Personal conceptions of intelligence, self-esteem, and school achievement in Italian and Portuguese students.

Pepi, Annamaria ; Faria, Luisa ; Alesi, Marianna 等

Motivation and Learning

Considerable evidence in the literature demonstrates how scholastic achievement depends on the reciprocal enhancement of students' cognitive abilities and emotional-motivational attributes. When there is a disfunctional pattern of motivation in relation to studying, characterized by an inappropriate representation of the subject's abilities, then low self-esteem, negative attribution style, and lack of persistence create conditions for poor use of an individual's cognitive capacity, with the inevitable negative consequences not only for scholastic achievement, but for the process of constructing personality. This relationship is especially important during adolescence (Bacchini, Freda, & Cassaro, 2000; Vermigli, Travaglia, Alcini, & Galluccio, 2001). School, seen as a kind of test bank, and where the student's future is mapped out, influences the process of constructing self-image, self-esteem, and a sense of self-sufficiency. Simultaneously, new cognitive skills centralize the decision-making and planning processes (Carugati, 1997; Cattelino, Bigotti, & Bonino, 2001).

Personal Conceptions of Intelligence and School Achievement

Personal conceptions of intelligence direct individuals towards either a dynamic-incremental or static representation of their own abilities, and influence their formulation of causal attributions, achievement goals, persistence, and task choices (Dweck, 1999; Levy, Stroessner, & Dweck, 1998; Levy & Dweck, 1999). In particular, subjects taking the incremental view consider intelligence as a quality which can be improved through effort. They also set themselves goals based on their desire to master new skills, thereby increasing their competence. Moreover, they tend to adopt effective strategies, seek challenging tasks, and make greater effort, which is seen under their control. On the other hand, subjects with a static view consider intelligence as a sort of gift with which the individual is endowed and cannot change. They tend to adopt goals aimed at ensuring positive judgements of their abilities. They see effort as an indicator of their limited ability, employing superficial strategies and favoring easily achievable goals (Dweck, 1999; Erdley, Cain, Loomis, Dumas-Hines, & Dweck, 1997). The way people view intelligence seems to be linked to gender; that is, girls tend to adopt a static view of intelligence, which influences their choice of goals. They tend to avoid challenge, to have more limited expectations of success than their male counterparts, and to attribute failure to their own lack of ability. Failure is likely to be followed by worsening performance and an increased tendency toward learned helplessness and a generally lower level of self-esteem (Eccles, Wigfield, Harold, & Blumenfeld, 1993; Stetsenko, Little, Grasshof, & Oettingen, 2000). An individual's conception of intelligence thus has a powerful influence on scholastic achievement, both in terms of the predisposition to learn and of the results actually achieved. On the one hand, students who see ability and performance as relatively fixed tend to focus on performance, and are more likely to fall back on superficial strategies in order to complete a task. On the other hand, students who believe in incremental intelligence and performance demonstrate a greater predisposition for long-term learning. Furthermore, numerous studies have found a correlation between school grades and representations of intelligence. Students who adopt an incremental view tend to get higher grades than those with a static view (Faria, 1996; Stipek & Gralinski, 1991).

Self-esteem and School Achievement

Self-esteem is a fundamental aspect of a person's experience and quality of life (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001). A positive self-evaluation is a crucial predictor of one's general well-being and degree of adaptation to the social context, as well as a powerful factor in protecting against psycho-social risks in adolescence (Forzi & Not, 2003).

Self-esteem, traditionally seen as a one-dimensional construct corresponding to the evaluative component of the self (Rosenberg, 1979), emerges precociously when children are required early on to verify self-evaluation comparing it with actual performance on a variety of tasks. Moreover, this process of comparison and negotiation between the perceived self and the ideal self takes on new importance during adolescence because of the ever more diversified job of developing and the psycho-physical changes taking place (Bracken, 1992; D'Urso, Spagnolo, & Quaranta, 2000). Numerous differences have been noted between the self-esteem of males and females during adolescence because they tend to adhere to gender stereotypes. Specifically, male self-esteem seems to be more influenced by goals related to independence and autonomy, while female self-esteem is more closely defined by goals characterized by sensitivity and interdependence (Cross & Madson, 1997). In general, high self-esteem seems to be associated with personal conceptions oriented more toward the incremental end of the continuum, to a view of oneself as active and capable of promoting change through effort, and of setting goals which involve learning new things. In contrast, a need for continual confirmation of one's view of oneself, coupled with interpreting challenge as a threat to self-esteem, and reacting to failure by lowering self-esteem, are all more common in subjects who tend more toward a static view of intelligence (Alesi, 2003; Pepi & Alesi, 2002). The relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement has been well documented in the literature. While self-esteem is powerfully influenced by results achieved and appreciation shown by others from primary school on, it is also a good predictor of academic success. Adequate self-esteem is related to the capacity to cope with academic tasks by employing effective study methods and actively participating in the learning process, both of which are involved in achieving set goals (Vermigli, Travaglia, Alcini, & Galluccio, 2001; Crocker, Luhtanen, Cooper, & Bouvrette, 2003).

