ARE STUDENTS' MATH AND VERBAL BELIEFS MALLEABLE? THE ROLES OF THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE AND PRAISE

Abstract

Students tend to choose a field of study in which they believe they possess the most skills by comparing their performance across different domains, such as math and English. These intraindividual comparisons between domains are known as dimensional comparisons (Möller & Marsh, 2013). There are individual differences in dimensional comparisons, such that some students engage in stronger comparisons than others do, yet few studies have examined the sources of these individual differences. In addition to objective performance, students sometimes also receive subjective feedback (e.g., praise) from parents and teachers. However, it is unknown whether and how this feedback influences dimensional comparisons to shape students’ domain-specific motivational beliefs. Therefore, we first examined whether theories of intelligence (TOIs) moderated dimensional comparison processes in different age groups in two studies. We then investigated whether receiving disproportionate praise in different domains affected students’ domain-specific motivational beliefs. Results showed that incremental TOI moderated math grades’ relation to verbal competence self-concepts in 10th and 11th graders (N = 140). It also moderated verbal grades’ relation to verbal intrinsic values in 1st- to 5th-year college students (N = 136). However, we did not find such moderations in other age groups. Regarding the praise manipulation, 7th to 9th graders (N = 108) showed heightened verbal competence self-concepts after receiving praise on either math or verbal performance. First- to fifth-year college students also showed increased verbal intrinsic values after receiving praise on verbal performance. TOI moderated students’ responses to praise manipulations. These studies shed light on students’ development of domain-specific motivational beliefs and inspire future research.