Ana Luísa Marques Oliveirarepositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/42270/1/Ana Luísa...

junho de 2016

Ana Luísa Marques Oliveira

A systematic literature review on the themes and measures used to study academic possible selves

Universidade do MinhoEscola de Psicologia

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Dissertação de MestradoMestrado Integrado em Psicologia

Trabalho realizado sob a orientação do

Professor Doutor Pedro José Sales Luís Fonseca Rosário

e coorientação da

Professora Doutora Paula Cristina Soares Magalhães

Silva Correia

junho de 2016

Ana Luísa Marques Oliveira

A systematic literature review on the themes and measures used to study academic possible selves

Universidade do MinhoEscola de Psicologia

DECLARAÇÃO

Nome: Ana Luísa Marques Oliveira

Endereço de correio eletrónico: [email protected]

Número de cartão de cidadão: 14302308 0 ZY9

Título da dissertação: A systematic literature review on the themes and measures used to study

academic possible selves

Orientador: Professor Doutor Pedro José Sales Luís Fonseca Rosário

Coorientador: Professora Doutora Paula Cristina Soares Magalhães Silva Correia

Ano de conclusão: 2016

Designação do Mestrado: Mestrado Integrado em Psicologia

É AUTORIZADA A REPRODUÇÃO INTEGRAL DESTA DISSERTAÇÃO APENAS

PARA EFEITOS DE INVESTIGAÇÃO, MEDIANTE DECLARAÇÃO ESCRITA DO

INTERESSADO, QUE A TAL SE COMPROMETE;

Universidade do Minho, 13/06/2016

Assinatura: ________________________________________________

ii

Index

Agradecimentos…......………………………………………………………………….. iii

Resumo………………………………………………………………………………….. iv

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………….. v

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….. 6

Method………………………………………………………………………………….. 8

Eletronic searches………………………………………………………………….. 8

Inclusion and exclusion criteria……………………………………………………. 9

Data extraction……………………………………………………………………... 10

Results…………………………………………………………………………………... 11

Discussion………………………………………………………………………………. 15

Limitations…………………………………………………………………………. 17

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………. 17

References………………………………………………………………………………. 18

Index for tables

Table 1. Keywords used in the search…………………………………………………… 9

Table 2. Data extracted for systematic review about APSs…………………………….. 12

Index for figures

Figure 1. PRISMA flowchart with the number of articles recorded in each of the phases

of the process throughout this systematic review………………………………………...

11

iii

Agradecimentos

Aos meus orientadores: Professor Doutor Pedro Rosário e Professora Doutora Paula

Magalhães pela disponibilidade, apoio, paciência, confiança, conhecimentos, por acreditarem

que eu era capaz e por me desafiarem constantemente a ser e fazer melhor.

À equipa do GUIA por todos os momentos partilhados. Convosco aprendi que juntos

vamos mais longe! Um agradecimento especial à Sílvia e à Jennifer por todo o apoio e

disponibilidade. Sem vocês este trabalho não seria o mesmo.

Às minhas colegas e amigas: Catarina Ribeiro, Isabel Vieira, Marta Borges, Sofia

Tavares e Vera Soares. Obrigada por estes cinco maravilhosos anos! Passamos por muito juntas,

desde bons a maus momentos, e espero passarmos ainda mais momentos juntas, de preferência

bons momentos! Obrigada pela vossa ajuda, carinho, gargalhadas e brincadeiras!

À minha melhor amiga: Catarina Castro. Já lá vão sete anos desde que nos conhecemos

e a nossa amizade não diminuiu, pelo contrário! Quero agradecer por estares comigo nos

momentos de dor, raiva, angústia, mas também nos momentos de euforia, alegria e diversão!

Aos meus pais José e Amélia, à minha irmã Inês e avó Luísa: vocês são o meu porto

seguro. Desafiam-me a seguir os meus sonhos e a ir mais longe, mas sempre com vocês por

perto para aquilo que precisar. Obrigada por tudo!