Cultural Influences

The recent increase in popularity of social conceptualizations of learning has encouraged educational psychologists to focus on the role of different social and cultural motivational factors, in their turn considered powerful mediators of academic success (Boekaerts, 1999). The role of cultural factors in directing belief systems relates to ability and effort, and in influencing cognitive and motivational patterns, has been well documented (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Specifically, different cultures seem to encourage certain constructs of self dependence (Epstein, 1992; Kitayama, Markus, Matsumoto, & Norasakkunkit, 1997; Harrington & Liu, 2002). Up to now, cross-cultural studies of motivational constructs have concentrated mostly on comparing Asian with Western groups from Europe and the United States. These studies have shown how Western cultures that focus primarily on the individual, see the results of their efforts as reflecting on themselves and their own abilities. Asian students, who focus more on the group, see personal involvement and effort as relevant not only to themselves but to their group (Lundeberg, Fox, & Brown, 2000). As far as personal conceptions of intelligence are concerned, the research has shown that Asian cultures attribute greater value to effort in their view of intelligence (Henderson, Marx, & Kim, 1999; Little & Lopez, 1997). North Americans seem to be significantly more incremental, thereby reflecting their cultural ideology as one based on the notion that it is possible to modify society to satisfy individual needs (Levy, Plaks, Hong, Chiu, & Dweck, 2001). Studies on the conception of intelligence conducted in Italy and Portugal have emphasized the importance of the subject's socioeconomic background. Both young children and adults from low socioeconomic classes tend to adopt a more static representation, to feel less control of their efforts and to prefer goals which offer a quick positive outcome and immediate confirmation of their competence. Moreover, Italian and Portuguese students tend to perceive intelligence as less of a gift or static entity, and more as something dynamic, as they get older. This finding could be interpreted as a reflection both of developmental factors, attributable to increasing cognitive ability linked to age, and also of the similarity between the Italian and Portuguese education systems, which both focus on promoting a spirit of collaboration and cooperation in the classroom (Faria, 2002; Pepi & Alesi, 2000).

The need for self-esteem also seems to be especially important in Western cultures, unlike the Japanese culture for example, in which self-criticism is appreciated much more (Forzi & Not, 2003). Self-esteem, like the individual's concept of self, may depend on the influences exercised by culture on the definition of internal standards of an individual's effectiveness and competence. In the face of failure, North American students tend to minimize negative external feedback in order to maintain high self-esteem, increasing their belief in themselves and in their abilities in those situations in which they feel most competent. In contrast, Japanese students are more susceptible to external feedback, and tend to be more self-critical. They also try to make more of an effort to correct their mistakes and improve their knowledge and skills. Furthermore, self-esteem seems to be especially susceptible to the cultural dependence-independence continuum (Heine, Kitayama, & Lehman, 2001; Hofstede, 1980). Self-esteem is based more on one's own abilities, qualities, and achievements in more independent cultures. Taking a broader perspective, analysis of self-esteem and of personal conceptions of intelligence should be viewed in relation to individualistic or collectivist connotations associated with any given culture. However, Italy seems to defy categorization in these terms (Triandis, McCusker, & Huk, 1990). As a southern European country, like Greece, it can be seen as a primarily collectivist culture, but numerous studies have also revealed traits characterizing it as an individualistic society (Stefanile, Giannini, & Smith, 2003). On the other hand, Portugal appears easier to classify as an individualistic culture. Hofstede (1997) highlights those traits which seem to characterize modern Portugal's economic rebirth. These traits include a dominance of individual interests, increasing national per-capita productivity, freedom of the press, political power exercised by the electorate, less state involvement in the economic system, prevalence of the value of freedom over that of equality, and the search for self-realization as the main objective of the individual.

Given these theoretical premises, this paper aims to compare the representation of intelligence and the self-esteem of Italian and Portuguese students as a function of educational level, gender, and socioeconomic class. The study also examines in more detail the relationships between representation of intelligence, self-esteem, and academic achievements in both countries.

METHOD

Subjects

Participants in this study were 1,540 Italian and Portuguese students attending their final year of high school (humanistic, scientific, and technical schools) or their first year of university (Psychology, Motor Sciences, Medicine and Engineering courses). In particular, the Italian group consisted of 814 students, with an average age of 18.26 years (44% attending secondary school and 56% attending university).

