Dimensional Comparison Theory

By Friederike Helm, Hanno Mueller-Kalthoff, Nicole Nagy, Jens Möller. Psychology Review, 2013

336 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Dimensional comparison theory (DCT) defines dimensional comparisons as intraindividual comparisons that a person draws between his or her own achievements in two domains or subjects. DCT assumes that dimensional comparisons influence students’ academic self-concepts, causing stronger self-concept differences between subjects perceived as dissimilar, such as math and English, than between subjects perceived as more similar, like math and physics. However, there have been no experimental studies testing the causal effect of perceived subject similarity on domain-specific self-concepts. In the present research, three experimental studies analyzed the effects of experimentally induced higher or lower perceived subject similarity on academic self-concept differences: Study 1 (N = 351), with math and German; Study 2a (N = 148), with math and physics; and Study 2b (N = 161), with English and German, show that, in line with expectations, induced lower perceived subject similarity led to stronger self-concept differences than did higher perceived similarity. Some implications of the results for DCT are discussed.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/043c0b56383d5042ba7a8404b1d54253bbddae5a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Social Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Social and Dimensional Comparisons in Math and Verbal Test Anxiety: Within- and Cross-domain Relations with Achievement and the Mediating Role of Academic Self-concept☆ (2017, methodology): “Dimensional Comparison Theory Dimensional Comparison Theory (DCT; Möller & Marsh, 2013) bases on the I/E model (Marsh, 1986, 1990; Möller, Pohlmann, Köller, & Marsh, 2009) which illustrates the relations between math and verbal achievements and math and verbal self-concepts (i.e., students’…”
Impact of social and dimensional comparisons on student's mathematical and English subject-interest at the beginning of secondary school (2014, background): “To evaluate their ability within one domain, persons not only refer to their own domainspecific achievements, but they also compare their individual achievements with others as well as with their own achievements in other domains (c.f. Marsh, 1986; M€oller & Marsh, 2013).”
A Meta-analysis of the Longitudinal Relationship Between Academic Self-Concept and Academic Achievement (2021, background): “…subject) with the achievement of their classmates in the same domain (social comparison; Festinger, 1954), with their achievement in other different subjects (dimensional comparison; Möller & Marsh, 2013), and with their own prior achievement in the same domain (temporal comparison; Albert, 1977).”
Longitudinal Relations Among Self-Concept, Intrinsic Value, and Attainment Value Across Secondary School Years in Three Academic Domains (2019, background): “…include the motivational constructs related to all three domains to study temporal crossdomain relations among the motivational constructs.8 As a theoretical framework for respective cross-domain analyses, EVT and dimensional comparison theory (DCT; Möller & Marsh, 2013) could be combined.”
The Internal/External Frame of Reference Model of Self-Concept and Achievement Relations (2015, background): “Particularly in educational settings, a growing body of research based on the I/E frame of reference model (Marsh, 1986; Marsh et al., in press; Möller & Marsh, 2013) demonstrates that self- perceptions may also be the result of internal or dimensional comparisons, in which accomplishments in one…”
Academic self-concept in science: Multidimensionality, relations to achievement measures, and gender differences☆ (2014, background): “The lack of studies that have considered multiple science subjects also constitutes a desideratum for further research considering the impact of dimensional comparisons on self-concept formation that is formulated in the I/E model (Marsh, 1986; Möller & Marsh, 2013).”