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Stereotype threat (ST) is a potential explanation for inequalities in language competencies observed between students from different language backgrounds. Language competencies are an important prerequisite for educational success, wherefore the significance for investigation arises. While ST effects on achievement are empirically well documented, little is known about whether ST also impairs learning. Thus, we investigated vocabulary learning in language minority elementary school students, also searching for potential moderators. In a pre-post design, 240 fourth-grade students in Germany who were on average 10 years old (M[subscript Age] = 9.92, SD = 0.64; 49.8% female) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: implicit ST, explicit ST without threat removal before posttest, explicit ST with threat removal before posttest, and a control group. Results showed that learning difficult vocabulary from reading two narrative texts was unaffected by ST. Neither students' identification with their culture of residence and culture of origin nor stereotyped domain of reading were moderators. The findings are discussed with regard to content and methodological aspects such that a motivation effect might have undermined a possible ST effect. Implications for future research include examining the question at what age children become susceptible to ST and whether students have internalized negative stereotypes about their own group, which could increase the likelihood of ST effects occurring.

Lower vocabulary in German is repeatedly reported for students with Turkish migration background attending school in Germany. We investigated whether in students of Turkish descent (a) learning vocabulary is impaired when the teacher activates the negative stereotype that students with Turkish family language learn less well and (b) whether a Turkish-origin teacher, as an ingroup expert model, can mitigate negative effects of the activation of the stereotype. In an experimental study, Turkish- and German-origin students (N = 182) living in Germany worked individually on a tablet on a vocabulary learning task instructed by a teacher in a video tutorial who introduced herself with either a Turkish or German name. Before the task, the teacher either mentioned that students in general (no stereotype activation) or students who speak Turkish in their families (stereotype activation) often have difficulties acquiring new vocabulary. A multiple-group regression analysis showed that Turkish-origin students learned significantly more under stereotype activation with the Turkish-origin teacher than in all other conditions. Results suggest that students are particularly motivated to learn when the teacher represents their ingroup targeted by negative stereotypes and openly addresses potential difficulties students of the stigmatized ingroup may encounter. We discuss the findings in light of the literature on stereotype threat and on the role of ingroup expert models.

Introduction: The goal of this study was to develop a self-report scale measuring the teacher's interpersonal behavior in teacher-child dyads in elementary schools and to provide evidence of the scale's validity. Using the framework of interpersonal theory, the Questionnaire on Dyadic Interpersonal Teacher Behavior (DITeB) models teacher behavior in an interpersonal circumplex that allows for the simultaneous analysis of teacher behavior along the two orthogonal dimensions of communion (warmth) and agency (guidance, monitoring). Methods: We analyzed 440 dyadic teacher-child relationships derived from 88 teacher reports. Teachers rated the 20 items (8 scales) of the DITeB to describe their interpersonal behavior towards a child. To test the scale's structural validity, we conducted confirmatory circumplex structural analyses. To test the scale's construct validity, we used teachers 'descriptions of relationship quality (closeness, conflict, dependency), and of their child related emotions (enjoyment, anger, anxiety). In addition, teachers reported on the child's academic performance (numeric grades), as well as their professional beliefs about heterogeneity and self-efficacy for adaptive teaching, data which were used for further construct validation. Results: We obtained empirical support for both structural and construct validity of the DITeB. Teacher interpersonal behavior correlated significantly with perceived relationship quality and emotions: high relationship quality and positive emotions were associated with high communion and low agency, whereas low relationship quality and negative emotions were associated with low communion and high agency, supporting construct validity. Additionally, as child's academic performance improved, teachers' agency decreased. Towards different groups of children, teachers' interpersonal behaviors varied systematically based on their professional beliefs: teachers with strong heterogeneity beliefs tended to be more communal towards low-performing children compared to high-performing children. Moreover, teachers with strong self-efficacy towards adaptive teaching adjusted their agency more flexibly according to children's performance in school, further supporting the construct validity of our instrument. Discussion: We discuss how our instrument enriches the spectrum of existing scales on interpersonal teacher behavior. By focusing dyadic specific teacher behavior, the DITeB allows examining the extent to which the teacher adapts their behavior to child characteristics (adaptive teaching), and the effect of teacher behavior on child outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feeling socially well embedded in the classroom's peer network is a predictor of many positive developmental outcomes, such as engagement at school. But what does feeling embedded depend on? We investigated the impact of both peers and the teacher. Peer status, measured by sociometric sympathy-based peer nominations, and peer victimization, measured by students' self-report, were examined as potential predictors of students' self-reported feelings of embeddedness. We further measured student-perceived teacher support and the accuracy with which the teacher can describe individual student's peer relations in class (teacher awareness) as potential predictors of subjective embeddedness. We expected that victimized students in particular profit in their feelings of embeddedness from a teacher with a highly accurate awareness of their peer relations. In two independent samples (Study 1: 318 students and their 20 teachers; Study 2: 821 students and their 39 teachers), we found that the mean accuracy of teachers' awareness of individual students' peer relations was not very high. Students' feelings of embeddedness decreased with peer victimization experiences and increased with subjective teacher support, whereas, unexpectedly, sociometric peer status did not matter. Victimized students felt stronger embeddedness the more accurately their teacher could describe their peer relations in class. Peer victimization, teacher support, and, for victimized students, teacher awareness predicted school engagement, mediated via subjective embeddedness. Implications for teaching and teacher education are discussed: how can teachers strengthen feelings of embeddedness, thus fostering students' engagement at school and protecting them from feeling socially excluded.