The Portuguese group consisted of the remaining 730 students with an average age of 19.07 years (52.2% attending secondary school and 47.8% attending university). There were more female than male subjects in both the Italian group (57% females and 43% males) and in the Portuguese group (61% females and 39% males). The medium socioeconomic level was predominant in the samples from both countries (44% in Italy and 43% in Portugal).

Materials and Procedure

The Sociodemographic Questionnaire, which analyses family background, was used during the sampling phase to divide the subjects into groups as a function of their socioeconomic level (high, medium, and low). Specifically, the evaluation parameters were family size and parents' academic history and jobs. School achievement was evaluated by grades which were obtained in the second part of the questionnaire. This assessment took into account both performance in individual subject areas such as Italian or Portuguese language and literature, mathematics, and motor activities, as well as a global score.

Subjects administered the Personal Conceptions of Intelligence Test (Faria & Fontaine, 1997) consisting of 26 items, 15 for the entity conception and 11 for the incremental. The entity or static items described intelligence as a fixed trait which is not under the individual's control--as a gift the individual is endowed with and cannot change. In contrast, the incremental items described intelligence as a quality that is controllable, malleable, and capable of improvement as a function of commitment and effort (see Table 1).

The administration modality was collective and the task did not last more than 20 minutes. The Portuguese version of the test was translated into Italian by the collaborative efforts of the Portuguese and Italian authors. The same administration procedure was used in both countries. In particular, subjects were asked to read each sentence carefully and express their degree of agreement, using an answer scale ranging from Totally agree to Totally disagree. The scoring parameters of the evaluation were from 1 point to 6 points for each dynamic item and from 6 points to 1 point for each static item. With regard to the psychometric qualities, the properties of the ECPI were satisfactory both in Italian and Portuguese contexts. The results of factor analyses highlighted the existence of two distinct factors, a static and a dynamic, which together explained 40% of the total variance observed. The internal consistency of the scales yielded alpha coefficients between 0.72 and .80.

The subject' self-esteem was measured by the Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). This scale consisted of ten items related to the way people feel about themselves. Five items were expressed in a positive way and the other five in a negative way. Subjects were asked to express their degree of agreement on a scale from 1 (Totally agree) to 6 (Totally disagree), with 4 as the midpoint. The test was administered by group (see Table 2).

RESULTS

Analysis of variance was performed to investigate the relationship between the conception of intelligence and self-esteem in Italian and Portuguese students. The independent variables were cultural background, educational level, gender, and socioeconomic level, while the dependent variables were static and dynamic conceptions of intelligence and self-esteem. Analysis revealed a significant interaction between cultural background and educational level in the group with a static conception of intelligence [F(1), = 11.12; p = 0.001]. More specifically, Italians attending their final year of high school were more likely to have a static conception of intelligence (M = 67.1) than did Italian university students (M = 64.7), than their peers in Portuguese high schools (M = 63.2), and than Portuguese university students (M = 64.6), as shown in Table 3.

A significant interaction was also found on self-esteem between cultural background and educational level [F(1) = 10.24; p = 0.001]; that is, the self-esteem scores of the Portuguese university students were significantly higher (M = 46.9), while those of Portuguese high school students were the lowest self-esteem scores (M = 43.63) (see Table 4).

Furthermore, there was a significant interaction for self-esteem between cultural background and socioeconomic level [F(2) = 3.27; p < 0.05]. Portuguese students from a high socioeconomic level had the highest self-esteem (M = 46.3). Within the Italian group, however, there was no significant difference in self-esteem between subjects in the low (M = 44.6), medium (M = 45.4) and high (M = 44.7) socioeconomic groups (see Table 5).

Finally, there was a significant interaction between gender and socioeconomic level for self-esteem [F(1) = 3.59; p < 0.051], with males from the medium socioeconomic group scoring the highest (M = 47.1), and females from the medium socioeconomic group scoring the lowest self-esteem (M = 43.5) (see Table 6).

Another aim of this research was to analyze the relationships among personal conception of intelligence, self-esteem, and school achievement in the two countries. Significant positive correlations were found between school achievement and conception of intelligence both for the static and incremental Italians. These correlations were also found to be significant for the subject areas of Italian language and literature, mathematics, and motor activities. It is worth noting that the correlations between incremental conception and the various aspects of school achievement were stronger than those for static representation. For the Italian group, self-esteem also correlated with global assessment and with mathematics scores (see Table 7).

