ABSTRACT A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON OF SELF-PERCEPTION AMONG AMERICAN AND CHINESE SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS by Jianxiang Yang Self-perception of school-aged students has a strong interaction with their academic achievement, social relationship, and emotional well-being. The present study explores the grade, gender, and cultural difference in self-perception among Chinese and American students using a Cultural-Probe-Approach self-perception instrument that incorporates values emphasized by both American and Chinese cultures. Self-report data were acquired from 77 American students and 510 Chinese students from grades 4, 6, 8, and 10. The results display some revealing grade, gender, and cultural differences in students’ self-perception at overall and domain-specific levels. Implications for education and mental health services are also discussed. A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON OF SELF-PERCEPTION AMONG AMERICAN AND CHINESE SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Education Specialist Department of Educational Psychology by Jianxiang Yang Miami University Oxford, Ohio 45056 2007 Advisor Aimin Wang, Ph.D. Reader Doris Bergen, Ph.D. Reader David Shriberg, Ph.D. Reader Gary W. Peterson, Ph.D. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables iv List of Figures v Acknowledgement vi Introduction 1 Literature Review 2 Historical Context and Definition of Self-Perception 2 Self-Efficacy and Self-Regulation 3 Self-Esteem 4 Unidimensional and Multidimensional Measurement Models 5 Measures of Self-Perception 5 The Impact of Self-Perception 7 Age Difference of Self-Perception 7 Gender Difference of Self-Perception 8 Cultural Difference in Global and Domain-Specific Self-Perception 9 Present Study 10 Methodology 12 Participants 12 Materials 12 Procedures 13 Results 14 Grade Difference in Overall Self-Perception 17 Grade Difference in Domain-Specific Self-Perception 19 Gender Difference 20 Cultural Difference 21 ii Discussion and conclusions 25 Cultural Difference 25 Grade Difference 25 Gender Difference 28 Implications 28 Limitations 29 Future Researches 30 Summary 31 References 32 Appendices 36 Survey: How Much Is That Like You? (English) 36 Survey: How Much Is That Like You? (Chinese) 39 Parental Consent Form 42 iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Numbers of participants from U.S. and China 12 Table 2: Descriptive statistics of American students’ self-perception scores 14 Table 3: Descriptive statistics of Chinese students’ self-perception scores 16 Table 4: The main effect and interactions of the mix multi-analysis of variance 17 Table 5: Means, standard deviations, and grade difference of students’ overall 18 self-perception Table 6: Grade difference in overall self-perception among American and 19 Chinese students Table 7: Grade difference in domain-specific self-perception 19 Table 8: Means, standard deviations, and gender difference of overall 20 self-perception among American and Chinese students Table 9: Gender difference by grades in overall self-perception among 21 American and Chinese students Table 10: Means, standard deviations, and Cultural difference in domain-specific 22 self-perception among American and Chinese students iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Example item from the Self-Perception Profile for Children 6 Figure 2: Grade difference of students’ overall self-perception 18 Figure 3: Grade difference in overall self-perception among American and 18 Chinese students Figure 4: Grade differences of self-perception in domains of group orientation, 20 schoolwork, and social relationships with adults Figure 5: Gender difference in overall self-perception among American and 21 Chinese students Figure 6 Gender difference by grades in overall self-perception among 21 American and Chinese students Figure 7: Cultural difference in domain-specific self-perception among American 22 and Chinese students Figure 8: Cultural and grade differences in domain-specific self-perception. 23 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The completion of my thesis would not have been possible without the guidance, support, and encouragement of many people. I am grateful to my advisor, Dr. Aimin Wang, for his enlightening guidance in the initial project planning and design stage as well as his help with translating data into meaningful interpretations. Working with Dr. Wang as his graduate assistant these past years has been a valuable learning experience for me in general and for my thesis development. I would like to offer thanks to the members on my committee. Dr. Doris Bergen’s high expectations and intriguing questions helped me think through my research project. Dr. David Shriberg and Dr. Gary Peterson were always there to meet and talk about