Ao meu avô José, avô Francisco, avó Rosa e tia Deolinda: obrigada pelos momentos

partilhados convosco. Mostraram-me que nunca estamos sozinhos, que uma queda não significa

o fim e que a humildade, a fé e perseverança são essenciais para a nossa vida, quer esta seja

longa ou curta.

Aos restantes familiares, amigos, colegas e professores que me ajudaram ao longo deste

percurso.

“Aqueles que passam por nós, não vão sós, não nos deixam sós.

Deixam um pouco de si, levam um pouco de nós” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

iv

Revisão sistemática de literatura sobre os temas e medidas utilizados no estudo dos

possible selves académicos

Resumo

Os possible selves referem-se a imagens que os indivíduos têm deles próprios no futuro. Eles

derivam das representações do “eu” no passado e incluem representações do “eu” no futuro. Ao

mesmo tempo representam os desejos, medos e fantasias que o indivíduo tem. Os possible

selves podem ser desenvolvidos em qualquer contexto de vida ou domínio. A presente revisão

sistemática tem como principal objetivo mostrar quais os temas e medidas utilizados para

estudar os possible selves no domínio académico, ou seja, os possible selves académicos. A

pesquisa dos artigos foi realizada em três bases de dados (WebScience, PsycArticles e Scopus).

Foram apenas selecionados os estudos que referissem e avaliassem os possible selves

académicos. A pesquisa e escrita dos resultados seguiu as recomendações da Cochrane e do

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). Os

resultados mostram que os principais temas estudados juntamente com os possible selves

académicos são: identidade, autorregulação, académico e o sexo. A maioria dos estudos

incluídos na revisão sistemática utilizaram como método para avaliar os possible selves

académicos um formato de respostas do tipo escala de Likert.

Palavras-chave: possible selves, académico, infância tardia, adolescência, revisão

sistemática.

v

A systematic literature review on the themes and measures used to study academic

possible selves

Abstract

Possible selves refer to images that individuals create about themselves in the future. They

derive from representations of the self in the past and include representations of the self in

future. At same time, they represent individually and specific hopes, fears and fantasies.

Possible selves can be developed within any context of an individual´s life or domains. This

systematic review aims to provide a compilation of the evidence on the themes and measures

used to study possible selves in academic domain. Three databases were used (WebScience,

PsycArticles, and Scopus) and only studies referring to, and evaluating, possible selves in

academic domain were selected. The reporting and research of the results conforms to the

Cochrane’s recommendation and PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews

and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. Results showed that the main themes studied in relation to

academic possible selves were: identity, self-regulation, academic, and gender. Additionally,

the majority of the studies included in the present review used a Likert-like scale to evaluate

the presence or absence of academic possible selves.

Keywords: possible selves, academic, late childhood, adolescence, systematic review.

Running head: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF ACADEMIC POSSIBLE SELVES

6

A systematic literature review on the themes and measures used to study academic possible

selves

The interest about Possible Selves (PSs) emerged in 1980s when Markus and Nurius

(1986) studied this unexplored domain of self-knowledge. The construct of PSs refers to

images that individuals create about themselves in the future. The relevance of PSs is two-

fold; firstly, PSs work as incentives for future behavior and, secondly, they provide an

interpretative and evaluative context for the current view of the self. In general, these images

that people have about themselves offer an orientation or direction about the future, about

what individuals want to be and what they want to achieve (Markus & Nurius, 1986;

Oyserman & Markus, 1990). These features help to justify the fact that PSs have been studied

in many areas, such as in clinical, health, social, sport, and educational psychology (Dunkel &

Kerpelman, 2006).

PSs are an important part of the self-concept of the individual - the self-concept

component which is future oriented (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee, 2002). PSs may work as

roadmaps to guide and regulate behavior, and they can be developed within any context of an

individual’s life or domains (Oyserman, Bybee, Terry, & Hart-Johnson, 2004). In fact, an

individual’s own culture, generation, psychosocial environment, and socioeconomic status are

among factors that may influence PSs (Vick & Packard, 2008), and help to explain its

flexibility and adaptability (Cross & Markus, 1991). Importantly, although PSs are influenced

by others (e.g., family, friends, teachers, colleagues), they are mainly defined and evaluated

by the individual, being a phenomenon of a private nature (Cross & Markus, 1991).

