Dweck and Diener studied students' attributions for failure. Their reactions to academic tasks were analyzed according to whether they made attributions to lack of ability, strategy, talent, or effort.
Participants: 70 fifth grade students (35 males and 35 females) in
study 1. 60 fifth grade students (30 male and 30 female) in study 2.
Method: Pre-classified students as learning goal oriented or performance oriented worked on a discrimination task after eight trial sessions in study 1. In study 2, the same procedure was followed, yet, this time students were asked to verbalize their feelings while they were working on the task.
Results: Even though both the learning goal oriented and performance goal oriented students learned the task equally well during the trial session, had equal degrees of success, and received equal amount of feedback, the performance goal-oriented students blamed their abilities for failure. Learning goal-oriented students, on the other hand, blamed lack of effort, fairness of the experimenter, and the increasing difficulty of the tasks.
In terms of strategy use, the students with performance goal-orientation used incompetent hypotheses more than students with learning goal-orientation. They also showed a permanent decline in use of strategies over tasks.
Another finding of the study was that as students started to face failure, their verbalizations began to change. Their responses to tasks varied from "I should slow down now and try to figure this out", "The harder it gets the harder I need to try", and "I love a challenge" to "I never did have a good memory" and "This isn't fun anymore".
These findings are crucial for us to understand how students' goal orientation and mindsets affect their effort, their approach to tasks, as well as their reactions to success and failure.
For further reading: Diener C. I. & Carol, D. (1978). An Analysis of Learned Helplessness: Continuous Changes in Performance, Strategy, and Achievement Cognitions Following Failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36 (5), 451-462.
Click here to continue with Study #4.
Participants: 70 fifth grade students (35 males and 35 females) in
study 1. 60 fifth grade students (30 male and 30 female) in study 2.
Method: Pre-classified students as learning goal oriented or performance oriented worked on a discrimination task after eight trial sessions in study 1. In study 2, the same procedure was followed, yet, this time students were asked to verbalize their feelings while they were working on the task.
Results: Even though both the learning goal oriented and performance goal oriented students learned the task equally well during the trial session, had equal degrees of success, and received equal amount of feedback, the performance goal-oriented students blamed their abilities for failure. Learning goal-oriented students, on the other hand, blamed lack of effort, fairness of the experimenter, and the increasing difficulty of the tasks.
In terms of strategy use, the students with performance goal-orientation used incompetent hypotheses more than students with learning goal-orientation. They also showed a permanent decline in use of strategies over tasks.
Another finding of the study was that as students started to face failure, their verbalizations began to change. Their responses to tasks varied from "I should slow down now and try to figure this out", "The harder it gets the harder I need to try", and "I love a challenge" to "I never did have a good memory" and "This isn't fun anymore".
These findings are crucial for us to understand how students' goal orientation and mindsets affect their effort, their approach to tasks, as well as their reactions to success and failure.
For further reading: Diener C. I. & Carol, D. (1978). An Analysis of Learned Helplessness: Continuous Changes in Performance, Strategy, and Achievement Cognitions Following Failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36 (5), 451-462.
Click here to continue with Study #4.