my ideas, to proofread and mark up my chapters, and to share their in-depth understanding of cross-cultural research. I would like to extend my appreciation for the expertise, patience, support, and dedication that all my committee members offered during the process of my thesis development. Special thanks for reviewing my work on a very short notice. My thanks also go to my friends and colleagues, Julie Speelman and Mingzhu Xia, for their altruism in offering their time and resources to help me complete my data collection and data analysis. Last, but not least, I thank my family members and friends for their unconditional support and encouragement. vi Chapter I INTRODUCTION During the recent decades, diversity in the student population in the United States has been discussed with significant intensity in both the current research literature and scholarship on educational practices (e.g. Zhang, N. & Dixon, D. N., 2003; Peavy, R. V. & Li, H. Z., 2003; Constantine, M. G. & Gushue, G. V., 2003; Tarver Behring, S., Cabello, B., Kushida, D. & Murguia, A., 2000; Ingraham, C. L., 2000; Pope, R. L.; Reynolds, A. L. & Mueller, J. A., 2004). The U. S. Department of Education’s latest report (2005) revealed that 42 percent of public school students were racial or ethnic minorities in 2003, markedly up from 22 percent in 1972. As the schools become increasingly diverse, cultural competence is emphasized in every aspect of school psychological service delivery (National Association of School Psychologists, 2005). The self-perception of school-aged students has been an additional major area of concern in school mental health service due to the interaction among academic achievement, social interaction, and the emotional well-being of children and adolescents (e.g. Bandura, 1977; Bednar & Peterson, 1995; Harter, 1981; Harter & Marold, 1991). It is generally acknowledged that the way students perceive themselves performing competently in school, with friends, and with family may have great implications for their psychological health. The present study employed a self-perception scale adopting a Cultural Probe Approach (Wang, 2005). Data were collected from students in the 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th grades who resided in the United States and China. This study intended to explore potential cultural differences in global self-perception as well as across its specific domains. Another objective was to investigate the potential gender and age differences in self-perception among the secondary school students sampled for this study. 1 Chapter II LITERATURE REVIEW Historical Context and Definition of Self-Perception Questions about the nature of the self goes back to the ancient Greeks, when the distinction between physical and nonphysical aspects of human functioning led philosophers to speculate about the nature of consciousness, thought, and knowledge. The awareness of people’s own thinking suggests not only a nonphysical self that does the thinking but also a physical being in which the thinking self resides (Strauss & Goethals, 1991). The complexity of the thinking self makes self-perception one of the most popular ideas in psychological literature. The ERIC database includes over 6000 entries under the "self- perception" descriptor. Unfortunately, self-perception is also a poorly defined construct. Terms such as "self-perception", “self-concept”, "self-esteem", "self-worth", "self-acceptance" and so on are often used interchangeably and inconsistently, when they may relate to different ideas about how people view themselves. Accordingly, definition is the first consideration for the presented study. The self- perception in this study refers to the self-awareness and self-evaluation of the various social, physical, academic, and intellectual characteristics that constitute a person as a social being. In conceptualizing the roots of the perceived self, theorists have invoked two distinct traditions: the first being a focus on self-appraisals and a second being a focus on reflected appraisals (Harter & Marold, 1991). For William James (1892), the evaluative portion of the self, one’s self-esteem, reflected the ratio of one’s successes to one’s pretensions to be successful. Thus, if one’s successes were commensurate with one’s pretensions, high self-esteem would result. Conversely, if one’s aspirations exceeded one’s perceived level of success, low self- esteem would ensue. Cooley (1902)’s major contribution, the self as reflected appraisals, was the general notion that self-conception grew out of social interaction. As children develop, they acquire the capacity to reflect on how other people view themselves. Children would increasingly imagine others’ view, and though their perceptions of other’s viewpoints might not be accurate, they were nevertheless important. Cooley