Higher education institutions face the challenge to promote diversity competence. We suggest a procedure which can help raise awareness for diversity issues amongst staff and students and thereby foster diversity competence and facilitate the implementation of diversity strategies within higher education institutions: to include a self-assessment tool regarding diversity competence in the regular teaching evaluation. In this research we complemented a well-established course evaluation tool that is widely used in Germany, the HEsaCom, by a new subscale measuring subjective gains in diversity competence. As part of regular teaching evaluations, 8700 questionnaires comprising the HEsaCom-scales and the new scale on diversity competence were collected in 1396 different seminars of a large university in Germany. Results show good reliabilities for all scales. From factor analysis, the new scale emerged as an additional subscale of the HEsaCom, with the established factor structure remaining unchanged. Students attending a cross-study course in which diversity had been a topic and students attending courses in which no participant had experienced social discrimination reported significantly higher diversity competence gains than students from the remaining courses. We discuss how higher education institutions can apply the questionnaire used in our study for their diversity management.

Can immigrant school students profit from an immigrant teacher sharing their minority background? We investigate preservice teachers' (Study 1; Mage = 26.29 years; 75.2% female) and school students' (Study 2; Mage = 14.88 years; 49.9% female) perceptions of a teacher as well as immigrant school students' learning gains (Study 2) by comparing four experimental video conditions in which a female teacher with a Turkish or German name instructs school students in a task while either saying that learning gains differed (stereotype activation) or did not differ (no stereotype activation) between immigrant and non-immigrant students. Study 1 shows that preservice teachers, regardless of their own cultural background, perceived the Turkish origin teacher as less biased, even when she voiced the stereotype, and as more motivationally supportive of school students in general than the German origin teacher. Study 2 shows that in contrast, among school students, the minority teacher was not perceived as less biased than the majority teacher. Rather, immigrant school students, in particular those with Turkish roots, were more concerned than students of the German majority that the teacher—irrespective of her background—was biased. Interestingly, these differences between students from different backgrounds disappeared when the teacher said that learning gains differed between immigrant and non-immigrant students. Immigrant school students of non-Turkish backgrounds, but not Turkish origin students suffered in their learning when instructed by the Turkish origin teacher who voiced the stereotype. We discuss implications for teacher recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, Turkish-origin students face negative competence-related stereotypes held by different groups in society, including teachers at school. While a large body of research has examined stereotypes (i.e., other-stereotypes) about immigrant students, little is known about their own competence-related meta-stereotypes, i.e., beliefs regarding the other-stereotypes that outgroup peers hold about them. The present study addresses this research gap by examining Turkish- and German-origin students' meta-stereotypes about two dimensions of competencies not yet investigated, namely Turkish- and German-origin students' subject-related German competence as well as their general school competence using a newly developed instrument combining verbal and non-verbal measures. These assessments are juxtaposed to the evaluations of a group of peers with other immigrant backgrounds (i.e., others' meta-stereotypes). In line with previous evidence, we found positive meta-stereotypes (as well as other- and others' meta-stereotypes) towards German-origin students reported by all three groups. However, our study is the first that supports the existence of negative meta-stereotypes (as well as other- and others' meta-stereotypes) towards Turkish-origin adolescents, again, among all participants. This pattern was particularly pronounced regarding the dimension of subject-related German competence. We discuss the findings' potential relevance for students' self-concepts and intergroup interactions in classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schoolbooks convey not only school-relevant knowledge; they also influence the development of stereotypes about different social groups. Particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, many studies analysed schoolbooks and criticised the overall predominance of male persons and of traditional role allocations. Since that time, women's and men's occupations and social functions have changed considerably. The present research investigated gender portrayals in schoolbooks for German and mathematics that were recently published in Germany. We examined the proportions of female and male persons in pictures and texts and categorized their activities, occupational and parental roles. Going beyond previous studies, we added two criteria: the use of gender-fair language and the spatial arrangements of persons in pictures. Our results show that schoolbooks for German contained almost balanced depictions of girls and boys, whereas women were less frequently shown than men. In mathematics books, males outnumbered females in general. Across both types of books, female and male persons were engaged in many different activities, not only gender-typed ones; however, male persons were more often described via their profession than females. Use of gender-fair language has found its way into schoolbooks but is not used consistently. Books for German were more gender fair in terms of linguistic forms than books for mathematics. For spatial arrangements, we found no indication for gender biases. The results are discussed with a focus on how schoolbooks can be optimized to contribute to gender equality.

