| Abstract: | Proposes a motivational analysis to help account for individual (e.g., sex) differences in different academic areas (e.g., mathematical vs verbal areas). It is proposed that certain academic areas (e.g., mathematics) are more likely than others (e.g., verbal) to pose difficulties at the start of new units and that the necessity of surmounting difficulties favors certain achievement orientations. To test the hypothesis that children's academic orientations interact with the acquisition demands of academic material to determine performance, 57 male and 37 female 5th graders, who were classified as helpless or mastery oriented on the basis of their attributions, were assigned to 1 of 2 learning conditions. One condition involved programmed confusion during learning, while the other was a no-confusion condition. When the learning task contained somewhat confusing material in the initial sections (even though it was irrelevant to what was to be learned), Ss with a mastery oriented attributional style significantly outperformed those with a helpless style. However, when the identical task was presented without the confusing material, both groups learned with equal facility. Results support the notion that achievement differences can result from the fit between children's achievement orientations and the demands of particular skill areas. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
