Examining students’ implicit academic self-concepts and intrinsic values in a comprehensive framework integrating key elements of expectancy-value theory, dimensional comparison theory, and theory on vocational interests

Abstract Implicit academic self-concepts and intrinsic values describe students’ automatically activated perceived abilities and attitudes towards school subjects. In the present research, we examined these implicit constructs within the context of a framework that integrates key elements of three prominent theories from the field of educational psychology: expectancy-value theory, dimensional comparison theory, and theory on vocational interests. To this end, we developed four go/no-go association tasks (GNATs) to measure implicit math and German self-concepts and values. Furthermore, we examined the formation and impact of these implicit constructs using cross-sectional data from a sample of 946 ninth- and tenth-graders from German high schools. Guided by three central research questions, we found (1) evidence for the validity of the GNATs to measure students’ implicit self-concepts and values in math, (2) that implicit math self-concepts and values appear to be influenced by dimensional comparisons (where students compare their achievements in different subjects), but not by social comparisons (where students compare their achievements with those of other students), and (3) that implicit math self-concepts predict students’ vocational interests over and above their achievements, explicit self-concepts, and explicit values in math and German. Our research also demonstrated the benefit of combining key elements from different theories of educational psychology to gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between students’ achievements, self-concepts, values, and vocational interests. Moreover, it is of great practical relevance as it highlights the importance of implicit self-concepts and values for students.