Children's occupational interests and their perceptions of the divergent occupational successes of women and men reflect cultural gender norms. Since language is a vehicle for transporting gender cues and gender norms, we tested the premise that children's perceptions of stereotypically male jobs can be influenced by the linguistic form used to present an occupational title. Three experiments with 809 primary school students suggest that occupations presented in pair form (e.g., Ingenieurinnen und Ingenieure, female and male engineers), compared to descriptions using the generic masculine form (e.g., Ingenieure), generally increase the mental accessibility of female jobholders, promote more gender-balanced perceptions of the success of males and females, and strengthen girls' interest in stereotypically male occupations. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)

Today, a major goal in higher education is the advancement of students' vocational competences. To assess the extent to which this goal is met, both competences acquired during university studies and later vocational success need to be measured. In our study, we collected self-ratings of competences (t1) and indicators of vocational success (t2) in 210 alumni of the Freie Universitat Berlin. Using structural equation models along with this longitudinal data, we found that self-ratings of competences accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in different measures of vocational success five years later. (Contains 4 tables.)

Background: Establishing or preserving single-sex schooling has been widely discussed as a way of bringing more girls into the natural sciences. Aims: We test the assumption that the beneficial effects of single-sex education on girls' self-concept of ability in masculine subjects such as physics are due to the lower accessibility of gender-related self-knowledge in single-sex classes. Sample: N401 eighth-graders (mean age 14.0 years) from coeducational comprehensive schools. Methods: Random assignment of students to single-sex vs. coeducational physics classes throughout the eighth grade. At the end of the year, students' physics-related self-concept of ability was measured using a questionnaire. In a subsample of N134 students, the accessibility of gender-related self-knowledge during physics classes was assessed by measuring latencies and endorsement of sex-typed trait adjectives. Results: Girls from single-sex physics classes reported a better physics-related self-concept of ability than girls from coeducational classes, while boys' self-concept of ability did not vary according to class composition. For both boys and girls, gender-related self-knowledge was less accessible in single-sex classes than in mixed-sex classes. To the extent that girls' feminine self-knowledge was relatively less accessible than their masculine self-knowledge, their physics-related self-concept of ability improved at the end of the school year. Conclusions: By revealing the importance of the differential accessibility of gender-related self-knowledge in single- and mixed-sex settings, our study clarifies why single-sex schooling helps adolescents to gain a better self-concept of ability in school subjects that are considered inappropriate for their own sex.

