Academic self-concepts, achievement and the internal frame of reference:: A design-oriented demonstration of predictions derived from the I/E-model

Even though grades in different subjects are substantially correlated, the corresponding self-concepts often display a very weak association. The "Internal-External Frame of Reference Model" (I/E-model; Marsh, 1986) explains this finding: social comparisons and dimensional comparisons are confounded. A rarely tested hypothesis derived from the I/E-model is that the dimensional comparison process only affects the self-concepts, if the students achieve differently in the corresponding subjects. If students achieve identical grades in corresponding subjects, contrasting dimensional comparison processes are of less relevance. In a sample of N = 1508 students (grade 7 and 8), low correlations of the self-concepts of four subjects could be observed only in students displaying different school-grades in the corresponding subjects. In students who have the same grades in different subjects, the self-concepts showed a substantial positive correlation.