The reference group effect: An explanation of the paradoxical relationship between academic achievement and self-confidence across countries

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

Volumn 43, Issue 8, 2012, Pages 1205-1228

  van de Gaer, Eva ^a   Grisay, Aletta ^b   Schulz, Wolfram ^a   Gebhardt, Eveline ^a  

^a Australian Council for Educational Research   (Australia)

^b UNIVERSITY OF LIÈGE   (Belgium)

Author keywords

Attitudes; Beliefs; Cultural psychology; Education teaching; Group processes; Values

Indexed keywords

EID: 84864749960     PISSN: 00220221     EISSN: 15525422     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0022022111428083     Document Type: Article

References (24)

1. Atkinson, J. W. (1957). Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. Psychological Review, 64, 359-373.
2. Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2000). Assessing extreme and acquiescence response sets in cross-cultural research using structural equations modeling. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 31, 187-212.
3. Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1985). Applied multiple regression and correlation analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
4. Credé, M., Bashshur, M., & Niehorster, S. (2010). Reference group effects in the measurement of personality and attitudes. Journal of Personality Assessment, 92(5), 390-399.
5. Dai, D. Y., & Rinn, A. N. (2008). The Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect: What do we know and where do we go from here? Educational Psychology Review, 20, 283-317.
6. Eccles, J. S., Adler, T. F., Futterman, R., Goff, S. B., Kaczala, C. M., Meece, J. L., & Midgley, C. (1983). Expectancies, values, and academic behaviors. In J. T. Spence (Ed.), Achievement and achievement motivation (pp. 75-146). San Francisco: Freeman.
7. Heine, S. J., Kitayama, S., Lehman, D. R., Takata, T., Ide E., Leung, C., & Matsumoto, H. (2001). Divergent consequences of success and failure in Japan and North America: An investigation of self-improving motivations and malleable selves. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(4), 599-615.
8. Heine, S. J., Lehman, D. R., Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1999). Is there a universal need for positive self-regard? Psychological Review, 106(4), 766-794.
9. Heine, S. J., Lehman, D. R., Peng, K., & Greenholtz, J. (2002). What's wrong with cross-cultural comparisons of subjective Likert scales: The reference-group problem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 903-918.
10. Kennedy, A., & Trong, K. (2006). A comparison of fourth-graders' academic self-concept and attitudes toward reading, mathematics, and science in PIRLS and TIMSS countries. Proceedings of the IEA International Research Conference, 2, 49-60.
11. King, H., Murray, C. J. L., Salomon, J. A., & Tandon, A. (2004). Enhancing the validity and cross-cultural comparability of measurement in survey research. American Political Science Review, 98(1), 191-207.
12. Lie, S., & Turmo, A. (2005). Cross-country comparability of students' self-reports. Evidence from PISA 2003 (OECD/PISA, Document: TAG(0505)11). Paris: OECD.
13. Marsh, H. W. (1984). Self-concept: The application of a frame of reference model to explain paradoxical results. Australian Journal of Psychology, 28, 165-181.
14. Marsh, H. W., & Hau, K.T. (2003). Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect on academic self-concept. A cross-cultural (26-country) test of the negative effects of academically selective schools. American Psychologist, 58(4), 364-376.
15. Marsh, H. W., Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O., & Köller, O. (2008). Social comparison and Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effects on self-concept and other self-belief constructs: Role of generalized and specific others. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(3), 510-524.
16. OECD. (2009). PISA 2006 technical report. Paris: Author.
17. Peng, K., Nisbett, R. E., & Wong, N. Y. C. (1997). Validity problems comparing values across cultures and possible solutions. Psychological Methods, 2(4), 329-344.
18. Rasbash, J., Charlton, C., Browne, W. J., Healy, M., & Cameron, B. (2009) MLwiN Version 2.1. Centre for Multilevel Modelling, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
19. Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
20. Robinson, W. S. (1950). Ecological correlations and the behavior of individuals. American Sociological Review, 15, 351-357.
21. Shen, C., & Tam, H. K. (2008). The paradoxical relationship between student achievement and self-perception: A cross-national analysis based on three waves of TIMSS data. Educational Research and Evaluation, 14(1), 87-100.
22. Snijders, T. A. B., & Bosker, R. J. (1999). Multilevel analysis. An introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modelling. London: SAGE.
23. Walker, M. (2007). Ameliorating culturally based extreme response tendencies to attitude items. Journal of Applied Measurement, 8(3), 267-278.
24. Wilkins, J. L. M. (2004). Mathematics and science self-concept: An international investigation. The Journal of Experimental Education, 72(4), 331-346.