Background: In view of the shortage of students majoring in science, we examined the image of physics in terms of students' implicit, automatic associations with physics. Aims: To describe the specific image of physics that might alienate students ("difficulty," "masculinity," "heteronomy") and test an intervention for altering the image. Samples: In Study 1 the sample consisted of 63 school students (11th grade) and in Study 2 the sample consisted of 71 undergraduates. Methods: Study 1 measured participants' implicit associations between physics (relative to English) and the image dimensions of "difficulty," "masculinity" and "heteronomy," implicit "attitudes" towards and "identification" with physics using latency data ("Implicit Association Test"; IAT) and explicit attitudes using a questionnaire. Study 2 was an experimental treatment that required reading a text (treatment group) that emphasized the importance of discourse and creativity for science versus a school textbook for physics (control group). Dependent variables: implicit attitudes (IAT). Results: Students in Study 1 associated physics (relative to English) more easily with words referring to difficulty (than to ease), to males (than to females), to heteronomy (than to self-realization), to unpleasantness (relative to pleasant words) and to others (relative to words referring to self). The three image aspects of difficulty, masculinity and heteronomy predicted explicit attitudes. Participants in the treatment group in Study 2 showed a significant reduction of the IAT effects compared to the control group. Conclusions: The findings indicate that students' negative explicit attitudes towards physics coincide with negative implicit associations about physics. An intervention addressing the alteration of implicit associations proved to be fruitful. Implications for science education are discussed.

The percentage of school students specializing in math and science is particularly low. The current research suggests that this is due to prototypes about math and science being highly dissimilar from self-prototypes students have or want to have of themselves. Going beyond previous studies on self-to-prototype matching, we assumed that students compare their self-views to both a prototypical student liking a certain subject ("favourite-subject-prototype") and a prototypical student disapproving of it ("least liked subject-prototype"). Results show that for humanities (German and English language), favourite-subject-prototypes were judged more positively than least-liked-subject-prototypes, whereas for science (math and physics), least-liked-subject-prototypes were perceived as more positive than favourite-subject-prototypes. As expected, only if a student's self-prototype was quite clear (high self-clarity) was it used as a standard against which school-subject prototypes were compared with respect to their degree of overlap. Our results showed that the better the match between self and favourite-subject-prototype, the stronger were the subject preferences.

Examined cross-cultural differences in field dependence, hypothesizing differences according to the degree of individualism or collectivism within college students' respective cultures. Data from U.S., German, Russian, and Malaysian students indicated that field dependence did not differ between samples representing similar cultures. U.S. And German students were more field independent that were Russian and Malaysian students. (SM)

In academia, the proportion of women decreases with each career level. In this research, we examined how this so-called leaky pipeline relates to genderbased relative expectations of success. The participants were students from social sciences where women are the majority among students, such that it is more readily - but erroneously - inferred that gender discrimination is not an issue. We assumed that gender-based relative expectations of success should be predicted by two variables. Women students should experience higher gender-based rejection sensitivity than men students, with gender-based rejection sensitivity mitigating relative success expectations in women, but not in men. Men students should exhibit higher hostile-sexist attitudes toward women than women students, with hostile sexism reducing men students' but not women students' relative success expectations. We tested our hypotheses in an (under-)graduate sample of women and men students enrolled in educational or psychological majors (N = 372). Results show that a quarter of the women students expected men to be more successful than women and that proportionately more women than men students indicated that women have worse chances of success than men in the job they aspire to. Women were more concerned about being treated differently because of their gender than men, and men held more sexist attitudes toward women than women, with gender-based rejection sensitivity contributing to women students' and sexism to men students' expectation that their own gender group will less likely succeed in their aimed for future job. Implications how the leaky pipeline can be patched are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the hypothesis that different clothing styles can influence self-descriptions by priming certain trait categories. We used a cover story to tell our participants to appear for the experiment dressed in either formal or casual wear. When participants arrived for the experiment, they were asked to describe themselves as quickly as possible by endorsing or rejecting trait adjectives. These adjectives were selected in a pilot study as either a trait typically ascribed to a formally dressed person (cultivated, accurate) or a trait typically ascribed to a casually dressed person (easygoing, tolerant). Results show that participants who were dressed formally used more formal adjectives than casual ones to describe themselves. The opposite was true in participants wearing casual clothes. In addition, formally dressed participants responded faster to formal than to casual adjectives, while this difference was reversed in casually dressed participants. Implications for applied settings (e.g., achievement vs. social situations) are discussed.

