Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
An investigation of the relationship between locus-of-control, self-efficacy, and attribution theory, and Dweck's social-cognitive approach to academic achievement motivation
Abstract
This study investigated four questions concerning the relationship of goal orientation/locus of control, self-efficacy and class format to academic achievement and the effect of perceived performance on self-efficacy, attribution for performance, and expectancy for future performance. Each question generated two hypotheses. One was based on Dweck's social-cognitive approach which theorizes that achievement related behavior is the result of goal orientation (Dweck & Leggett, 1988); the second was based on locus of control, self-efficacy and attribution theory. Participants (n = 200) enrolled in either a lecture or self-paced class completed questionnaires at the beginning of the semester and at mid-term. Participants completed the Intellectual Academic Responsibility (IAR) scale (Crandall, Karkovsky, & Crandall, 1965), self-efficacy and attribution for performance measures, predicted their final grade, and made judgments about their perceived performance. Pearson correlation coefficients revealed no significant relationship between locus of control/goal orientation and achievement for either class and no differences between classes. A significant relationship was found between self-efficacy and achievement for the lecture class, and the two classes did not differ significantly. Using factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), no differences were found to change in self-efficacy in a condition of perceived failure due to locus of control/goal orientation or pre-course self-efficacy levels. In the factorial ANOVA used to analyze the effect of perceived performance and locus of control/goal orientation on attribution for performance, the main effect for perceived performance was significant. Two factorial ANOVAS were used to examine the effect of perceived performance, goal orientation/locus of control, and stability of attribution on the consistency of expected performance. Perceived performance and goal orientation/locus of control were the independent variables in the first analysis; in the second, perceived performance and stability of attribution were the independent variables. Consistency of expected performance was the dependent variable in both. A significant main effect was found for perceived performance in both analyses.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Personality
Recommended Citation
Hargrove, Rebecca Dawson, "An investigation of the relationship between locus-of-control, self-efficacy, and attribution theory, and Dweck's social-cognitive approach to academic achievement motivation" (1990). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9030122.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9030122