What Matters When? Social and Dimensional Comparisons in the Context of University Major Choice: Data Access File

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Luise von Keyserlingk, University of California-Irvine. School of Education; Anna-Lena Dicke, University of California-Irvine. School of Education; Michael Becker, Technical University Dortmund; Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education; Jacquelynne S. Eccles, University of California-Irvine. School of Education; Australian Catholic Universitiy

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
data access file.pdf application/pdf 100 KB 05/13/2021 09:32:AM

Project Citation: 

von Keyserlingk, Luise , Dicke, Anna-Lena, Becker, Michael , and Eccles, Jacquelynne S. What Matters When? Social and Dimensional Comparisons in the Context of University Major Choice: Data Access File. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-05-13. https://doi.org/10.3886/E140521V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary This project provides a data access file for the following study.

What Matters When? Social and Dimensional Comparisons in the Context of University Major Choice

Students compare their achievement to different standards in order to evaluate their ability. We built upon the theoretical frameworks of situated expectancy-value theory, dimensional comparison theory, and the big-fish-little-pond effect literature to examine the role of social and dimensional comparisons for ability self-concept and subjective task value (STV) in secondary school and university major choice. We used two German longitudinal datasets from different cohorts with data collection in 12th grade and 2 years after high school graduation (Study 1: N = 2207; Study 2: N = 1710). Dimensional and social comparisons predicted students’ self-concept and domain-specific STV in school: Individual achievement was positively related to ability self-concept and STV in the corresponding domain and negatively related in the non-corresponding domain. School-level mean achievement was negatively related to ability self-concept and STV in the corresponding domain. Dimensional comparisons were directly related to university major choice, social comparisons were only indirectly related.




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