Abstract
Dimensional comparisons are comparisons between different domains. They are well known in educational psychology. Here, they explain the seemingly paradoxical finding that students’ math and verbal self-concepts of ability usually show correlations close to zero, although students’ math and verbal achievements show strong positive correlations. This finding can be explained by the fact that students overemphasize potential differences between their math and verbal achievements when they form their self-concepts. However, dimensional comparisons also take place and affect self-evaluations outside the educational context, and the number of studies examining dimensional comparisons in different contexts has significantly increased during the last few years. This paper provides an up-to-date overview of findings on dimensional comparisons. It presents findings from studies that have examined effects of dimensional comparisons (as most studies dealing with dimensional comparisons have done so far), as well as studies that have focused on an understanding of the psychological processes involved in dimensional comparison (which relatively few studies have done so far). It is hoped that this paper will help broaden awareness of dimensional comparisons and stimulate further research on this type of comparison, especially in disciplines other than educational psychology.