The Murky Distinction Between Self-Concept and Self-Efficacy: Beware of Lurking Jingle-Jangle Fallacies

By Herbert W. Marsh, Reinhard Pekrun, P. Parker, Kou Murayama, Jiesi Guo, Theresa Dicke, A. Arens. Journal of Educational Psychology, 2019

394 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study extends the classic constructive dialogue/debate between self-concept and self-efficacy researchers (Marsh, Roche, Pajares, & Miller, 1997) regarding the distinctions between these 2 constructs. The study is a substantive-methodological synergy, bringing together new substantive, theoretical, and statistical models and developing new tests of the classic jingle-jangle fallacy. We demonstrate that in a representative sample of 3,350 students from math classes in 43 German schools, generalized math self-efficacy and math outcome expectancies were indistinguishable from math self-concept, but were distinct from test-related and functional measures of self-efficacy. This is consistent with the jingle-jangle fallacies that are proposed. On the basis of pretest variables, we demonstrate negative frame-of-reference effects in social (big-fish-little-pond effect) and dimensional (internal/external frame-of-reference effect) comparisons for three self-concept-like constructs in each of the first 4 years of secondary school. In contrast, none of the frame-of-reference effects were significantly negative for either of the two self-efficacy-like constructs in any of the 4 years of testing. After controlling for pretest variables, each of the 3 self-concept-like constructs (math self-concept, outcome expectancy, and generalized math self-efficacy) in each of the 4 years of secondary school was more strongly related to posttest outcomes (school grades, test scores, future aspirations) than were the corresponding 2 self-efficacy-like factors. Extending discussion by Marsh et al. (1997), we clarify distinctions between self-efficacy and self-concept; the role of evaluation, worthiness, and outcome expectancy in self-efficacy measures; and complications in generalized and global measures of self-efficacy.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Management Science and Operations Research, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3f95b02090153ea391b7b219a6986b35da8ef329

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Citations in the corpus

Grit and conscientiousness: Another jangle fallacy (2020, background): “To our knowledge Schmidt et al. (2018) are the only researchers to have factor analyzed items measuring grit with items measuring conscientiousness.”
A Meta-Analytic Review of the Relations Between Motivation and Reading Achievement for K–12 Students (2020, background): “…assumption that two different constructs represent the same thing, or that two similar constructs are entirely different, is a reference that has been used in debates related to the distinction between self-concept and selfefficacy (Marsh et al., 2019) for the past two decades (Marsh et al., 1997).”