In contrast, conception of intelligence in the Portuguese group yielded significant correlations between static representation and the scores for Portuguese language and literature, mathematics, and for the global assessment scores. On the other hand, the relationship between self-esteem and school achievement seems to be stronger than that found for the Italian group. Significant positive correlations were found between self-esteem and scores for individual subject areas considered both individually and together (see Table 8).

DISCUSSION

The present research was designed to compare the representations of intelligence and the self-esteem of Italian and Portuguese students as a function of educational and socioeconomic level, and gender.

This cross-cultural comparison highlights the interaction between cultural background and both educational and socioeconomic level in influencing self-esteem and perception of abilities. Specifically, Italian high school students have a more static conception of intelligence, while their Portuguese peers have a more dynamic conception. On the other hand, Portuguese university students have higher self-esteem than both Portuguese final-year high school students and Italian students at both educational levels. The influences of Italian and Portuguese cultural backgrounds are interwoven with the intrinsic nature of motivational constructs. Indeed, the conception of intelligence could be seen as a construct which is more oriented toward the chance of coping with changes, and could thus favor improvement in capacity where self-esteem is a subordinate concept in global self-assessment (Bolognini, Plancherel, Bettschart, & Halfon, 1996; Cattelino, Bigotti, & Bonino, 2001; Heimpel, Wood, Marshall, & Brown, 2002). Moreover, self-assessment which emphasizes one's ability to deal with change, implying a dynamic conception of intelligence, could be understood with reference to the specific stage of the educational career reached, and that is close to completion of high school and immediately prior to entry into the world of work or of university. At this stage, the cognitive advances achieved in terms of logical reasoning support a refusal of conformist acceptance of adult rules and principles because youngsters tend at this point to be more oriented toward autonomy and independence, elaborating decisional processes and action plans with ever-increasing awareness and independence (Carugati, 1997; Vianello, 1998). From a broader perspective, it is interesting to note differences in the current economic, social, and political positions of the two countries under investigation. The more static conception of the Italian subjects seem to reflect a general sense of pessimism and of economic difficulty. Differing beliefs about one's own ability need to be interpreted with reference to a wider macro-context, which is both structural, including the economic and political systems, as well as social, which encompasses globalization, industrialization, urbanization and social mobility (Kapoor, Hughes, Baldwin, & Blue, 2003; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Somech, 2000). Theories on culture agree that values, beliefs, and different representations of a society are the result of a complex historical process which takes in every aspect of social, economic, and political life, and involves a complex interaction between the ecological, geographic, and climatic environment (Kemmelmeier, Burnstein, Krumov, Genkova, Kanagawa, Hirshberg, Erb, Wieczorkowska, & Noels, 2003). Other findings from this research were the differing characterizations of self-esteem as a function of gender and socioeconomic level. The general assessment of self was highest for the male group from the medium socioeconomic level, and lowest for females from the same socioeconomic level. This is consistent with other findings on gender which have generally associated the most static view of ability to females and to the lower socioeconomic levels (Dweck, 1999; Stipek & Gralinski, 1991). Research in this field has examined gender stereotypes from the educational, family, and scholastic points of view (Bacchini, Freda, & Cesaro, 2000).

Another aim of this research was to examine in more detail the relationship between internal conceptions of intelligence, self-esteem, and school achievement. Both incremental and static representations were positively correlated with school achievement for the Italian group, whether one looked at individual scores for language and literature, math, and motor activities, or at global measures of achievement. These findings confirm the importance of the role played by representation of intelligence in determining school achievement, both in terms of students' willingness to learn and the results actually achieved (Faria, 1996; Stipek & Gralinski, 1991). Self-esteem, on the other hand, was correlated only with the global scores and those on math for the Italian group. However, self-esteem scores for the Portuguese group revealed more consistent correlations with the global and individual achievement scores. Indeed, the perception of how much one is worth and in what way is strictly related to school achievement during adolescence, with higher self-esteem being related to better school results (Vermigli, Travaglia, Alcini, & Galluccio, 2001). It is also worth noting that the strongest correlations for the Portuguese group were those between self-esteem and motor activities. This finding is interesting because it is in line with recent studies which have shown how important the role of self-esteem is for competence in sports, which was considered the field of choice for the self-assessment of adolescents and for assessment of themselves in relation to others. The link between motivational constructs and school achievement, in line with a metacognitive approach, promotes and encourages the development of self-regulated learning, which causes the student to reflect on what is happening and what is needed to reach the objectives which have been set (Di Paula, & Campbell, 2002; Heimpel, Wood, Marshall, & Brown, 2002).

