ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVE AND PERFORMANCE AND STIMULATION OF EFFORT ATTRIBUTION IN LOW ECONOMIC STATUS BLACK AND HISPANIC YOUTH
Abstract
The objectives of this investigation were: to examine the relationship between achievement motive and classroom achievement task performance within a sample of low economic status black and Hispanic students, and to enhance the classroom performance of a group of such students through stimulation to have them attribute their achievement task outcomes to self-effort. The achievement motives of 150 low economic status black and Hispanic New York City junior high school students were measured through in-class administrations of an objective test of achievement motive, and these scores were compared with grades attained by the students on a classroom note copying task. A low but significant Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was calculated between the two sets of scores (r = .303, p < .05). The notes compiled by each student were then returned by his (her) teacher with one of several kinds of entries on the top page designed to either provide or withhold stimulation to attribute the note copying grade to effort. No significant difference was found between the subsequent note copying performance mean of students who received teacher written comments which stimulated effort attribution and that of students who received comments which did not provide this stimulation. It was concluded that the relationship between achievement motive and achivement task performance is weak in low economic status black and Hispanic students, and that teacher written comments which stimulate effort attribution for achievement task outcome do not effect an enhancement of such students' performance compared with comments which do not stimulate this attribution. It was recommended that more attempts should be made to examine the relationship between achievement motive and achievement task performance in low economic status black and Hispanic samples, and that various kinds of effort attribution training techniques which heretofore have been employed within experimental settings should be tried within the classroom.
Subject Area
Educational psychology
Recommended Citation
DEUTSCH, HOWARD JAY, "ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVE AND PERFORMANCE AND STIMULATION OF EFFORT ATTRIBUTION IN LOW ECONOMIC STATUS BLACK AND HISPANIC YOUTH" (1982). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8213601.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8213601