People may create hoped for (goals we desire to attain), expected (what we expect to

achieve), and feared (what we want to actively avoid) PSs. For example, a hoped for PS could

be “I want to be rich”, an expected PS could be “I expect to complete the math course with a

positive grade” (both hoped for and expected possible selves represent self-set goals people

aim to attain), and a feared PS could be “I worry to fail in math”. Importantly, some authors

have suggested that a significant part of our behavior is an effort to attain or avoid many of

our possible selves (Cross & Markus, 1991; Markus & Nurius, 1986).

As images of the future, PSs may be positive (e.g., to be financially autonomous) or

negative (e.g., worry of being unemployed) (Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry, 2006). When an

individual has a positive PS and a negative PS for the same domain, the PS is termed

balanced (Cadely, Pittman, Kerpelman, & Adler-Baeder, 2011; Oyserman & Markus, 1990).

A balanced PS, is likely to be related with a strong motivation and effort to achieve the goal

A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF ACADEMIC POSSIBLE SELVES

7

and, simultaneously, avoid failure (Oyserman & Markus, 1990). To follow this path, self-

regulatory efforts and strategies are needed (e.g., spend more time doing homework) and may

be valuable tools (Oyserman et al., 2006). When the strategies used by youth are detailed and

oriented to attain their goals, PSs are called plausible PSs. For example, Oyserman and

colleagues (2004) found that students holding plausible PSs focused on the academic domain

were more likely to improve their grades throughout the school year than those students who

simply had PSs focused on the academic domain.

The voluminous literature on PSs present many misinterpretations regarding the nature

of the construct, which may be due to the diversity of terms and (in)definitions that have been

used to describe the concept (Erikson, 2007). As a result, PSs has become a fuzzy concept

(Erikson, 2007). For this reason, with recent investigation and with the purpose of clarity, this

systematic literature review will follow the definition by Markus and Nurius (1986) and

Oyserman and Markus (1990).

Due to its developmental and continuously evolving nature, PSs are present

throughout an individual’s lifetime. Moreover, the number of PSs tends to decrease as the

individual ages (Cross & Markus, 1991). In adolescence and youth, the number of PSs is

higher than that in later developmental stages, possibly due to the fact that there is still much

of life ahead. Besides, school and academic futures are frequently mentioned by youth and

adolescents when asked about their PSs (Oyserman et al., 2004). In fact, this is the domain

within PSs that is most often mentioned in late childhood and adolescence and is termed as

academic possible selves (APSs). Adolescence is a human stage of development characterized

by changes in which individuals have to make decisions about their own academic and school

futures that have significant impacts in their lives (Oyserman & Fryberg, 2006). Therefore,

not surprisingly, APSs have been predominantly studied in adolescents and young adults who

attend school, or higher education, by virtue of APSs pertaining to goals and expectations

about the school or students’ educational aspirations (Kirk, Lewis, Nilsen, & Colvin, 2013;

Markus & Nurius, 1986; Oyserman, Brickman, & Rhodes, 2007; Oyserman et al., 2004).

Prior research on APSs show that students with stronger academic aspirations are

likely to work more, engage more in class activities, and outperform (Cadely et al., 2011;

Oyserman et al., 2006, 2004). Still, sometimes students have high expectations about their

academic performance (e.g., having good grades, be on the top 10% of the class) but fail to

achieve those expectations. This inability to reach one’s goals can be due to several reasons,

such as a lack of strategies to achieve the self-set purposes or the strategies being used are not

fitted to the purpose or the individual (Oyserman et al., 2006; Oyserman & Fryberg, 2006).