In sum, the results of this study suggest some interesting ideas for further research using cross-cultural studies. In line with the close relationship between cultural complexity, belief systems, and economic determinants, the conceptions of intelligence and self-esteem in Italy and Portugal in relation to the individualism-collectivism continuum may be worth examining. There is ample evidence that complex cultures tend to be more individualistic, both in terms of the elevated number of ingroups and of the population's increased autonomy of choice and action (Triandis, McCusker, & Hui, 1990).

This study was funded by the University of Palermo/Italy (Bando CoRI, 2002) and the Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Porto/Portugal. Annamaria Pepi, Dipartimento di Psicologia, Universita di Palermo, Italia.

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Luisa Faria, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciencias da Educacao, Universidade do Porto, Portugal.

Marianna Alesi, Dipartimento di Psicologia, Universita di Palermo, Italia.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Annamaria Pepi, Dipartimento di Psicologia, Universita di Palermo, V. le delle Scienze, Edificio 15, 90128 Palermo, Italy. E-mail: [email protected].

Table 1--Examples of entity and incremental items

I have a certain amount of intelligence and I can't do much
to change it (Entity item) The difficulties and the challenges
I encounter prevent me from developing my intelligence (Entity item)

Effort enables me to become more intelligent (Incremental item)
What I learn with the tasks I make is more important than the
results obtained (Incremental item)

Table 2--Examples of positive and negative items in
Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965)

Globally I am satisfied with myself. (Positive item)
I feel I have a certain number of qualities (Positive item)
Sometimes I think I'm worthless (Negative item)
I feel I have few things to be proud of (Negative item)

Table 3--Differences in Static Personal Conceptions of
Intelligence by Cultural Background and Educational Level

 Cultural Background

 Italy Portugal

Educational Level M SD N M SD N

 High School 67,1 9,2 359 63,2 9,9 381
 University 64,7 10,0 455 64,6 10,2 349
 Total 1 65,8 9,8 814 63,8 10,0 730

 Cultural Background

 Total

Educational Level M SD N

 High School 65,1 9,9 740
 University 64,7 10,1 804
 Total 64,9 9,9 1544

Table 4--Differences in Self-Esteem by Cultural Background
and Educational Level

 Cultural Background

 Italy Portugal

Educational Level M SD N M SD N

 High School 45,0 7,7 359 43,6 9,3 381
 University 44,9 7,9 455 46,9 7,8 350
 Total 45,0 7,8 814 45,2 8,8 730

 Cultural Background

 Total

Educational Level M SD N

 High School 44,3 8,6 740
 University 45,8 7,9 804
 Total 45,1 8,3 1544

Table 5--Differences in Self-Esteem by Cultural Background
and Socio-economic Level

 Cultural Background

 Italy Portugal

Socio-economic Level M SD N M SD N

 High 44,7 8,3 261 46,3 8,1 244
 Medium 45,4 7,5 356 44,5 9,3 318
 Low 44,6 7,9 197 45,0 8,6 167

 Total 45,0 7,8 814 45,2 8,8 729

 Cultural Background

 Total

Socio-economic Level M SD N

 High 45,5 8,2 505
 Medium 44,9 8,4 674
 Low 44,8 8,2 364

 Total 45,1 8,3 1543

Table 6--Differences in Self-Esteem by Gender and Socio-economic Level

 Gender

 Females Males

Socio-economic M SD N M SD N
 level

 High 44,7 8,1 284 46,4 8,4 221
 Medium 43,5 8,4 400 47,1 7,8 273
 Low 44,4 8,0 225 45,4 8,5 137

 Total 44,1 8,2 909 46,5 8,2 631

 Gender

 Total

Socio-economic M SD N
 level

 High 45,5 8,2 505
 Medium 45,0 8,3 673
 Low 44,8 8,2 362

 Total 45,1 8,3 1540

Table 7--Correlations between Personal Conceptions of Intelligence,
Self-Esteem and School Marks in Italian Group

 Italian
 language
 and Motor Global
 literature Mathematics Activities Assessment

Entity Conception 0,128 * 0,115 * 0,187 * 0,136 **
 of Intelligence

Incremental 0,223 ** 0,185 ** 0,266 ** 0,189 **
 Conception of
 Intelligence

Self-Esteem 0,098 0,108 * 0,123 0,86 *

Table 8--Correlations between Personal Conceptions of Intelligence,
Self-Esteem and School Marks in Portuguese Group

 Portuguese
 language and Motor Global
 literature Mathematics Activities Assessment

Entity 0,092 * 0,105 * 0,026 0,099 **
 Conception of
 Intelligence

Incremental 0,045 0,076 -0,047 0,064
 Conception of
 Intelligence

Self-Esteem 0,098 * 0,085 * 0,137 ** 0,113 **