Abstract
Through a synthesis of post-secondary writing, psychology, and education literature on student dispositions and learning, I suggest composition and rhetoric use a two-dimensional model of self-concept as a lens and tool for future research on learner dispositions within the context of writing transfer. The concatenation of transfer focused research following Anne Beaufort’s Beyond College Writing’s call for transfer research has moved the discipline in generative ways, supporting theories and concepts of the discipline with empirically driven research findings. One affirmed area of study in the multi-areas of studies presently circulating the discipline is the role that student dispositions and emotions have on writing transfer. Through recent empirical studies, composition researchers have identified dispositions which better afford writing transfer and those which hinder writing transfer. Concurrently, in the field of psychology, newer development in self-esteem research and discourse can explain why individuals carry certain dispositions. While self-esteem’s definitional history is labyrinthine, the current definition merges competence and worthiness as factors to self-esteem with newer models better suited for self-esteem research. I have proposed we consider these newer models of self-esteem to consider the self-concept of our students. The field of writing studies, specifically composition and rhetoric, can benefit from this newer two-factor or two-dimensional model of self-concept when conducting dispositional research. My discussion posits ways in which researchers can implement this two-dimensional model of self-concept, implications of implementing this model, and provides further avenues for research.