8

The study of APSs has become important due to its central role on people self-

regulation and well-being, as well as on school achievement (Oyserman et al., 2004;

Oyserman & Fryberg, 2006). Although there is a large body of literature on PSs, there is not,

to the best of our knowledge, a previous systematic review about this particular topic. Thus,

the main goal of the present study is to learn the themes related, and measures used, to study

the PSs in the academic domain (APSs) in school-aged youngsters within the last 10 years.

Extending the understanding on the APSs is of relevance as it may help to improve school-

based strategies and policies to promote school success and, simultaneously, offer a basis for

a positive transition from adolescence to adulthood. The results arising from this systematic

review may serve as a basis for further research on APSs and may contribute to the future

development of this field.

Method

The present systematic review conforms to the Cochrane’s recommendations (Higgins

& Green, 2011), as well as the guidelines proposed by PRISMA statement (Preferred

Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) (Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff,

Altman, & Group , 2009). Thus, initially, an investigation question about PSs was raised, and

a systematic literature research was then conducted. Then, the title, abstract, and all the

sections (i.e., introduction, methods, results, discussion, and limitations) of all the articles

included in this review were reviewed.

The aim is to deepen and systematize the knowledge that was built in the last 10 years

regarding the PSs in academic domain with the hope of guiding future research and

educational practice. Hence, the main goals of this systematic review were twofold: deepen

the understanding on the themes studied in relation to APSs and how APSs were assessed.

Electronic searches

The initial literature search was conducted in three databases: Web of Science, Scopus,

and PsycArticles. It was conducted between the 9th July and the 27thJuly, 2015. Only studies

written in English, Portuguese, or Spanish, and published in the period between 2005 and

2015, were included in the search. The complete reading of the selected articles was

performed independently by two researchers. Afterwards, researchers met to discuss which

articles would be included in the present systematic literature review, and to work on the

information displayed in the tables included in this manuscript.


9

The key terms used in the search were: (1) “possible selves” and “academic”

and “school”, (2) “possible selves” and “academic” and “homework”, and (3) “possible

selves” and “academic” and “achievement” (see Table 1).

Table 1

Keywords used in the search

Main Keyword Secondary Keyword Tertiary Keyword

“possible selves” “academic” “school”

“homework”

“achievement”

The term school was selected as a key term because, as mentioned, APSs are

associated with school and academic trajectories of success or failure (Oyserman et al., 2006;

Oyserman & Fryberg, 2006). Besides, youngsters are likely to attribute great importance to

school as it is an essential context where they spend much of their time and establish many of

their relationships (Butler-Barnes, Estrada-Martinez, Colin, & Jones, 2015). Achievement and

homework were also selected because of their relevance to school literature (Cooper,

Robinson, & Patall, 2006; Leondari, Syngollitou, & Kiosseoglou, 1998). Moreover,

homework is an important instructional tool to promote learning and autonomy (Cooper et al.,

2006; Hagger, Sultan, Hardcastle, & Chatzisarantis, 2015; Núñez et al., 2015; Rosário et al.,

2009; Valle et al., 2015) and, for that reason, a strategy that youngsters may select to

increment the plausibility of their APSs. According to the literature, completing a moderate

amount of homework helps students develop study habits, which facilitates learning and, in

turn, improves academic achievement (Cooper et al., 2006; Núñez et al., 2015, Rosário et al.,

2009). Moreover, Núñez et al. (2015) found a close and positive relationship between

completing homework and academic achievement.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

For this study, screening of the articles was based on the following inclusion criteria:

a) articles written in Portuguese, Spanish, or English; b) participants had to be students (from

elementary until high school); c) participants had to be between 11-18 years of age (when

information about the age was absent from the manuscript, the criteria for including the paper

was the previous criterion); d) participants without any cognitive impairment or disorder; e)

articles that refer APSs or PSs related to school (e.g., school-focused possible selves,


10

educational expectations or aspirations); f) specific mention on how PSs were assessed, for

example, with a questionnaire (please note that although the main focus of the present review

are the APSs, these are extracted from the PSs’ assessment. That is, first data regarding PSs is

collected, and only through the coding of answers can the subcategories of PSs be identified,

including the APSs). We excluded theoretical articles, dissertations, reviews, letters to the

editor, books, book chapters, and studies with samples of individuals with 18 years of age

attending college.

