Is effort enough, or does diligence count too? Student and teacher reactions to effort stability in failure.

Research indicates that although teachers encourage achievement through effort, students often minimize study to avoid the implication that they lack ability if they fail. Effort stability was examined in this context. Are steady, diligent workers evaluated differently from those who are erratic in their study patterns? Does a reputation for variable study patterns reduce shame by deflecting the causes of failure from low ability? 187 undergraduates (who had been rated on the Michigan State Self-Concept of Ability Scale) rated affective reactions to a series of hypothetical test failures along 2 dimensions: amount of overall effort and stability of effort. An additional 187 undergraduates in the role of teachers administered punishment to hypothetical students under the same conditions. Results indicate that although effort stability contributed little to variations in student affect, it did influence teacher judgments, suggesting that determination of feedback is a more complex process than implied by a simple distinction between teachers as reinforcers of modifiable (unstable) behavior and moralistic conveyors of a work ethic. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)