Facetten bestehenden Fragebogens zu Gewissenhaftigkeit, der an das Instrument von MacCann et al. angelehnt war. Zur Entwicklung einer Kurzversion wurde ein exhaustive-search Algorithmus verwendet. Dabei sollte für jede Facette von Gewissenhaftigkeit die bestmögliche Kombination aus vier Items ausgewählt werden. Die Selektionskriterien hierfür waren Fit-Statistiken, interne Konsistenz und Messinvarianz zwischen den Sprachversionen. Der resultierende Fragebogen – bestehend aus 28 Items – wurde 2018 den Schülern aller neunten Klassen in Luxemburg vorgelegt (N2 =6.279). Für diese Validierungsstichprobe zeigte ein Modell mit sieben Faktoren von Gewissenhaftigkeit einen guten Fit (CFI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.04). Alle Facetten hatten sehr gute Reliabilitäten (ɑs > 0.97). Außerdem fanden wir skalare Messinvarianz zwischen den Sprachversionen und zwischen beiden Geschlechtern. Weitere Validierungsschritte und Anwendungsmöglichkeiten dieses Fragebogens im schulischen Kontext werden diskutiert. Literatur MacCann, C., Duckworth, A.L., & Roberts, R.D. (2009). Empirical identification of the major facets of conscientiousness. Learning and Individual Differences, 19, 451–458. Poropat, A.E. (2009). A meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic performance. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 322–338. [less ▲]