The behavior of teachers in teacher-child dyads can be described on the two universal orthogonal dimensions of interpersonal behavior: Communion (e.g., warmth, need satisfaction) and agency (e.g., steering, control). Certain combinations of manifestations on these dimensions are particularly favorable: students are motivated and learn more when their teacher demonstrates strong communion. It is less clear, however, whether a moderately strong or strong agency of the teacher is particularly beneficial. Via a newly developed questionnaire, we investigate whether teachers align their agency complementarily to the child's competence and whether this translates into stronger teacher agency towards groups of children whose mean competence is lower, namely (a) children with special educational needs, (b) children with a non-German first language, and (c) boys. Seventy-two teachers described their behavior toward five children in their class (N = 302) on 13 items each which capture different combinations of communion and agency in a circumplex of eight facets. As expected, facets with very strong agency correlated positively (r =.54 and.65), and facets with very weak agency correlated negatively (r = –.46 and –.59) with the child's grades. After aggregating teachers' reports across groups of children, we found that teachers exhibited higher levels of behavior on facets with strong agency towards children with special educational needs or with non-German first language, irrespective of these facets' communion. Most of these differences disappeared once children's grades were controlled for. In comparison with their behavior towards girls, teachers showed significantly stronger behavioral manifestations towards boys on facets characterized by strong agency and, simultaneously, only (moderately) weak communion, even after controlling for children's grades. Results are discussed against the background of research (a) on the connection between teacher behavior and students' motivation, and (b) on the reasons for the lower success of boys at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the kindergarten years and until shortly before school start, there are no gender differences in (precursors of) mathematical competencies or mathematics-related motivation. Shortly after school entry, however, boys are already superior to their female peers in mathematics-related competencies and motivation. We investigated in a cross-sectional study two aspects of process quality in kindergarten that can favorably influence the development of mathematics-related motivation, especially of girls: the frequency of offers of mathematics- and science-related activities and a high-quality attachment relationship with the teacher. In 135 independent dyads, the quality of attachment between kindergarten teacher and child was assessed by a one and a half-hour standardized observation (Attachment Q-Set). The teacher provided information on how often she provides mathematics- and science-related activities. The children were asked about their mathematics-related motivation and precursors of mathematical competencies were measured using a standardized test. Results show, in line with existing studies, that girls and boys did not yet differ in their precursors of mathematical competencies and mathematics-related motivation at the end of kindergarten. Girls were involved in significantly higher quality attachment relationships with their teachers than boys. While girls' mathematics-related motivation increased with the frequency of the provision of relevant activities, it did not play a role for boys' motivation. We discuss (a) how teachers can be encouraged to offer mathematics-and science-related activities more often and (b) whether a comparable quality of attachment would be shown for boys as for girls if the kindergarten teacher were male. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für empirische Hochschulforschung (ZeHf) is the property of Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