Data extraction

Figure 1 shows PRISMA flowchart with the number of articles recorded in each of the

phases of the process: identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion. In the identification,

or initial, phase, 1179 articles were obtained (543 on Web of Science, 344 on Scopus, and 292

on PsycArticles). Of these 1179 articles, 458 were duplicated and 648 were excluded because

they were not relevant to the research question, making a total of 73 potentially relevant

articles. After reading the abstracts of the 73 papers, 43 were excluded because they were: a)

book (n = 1); b) meta-analyses (n = 1); c) master thesis (n = 2); d) clinical study (n = 1); e)

study’s sample was composed of college students or young adults (n = 2); f) study’s sample

was composed by individuals presenting a risk of suicide, violent behavior, or substance

abuse (n = 1); and g) did not refer PSs or APSs (n = 35).

This selection resulted in 30 articles for full assessment and, of these, 22 were excluded

because: a) did not measure PSs or APSs (n = 4); b) study’s sample also included college

students or students with more 18 years of age (n = 7); c) were a book chapter (n = 2); d) was a

conference paper (n = 1); e) were theoretical papers (n = 3); f) PSs were measured but APSs

were not referred (n = 3); and g) students expectations other than educational was the focus of

the paper, not examples of APSs (n = 2). After this selection, a total of 8 articles were included

in the present systematic literature review.


11

Figure 1. PRISMA flowchart with the number of articles recorded in each of the phases of the

process throughout this systematic review.

Results

Literature presents a considerable amount of different terms to describe APSs: school-

related PSs (e.g., Oyserman et al., 2006), school-focused PSs (e.g., Oyserman et al., 2011),

educational PSs (e.g., Perry & Vance, 2010), and educational expectations (e.g., Kirk, Lewis,

Brown, Nilsen, & Colvin, 2012). Other authors use the term educational expectations and

aspirations (e.g., Kirk, Lewis, Scott, Wren, Nilsen, & Covin, 2012), not as an alternative term

per se for APSs, but as an example of APSs. In the results section, and to be consistent with

the original authors, the terms used in each study were maintained.

“PS, Academic,

School”

(n = 554)

Scr

eenin

g

Incl

uded

E

ligib

ilit

y

Iden

tifi

cati

on

Potentially relevant articles

(n = 73)

Elimination based

on abstract

(n = 43)

Articles for complect lecture

(n = 30)

Elimination based

on full text

(n = 22)

Included articles in results table

(n = 8)

“PS, Academic,

Homework”

(n = 132)

“PS, Academic,

Achievement”

(n = 493)

Non-relevant articles

(n = 648)

Duplicates

(n = 458)


12

Themes related with APSs

In the present systematic review, four themes studied in relation to APSs emerged.

The themes were: (1) identity (Cadely et al., 2011; Oyserman et al., 2006), (2) self-regulation

(Kirk, Lewis, Scott, et al., 2012; Oyserman et al., 2006; Vick & Packard, 2008), (3) academic

(Kirk, Lewis, Brown, et al., 2012; Kirk, Lewis, Scott, et al., 2012; Oyserman et al., 2006), and

(4) gender (Kirk, Lewis, Brown, et al., 2012; Perry & Vance, 2010) (see Table 2).

Table 2

Data extracted for systematic review about APSs

Authors (date)

Journal

N Mean age (SD)

or Age Range

or Median

Method/Instruments evaluating PSs Themes Studied

Oyserman, Bybee, &

Terry (2006)

Journal of

Personality and

Social Psychology

264 Middle school

students (8th and

9th grade)*

Standard open-ended format where

scholars generated expected PSs,

noted strategies to attain each PS,

and repeated this process for feared

PSs

Possible selves,

Social Identity,

self-regulatory

behavior, academic

outcomes, and

depression

Vick & Packard

(2008)

Hispanic Journal of

Behavioral Sciences

66 13 – 18

15.5 (1.19)

A single item to be rated on a scale

from 1 “strongly disagree” to 7

“strongly agree” “For some people,

becoming a college student is an

important part of their future plans.

