The Spinath and Spinath paper assesses the relation between competence self
perceptions and learning motivation during the elementary school years using
a longitudinal, variable-centered approach. These authors ask the question: ‘‘Do
competence self-perceptions causally predict changes in learning motivation over the
early elementary school years?’’ The Nurmi and Aunola paper focuses on changes in
individuals’ profiles of task motivation across different subject areas over the early
elementary school years. They assess the relation of concurrent and lagged subjectmatter-specific competence self perceptions to changes in children’s membership in
one of four across-subject matter motivational clusters (those who place high value
on math, reading and writing; those who value math more than the other two
subjects; those who value math less than the other two subjects; and those who show
low interest across all three subject areas). I was particularly grateful to be able to
look at two papers with these contrasting methodological approaches. We need to
see more of such comparative approaches