Groups of male high school students (N = 420) classified as high and low need achievers by the Mehrabian scale used a lever-positioning task to determine performance differences. Success and failure feedback was administered after successive blocks of trials, and both attribution and expectancy data were collected. No differences were found between the motive groups for performance, attribution or expectancy. However, success/failure feedback did produce significant differences for attribution and expectancy, evidence for a situational rather than dispositional effect.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
FeatherN. T.Persistence of a difficult task with alternative task of equal difficulty. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1963, 66, 604–609.
2.
McCaughanL. R.Stability/instability and change of expectancy: a test for cognitive determinants of psychomotor performance. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1978, 46, 219–225.
3.
WeinerB.The effects of unsatisfied achievement motivation on persistence and subsequent performance. Journal of Personality, 1965, 33, 428–449.
4.
WeinerB.KuklaA.An attributional analysis of achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1970, 15, 1–20.
