Reciprocal Effects of Self-Concept and Performance from a Multi-Dimensional Perspective by Herbert W. Marsh and Rhonda G. Craven Summary by Psychman There is a revolution sweeping psychology, one that emphasizes a positive psychology and one that focuses on how healthy, normal and exceptional individuals can get the most from life (p. 133). These researchers/authors contribute to this “revolution” by working in the area of self-concept and positive self-esteem. Their major point in this review is that although the classic concept of global self- esteem is important, specific area self-concepts are more important. In other words, it is less important what you may think of yourself in some large sense that takes in almost every aspect of yourself—your personality—and more important how you feel about your abilities in specific skill areas, such as writing, math, athletics, social skills, and so on. You will recognize this distinction from our class discussion of the differences between self-esteem and self-efficacy. It is interesting that these authors do not use the well-established term, self-efficacy since this, clearly, is what they are discussing. But just know that it is the same thing. High self-esteem is likely to produce greater subjective “happiness,” but measured self-esteem is not related to academic performance. If you feel good about yourself in general, you may feel better, but research does does not support any reason to believe that you will be more achieving. If you like math and do well in math classes, it is much more likely to be related to specific self-efficacy for math. You perceive yourself as “good in math.” A person can have great overall self-esteem but also see themselves as “poor in math” and may avoid taking math classes whenever possible. The authors work off of a multi-dimensional model of self-concept they established back in 1976 (presented in diagram form on page 137). The model breaks self-concept down into academic self- concept and non-academic self concept. It further breaks down academic self-concept into the areas of English, History, Math and Science. Non-academic areas are Social, Emotional and Physical. Notice that Social and Emotional self-concepts are, together, the basis for Emotional Intelligence (EQ) that we will be discussing at several points this semester. Also notice that this multi-dimensional model is consistent with Gardener's model of multiple intelligences that we will be studying this semester. (I am doing a bit of foreshadowing—a technique to help you to learn better and with more ease.) We could ask, what makes an “A” student in a particular college course different from a “C” student? Well, there are probably many things that go into this distinction, but relevant to this line of work in psychology, the “A” student probably has greater self-efficacy for the subject than does the “C” student. Did the “A” student already have good self-efficacy for this subject and therefore earned a top grade, or did the student earn good grades in this subject in prior education and therefore the student developed high self-efficacy? Ah, the chick-and-egg problem (which comes first?). The answer is both