High-profile organizations often emphasize fixed giftedness rather than malleable effort-based criteria as critical for excellent achievements. With giftedness being primarily associated with White or Asian males, such organizational implicit theories of excellence may shape individuals' sense of belonging depending on the extent to which they match the gifted White/Asian male prototype , i.e., the prototypical gifted person which is typically imagined to be a White or Asian male. Previous research has reported fixed excellence theories emphasizing giftedness (vs. malleable theories emphasizing effort) to impair the sense of belonging of females and negatively stereotyped ethnic minorities. We investigate the combined effects of gender and ethnicity. We predicted that, while individuals whose gender and ethnicity do not match the gifted prototype show a reduced sense of belonging in fixed organizations, White/Asian males who match the gifted prototype show the opposite effect, experiencing a higher sense of belonging in fixed (vs. malleable) organizations. In an experimental study (N = 663 students), we manipulated advertising material used by a highly selective academic institution in Germany and tested effects on students' belonging. Whereas the original material emphasized giftedness as essential for excelling (fixed excellence version), our manipulated version stressed effort (malleable version). As expected, females from stereotyped ethnic minority groups felt less belonging in the fixed (vs. malleable) organization, while White/Asian males anticipated stronger belonging in the fixed (vs. malleable) organization. Fixed views of excellence impair negatively stereotyped individuals' belonging but may even strengthen the belonging of prototypical academic elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship that a child or adolescent has with the care provider or teacher can differ significantly in its affective quality. Relationship quality has been shown to be significant not only for the motivational and cognitive development of the learning person, but also for well-being and experience of competence of the care provider or teacher. This special issue of the Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie includes articles that reflect the multifaceted dimensions on which relationship quality can be described and analyzed. With the diversity of the topics addressed, the special issue also aims to stimulate further research on the topic of relationship quality in daycare centers and schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social integration of the ever-growing number of refugees in receiving societies is of major importance. Perceived discrimination has been found to predict fewer friendships with natives over time. But what short-term mechanisms explain this effect? In a sample of 115 refugees living in Germany we (i) replicated the long-term discrimination-social-integration relationship, (ii) found short-term associations between discrimination and affective, motivational, and behavioral tendencies not to befriend natives, and (iii) showed authenticity to mediate this short-term relationship: with increasing discrimination, refugees felt less like they could show their authentic selves around natives, which in turn impaired tendencies to befriend natives. Discrimination may impede the formation of interethnic friendships by instilling feelings of inauthenticity. Implications for prevention measures are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a school‐based intervention geared to foster the social integration of recently immigrated (RI) primary school children by creating repeated positive contact situations with classmates brought up in the receiving society. Coaches encouraged groups of tandems, consisting of one RI and one child brought up in Germany each, to engage in cooperative activities designed to strengthen positive self‐beliefs and perception of equal status. In a quasi‐experimental control‐group design (N = 318), we compared the 30 children (12 RI) who participated in our intervention between pre‐test and post‐test with a reference group. Self‐beliefs were measured via self‐reports, social integration via sociometric peer‐nominations. The reference group (n = 288 children) included all children who did not participate in the intervention between pre‐test and post‐test: (a) 12 children (7 RI) of a waiting control group and (b) all classmates of both the students of the intervention and the waiting control group. Post‐test self‐beliefs were more positive in children having participated in the intervention. The intervention did not affect social integration: Neither the number of classmates nominating a student nor the number of peers the respective student nominated increased. Possibly, the intervention initiated self‐reinforcing processes which support social integration over longer time periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National identity definitions determine who belongs to the national ingroup (e.g., "us Germans") versus the "foreign" outgroup prone to hostile outgroup bias. We conducted five studies in two countries investigating if viewing the ingroup's national identity as fixed exacerbates the perceived divide between ingroup and outgroup and thus increases anti‐immigrant hostility, while a malleable view blurs the divide and reduces anti‐immigrant hostility. In a Prestudy (58 participants), an Implicit Theory of National Identity Scale was developed. In Studies 1 (154 participants) and 2 (390 participants), our scale predicted individuals' prejudice and participation rates in a hypothetical referendum and a real petition against immigrants. In Studies 3 (225 participants) and 4 (225 participants), experimental evidence was obtained. Leading participants to believe that the definition of "a true compatriot" changes over time (rather than remaining the same) resulted in lower levels of prejudice and participation rates in an anti‐immigrant petition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do different aspects of students' self-relate to their development at school? In educational psychology, this question has been examined essentially only in terms of the influence of the ability self-concept, a central part of the personal self. Starting with a literature review on why and how the ability self-concept impacts motivation and student outcomes, we argue that social selves – learners' knowledge about their group memberships and associated evaluations – have an impact, too. Students are more intrinsically motivated and more successful if they experience fit between learning environment and important self-aspects. Accordingly, we suggest a model according to which students try to increase fit by exerting primary control, i. e., by proactively changing the environment, with the self as agent. To that end (i) they mentally project the self as different from the actual self, with the mental self-projection serving as a self-evaluative standard and motiving behaviors aiming at its attainment, (ii) they choose behavioral options that allow for the enactment of important self-aspects, (iii) they choose interaction partners who share important self-aspects or are supportive of their behavioral enactment, and (iv) they switch between or prioritize different values, to best match affordances and constraints of the learning environment. If a student repeatedly fails to achieve fit through primary control, secondary control strategies are deployed, i. e., internal processes aimed at minimizing losses and saving resources for the pursuit of more attainable goals. To that end, students either disidentify with the learning environment or redefine their selves in a reactive manner, with, in many cases, detrimental effects on their academic outcomes. We hope to inspire educational psychologists to more systematically investigate the different self-aspects' impact on social and academic development of learners at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perceptions of choices and their outcomes are examined as a factor of independent and interdependent self-construals, the identity of the chooser and the recipient of the choice. The results have shown that independents like choices they make for themselves more than interdependents, but like choices they make for others and choices others make for them less than interdependents.

Copyright of Forum: Qualitative Social Research / Qualitative Sozialforschung is the property of Forum Qualitative Social Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)