How important is becoming a

college student to your future

plan?”

Self-regulation,

self-efficacy,

instrumentality,

possible selves, and

structured

programming

Mainwaring &

Hallam (2010)

Emotional and

Behavioral

Difficulties

25 Secondary

students*

A semi-structured interview - each

student was asked how he/she saw

themselves in the future

Possible selves

Perry & Vance

(2010)

The Career

Development

Quarterly

216 13-17

15.01 (.74)

In educational domain: Ratings of

the level of education students

hoped for, expected, and feared,

ranging from 1 “drop out of high

school” to 6 “finish college and

take further training”.

In career domain: scholars

identified at least three jobs that

they hoped, expected, and feared

attaining

Peer beliefs,

possible selves, and

gender

Cadely, Pittman,

Kerpelmen, & Adler-

Baeder (2011)

An International

Journal of Theory

and Research

1137 15.64 (.95) Six statements using a 5-point

Likert-type scale

Identity styles,

academic possible

selves, and grades

(continued on next page)


13

Identity. In relation to APSs, the focus on the theme identity has been diverse. Some

of the selected papers focused on the construct of social identity (Oyserman et al., 2006)

while others addressed the identity styles (Cadely et al., 2011). According to Oyserman et al.

(2006), students may have difficulties in creating school-focused PSs when these PSs are

incongruent with their social identities, like racial-ethnic identities (e.g., African American,

Latino, or Asian). With a focus on the identity styles, Cadely et al. (2011) mentioned three

types: informational, normative identity, and diffuse-avoidant style. Informational identity

style refers to active engagement in identity exploration, looking for different alternatives for

oneself. The normative identity style is related to learning others’ expectations for oneself,

and the diffuse-avoidant style is related to low efforts for exploration or even avoidance of

exploration. The first two identity styles were found to be positively related with academic

Table 2 (continued)

Authors (date)

Journal

N Mean age (SD)

or Age Range

or Median

Method/Instruments evaluating PSs Themes Studied

Oyserman, Johnson,

& James (2011)

Self Identity

852 Middle school

students (8th

grade)*

Standard open-ended format: “In

the lines below, write what you

expect you will be like and what

you expect to be doing next year”.

Students were asked to describe six

PSs goals and then indicate

(Yes/No) if they were currently

working on each PS”, and what

strategies were they using “For

each expected goal that you marked

Yes, use the space to the right to

write what you are doing this year

to attain that goal…”

Possible self and

strategies, possible

identities, family

socio-economic

status (SES),

neighborhood

disadvantage index

(NDI), and prior

grade point average

(GPA)

Kirk, Lewis, Brown,

Nilsen, & Colvin

(2012)

Children and Youth

Services Review

550 Students

between 6th to

12th grade*

A single item with six choices

ranging from “Less than high

school” to “Doctorate/MD/JD”

“What is the highest level of

education you expect to obtain?”

Educational

expectations,

efficacy of college

attendance,

perceived academic

performance,

college preparation,

and gender

Kirk, Lewis, Scott,

Wren, Nilsen, &

Colvin (2012)

Educational Studies

207 12 - 16 Response choices ranging from

“Less than high school” to “Ph. D.

or M.D.” for each question about

educational expectations “What is

the highest level of education that

you realistically expect to receive?”

and educational aspirations “What

is the highest level of education

that you would like to receive?”

Demographic

characteristics,

academic self-

perception,

attitudes toward

school and

teachers, goals,

motivation, and

self-regulating

behaviors

* not specified


14

achievement, while the latter did not (Hejazi, Shahraray, Farsinejad, & Asgary, 2009). Still,

unlike the other two identity-styles that were related to APSs in their expected directions

(positively for informational identity style and negatively for diffuse-avoidant style),

normative style was not related to, nor promoted, APSs.

