Testing the Relative Universalism of Psychological Theories: A Person-Centered Analysis of Control-Value Theory

Advancing Control-Value Theory (CVT) requires demonstrating not only its explanatory power but also its capacity for relative universalism—the notion that psychological mechanisms are functionally universal yet contextually parameterized. Although CVT has been examined across diverse demographic and cultural groups, such variable-centered comparisons often overlook substantial within-group heterogeneity. To strengthen CVT’s theoretical generalizability, we propose a person-centered approach as a more rigorous method for evaluating relative universalism. Using latent profile analysis (LPA), we identify learner subgroups defined by distinct constellations of discrete achievement emotions. This approach enables a more precise test of whether CVT’s functional relations—such as the predictive links between control, value, and emotion—remain invariant across empirically derived profiles characterized by low within-group and high between-group variability. Applying this framework to a large sample of first-year university students, we find that although CVT’s structural relations are consistent across gender and prior education, they partially diverge across latent emotional profiles. These findings highlight the context-sensitive boundaries of CVT and demonstrate the value of person-centered methodologies in refining and extending the theory’s scope, thereby offering a pathway for advancing CVT toward a more robust conception of relative universalism.