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This research investigates children’s self-ascriptions of feminine and masculine attributes (gender role self-concept) and whether they predict academic self-concepts and performance in gendered subject domains in their early Bildung-career. We suggest that as children incorporate gender stereotypes into their self-concept, perceptions of their competence (cognitive component of academic self-concepts), their affective-motivational reactions (affective component of academic self-concepts), as well as their performance in reading and mathematics are shaped accordingly. In a sample of 113 first graders we (1) measured gender role self-concept, and (2) analyzed its impact on children’s academic self-concepts and performance in mathematics and reading half a year later. As expected, girls ascribed comparatively more feminine and boys comparatively more masculine-stereotyped behaviors to themselves. Furthermore, the more feminine children described themselves the better was their reading performance half a year later, while no indirect effects, mediated via the academic self-concept, appeared. Also, the more masculine children described themselves, the higher were their mathematics related ability self-concepts half a year later, however, mathematics achievements were unrelated to any of the other variables. We discuss that future research needs to more systematically study the variables investigated in this research in children as they move from school start into third grade when the gender role self-concept as well as differences between girls and boys in their academic self-concepts, their liking for different school subjects, and their skills are well established. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background:Gender differences in educational outcomes encompass many different areas. For example, in some educational settings, boys lag behind girls on indicators of educational success, such as leaving certificates and type of school attended. In studies testing performance, boys typically show lower competence in reading compared with girls, yet tend to show higher competence in school subjects related to mathematics. While such differences in competence between the genders can be relatively small, they coincide with much greater differences in motivation-related variables emerging during the school years, and thus seem to channel students into lifelong gendered pathways via gendered educational and occupational preferences. Purpose:From a psychological perspective, we propose the Interests as Identity Regulation Model (IIRM) as a useful tool for understanding many of the gender differences in educational outcomes. Specifically, the focus is on two areas of research: girls’ and women’s under-representation in subjects such as maths and science; and boys’ lower engagement at school in general. Sources of evidence:Findings from recent research, mostly from a psychological perspective using quantitative measures and empirical studies testing the IIRM, are reported to illustrate different aspects of the interplay between students’ gender identity and gendered social meanings of academic domains (such as maths), as well as academic engagement in general. Main argument:IIRM suggests that the perceived fit between students’ gender identity and the gendered social meanings associated with different possible behaviours at school (e.g. choosing a subject, investing effort or not) is a relevant heuristic for students’ directing of their learning activities. The male stereotyping of maths and science implies a greater misfit between girls’ gender identity and engagement in these domains. The perception that displaying effort and engagement at school is feminine leads to a misfit between boys’ gender identity and academic engagement in general. Conclusions:Attempts to alleviate gender differences in educational outcomes that channel students into lifelong gendered pathways with regard to qualifications and occupations will benefit from an understanding of how closely these academic choices are related to students’ gender identity. Interventions should aim at enhancing the individually perceived fit between a student’s gender identity and engagement in specific subjects or learning activities. The nature of such interventions will be an important topic of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors discuss the distinction of the how and what of thinking processes. They say that culture, self-construal, and regulatory focus can affect thinking and mentions the explanatory powers and suggestion of the GLObal versus Local processing Model (GLOMOsys). They also discuss their Semantic-Procedural-Interface (SPI) model of the self and suggested that self-construal may trigger different procedural thinking.

This article presents commentary on the connectionist model of the self as demonstrated in the synthesis of Imitative and Sequence Learning Function (I-SELF) computer simulations developed by Yoshihisa Kashima. The authors elaborate on how the I-SELF version of the Mead-James dynamic self serves as a learning tool for the elegance of flexibly reconstructed self knowledge and how it is activated by temporal, cultural and psychosocial contexts.

The Semantic Procedural Interface Model of the Self (SPI) suggests that, depending on the strength of the situational accessibility of independent or interdependent self-knowledge, people will tend to process stimuli either unaffected by context (context-independency) or cognizant of context (context-dependency). In this paper we describe the cognitive processes underlying context-independent or context-dependent information processing. We suggest that degree of context-dependency depends on cognitive control processes (attentional focus on focal or task-relevant information; inhibition of contextual or task-irrelevant information; task-management). Second, we predict motivational effects of the self's independence/interdependence by including assumptions about possible selves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have found evidence that social information processing is strongly influenced by the person either primarily defining his or her self as an autonomous entity (independent self-construal) or as related to other people (interdependent self-construal). In this chapter, we describe the psychological mechanisms by which independent and interdependent self-construals affect individual experience. We propose the Semantic Procedural Interface (SPI) model of the self, which distinguishes two such mechanisms. In addition to differences in the semantic content areas from which independent and interdependent self-construals arise (semantic application mechanism), there are also different procedural modes of thinking (procedural application mechanism) associated with them. Independent self-definitions coincide with the tendency to process stimuli unaffected by the context in which they appear. Relating the self to the social contexts within interdependent self-construals facilitates context-bounded thinking (i.e., processing stimuli by paying attention to their relation to the given context). The results of several experiments attesting to the value of the differentiation between both application mechanisms are presented. We discuss how far differences in information processing between members of different cultural groups can be traced back to the mechanisms described in the SPI model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]