Self-regulation. Self-regulation is a process through which individuals activate and

maintain emotions, cognitions, and behaviors to achieve their own goals (Núñez, Rosário,

Vallejo, & González-Pienda, 2013; Rosário et al., 2015). As mentioned above, students with

balanced and plausible APSs are likely to show more self-regulated behaviors as, for instance,

spending more time doing homework or avoiding missing classes (Oyserman et al., 2006).

Kirk, Lewis, Scott, et al. (2012) mention the need for students to set future goals and self-

regulate behaviors to attain their goals. This is consistent with Vick and Packard’s (2008)

findings, stating that the more self-regulated students’ behaviors are and the more self-

regulation strategies they display for attaining their APSs, the higher their school

achievement.

Academic. Academic foci on the selected papers are diverse: academic outcomes

(Oyserman et al., 2006), academic performance (Kirk, Lewis, Brown, et al., 2012), and

academic self-perception (Kirk, Lewis, Scott, et al., 2012). Oyserman et al. (2006), for

example, found that students with more plausible APSs (i.e. that employ strategies related

with the APSs to achieve their goals), showed higher grades than students who created APSs

but did not employ strategies to achieve them. Another aspect of the academic theme that has

been studied is academic self-perception. Regarding this topic, Kirk, Lewis, Scott, et al.

(2012) found that students reporting lower opinions about themselves in the academic domain

were those who revealed more incongruence between their aspirations and expectations about

school. Finally, concerning academic performance, Kirk, Lewis, Brown, et al. (2012)

observed that students with higher educational expectations, analyzed as a measure of APSs,

reported higher academic performance.

Gender. Concerning educational expectations, Kirk, and colleagues (2012) found that

girls show higher educational expectations (for example, complete a high educational degree)

than boys. Despite some authors have found a relationship between gender and APSs, other

authors have found no gender differences regarding educational PSs (Perry & Vance, 2010;

Kirk, Lewis, Brown, et al. 2012).


15

Research methods employed to study APSs

Three research methods employed to study the APSs were found in this investigation.

Two studies evaluated APSs using an open-ended format (Oyserman et al., 2006; Oyserman,

Johnson, & James, 2011), in which students had to generate four possible selves in response

to each of two sentences: “Next year, I expect to be...’’; ‘‘Next year I want to avoid being…’’.

Five articles evaluated APSs using response choices with five points or Likert-like scale

(Cadely et al., 2011; Kirk, Lewis, Brown, et al., 2012; Kirk, Lewis, Scott, et al., 2012; Perry

& Vance, 2010; Vick & Packard, 2008). For example, in the study of Vick & Packard (2008)

one question was “For some people, becoming a college student is an important part of their

future plans. How important is becoming a college student to your future plan?”, in which

students had to rate the statement on a scale from 1-7, with 1 = strongly disagree and 7 =

strongly agree. Finally, one study used a semi-structured interview (Mainwaring & Hallam,

2010) with questions designed to explore how the students saw themselves in the future.

Discussion

The main aim of the present systematic review was to learn the themes related to, and

measures used to study, the APSs in late childhood and adolescence. An important

observation from the analysis of the selected papers regards terminology. A considerable

amount of different terms, sometimes subtle, used to describe APSs were found. Similar to

the concept PSs, the concept APSs has also been called by different names by different

authors. For example, Kirk, Lewis, Scott, et al. (2012) used the term educational expectations

and aspirations as examples of APSs, but, according to Kirk and colleagues (2012), and

Markus and Nurius (1986), this term is actually addressing APSs. Moreover, Oyserman et al.

(2006) used the terms school-focused PSs and APSs indistinctly in the same article.

This diversity of terms for the same concept allows conceptual confusion and hampers

unambiguous interpretation and comparison of findings, making the work of researchers in

the field more difficult. Data highlight that researchers do not use a single definition of APSs

or use different terms interchangeably. For the research on APSs to grow in consistency, there

is a need to clarify the definitions of the concept currently used.

One of the main goals of the present systematic review was to systematize the themes

studied in this topic and how they relate to the phenomenon of APSs. The results show that

the themes most studied with APSs were identity, self-regulation, academic, and gender.

Although most studies examining PSs study variables related to school, to our

knowledge in the time range analyzed in the current study, no study has been published


16

relating PSs or APSs and homework. As mentioned before, homework was selected as one of

the three key terms because it is an important school-related activity and one of the most

important instructional tools available to promote learning, autonomy, and school

competences (Núñez et al., 2015; Rosário et al., 2009, 2015). One interesting direction for

future research would be to study how PSs, more concretely APSs, are related to homework

engagement behaviors. For example, researchers might consider to deepen the understanding

on how students, with different APSs, recognize the importance of homework as a tool to

achieve their academic goals.

Another main goal of the present investigation was to systematize information

regarding the research methods used to assess APSs. Findings indicate that, among the studies

included, the method most frequently used to study and measure APSs, in five out of eight

papers, was response choices or Likert-like scales. However, Oyserman and Fryberg (2006),

claimed that a Likert-like scale method does not allow PSs to be evaluated as precisely as an

open format. In fact, in 2006, Oyserman and Fryberg presented a synthesis of the general

formats for measure PSs published up to that date. Contrary to the present findings, those

authors reported that the majority of the studies used an open format to measure PSs, which

were then coded for a particular domain. The goal was to observe how participants rated the

likelihood of attaining each PS and how much each PS was feared or hoped. Still, some

studies mentioned by Oyserman and Fryberg (2006) used different formats to study the PSs: a

close-ended format, which required participants to classify themselves in several domains of

PSs on a scale that resulted in a positive or negative score; and a close-format focusing on a

specific domain to observe the number of emerging positive and negative PSs (e.g. in the

academic domain how many positive and negative PSs are referred by each participant)

(Oyserman & Fryberg, 2006).

Results shows that, besides the different ways to measure APSs, several studies

followed different reference-points that may influence the results. For example, some items of

the questionnaires include the term “The future” without any time specification, whereas

others include the chronological term “Next year”, and, still, others include a developmental

term “As an adult” (Oyserman & Fryberg, 2006; Oyserman & Markus, 1990). Using different

measures and different reference-points is likely to influence participants’ responses, and,

consequently, findings. Oyserman and Markus (1990) observed that when the term “adult”

was used, data were more similar across participants, whereas when the reference-point refers

to the “Next year”, the responses were more heterogeneous (Oyserman & Fryberg, 2006).


17

Globally, findings indicate that the different measures and reference-points used pose

important challenges for the research on APSs that should be addressed in a timely manner.

Limitations

The selection of studies for the present review followed PRISMA statement and

Cochrane’s guidelines to avoid possible publications biases and to assure the quality of the

studies selected. However, authors cannot guarantee that all data were covered, as many

materials (e.g., books or unpublished material) were not included in the present review.

Besides, authors acknowledge the existence of a publication bias, with the consequence of

non-significant results being under-reported in the literature. Additionally, authors want to

acknowledge that all of the studies included in this review were conducted in a unique

country with a particular school and college organizational system and, therefore, the findings

may not generalize to youth in countries with school and academic organizations different

than that. Finally, data from the included studies were synthesized to address the goals of the

present review, but were not statistically pooled, which limits the strength of the conclusions

that can be drawn. The conclusions must, therefore, be tentative.

Conclusion

By way of conclusion, PSs have been extensively studied in itself and in different

domains, especially in the academic area. However, despite its importance, to our knowledge,

literature lack a review on the themes related to the construct of APSs. Hence, the present

work may help shed some light over which themes, variables, and methods to collect data,

that can be studied in future research on APSs. Although future research in this topic is

needed, as evidenced by the small number of papers included in this study, the present

systematic review provides an important understanding about students’ academic possible

selves. This knowledge can be useful to help children create expected possible selves related

to school and help them develop useful strategies to facilitate academic success. As Oyserman

and colleagues (2011) have already highlighted, seeing the destination is not sufficient; it is

also important to see the path.


18

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