Causal attribution is the process of determining the causes of people’s behavior (Weiner, 1986). In this study, Suter et al. (2022) focused on the cause of success and failure and their relationship with achievement goal orientation. The achievement goals were a particular way that motivated the student to finish the school leaving certificate paper. The main gaps in the existing literature were whether achievement goals are associated with attributions of success and failure and whether the relation is consistent in real-world settings and for different age groups. The researchers examined two main questions: 1) Do achievement goals increase the odds of perceiving a performance as a success vs a failure? 2) Do different achievement goals influence causal attributions of success and failure?
In this study, the researchers assessed both success and failure attributions of writing a school leaving certificate paper. There were 690 Swiss high school students over the course of one year that participated in the study. The design of the study consisted of a 5 step process in which checkpoints 2 and 5 had survey questions:
Step 1: Students were informed about the requirements of the assignments towards the end of their Swiss education year. (t1)
Step 2: Students had to choose a topic and find a teacher who would supervise them. The students then had to submit the proposal. (t2)
Step 3: The students were then tasked to write the paper. This would be done outside of the classroom setting and autonomously. (t3)
Step 4: They present their presentation orally and submit their final paper. (t4)
Step 5: The paper supervisor grades the overall final paper and presentation and has a meeting with the student. (t5)
In total, there were a total of 5 (t1- t5) surveys throughout the certificate paper process. To answer the second question of the study, after t2, the students were assessed on their achievement goals: performance-approach (e.g. “It is important to me to write better school papers than others”), performance-avoidance (e.g. “It is important other people don’t think my paper is stupid”), mastery (e.g. “For my paper, it is important to gain a deep understanding of the topic”), and work-avoidance (e.g. “It is important to me to get through the paper with little work”). Additionally, after t2, students were also asked about their self-efficacy (e.g. “I will write a good paper even if problems arise”). In order to answer the first research question of the study, after t5, the researchers sent a survey question asking about the students’ perceived task outcome (e.g. “My graduation paper was a failure”).
Furthermore, after t5, the students were given 4 possible causes to explain their grade outcome.
The results showed that an increase in one of these three factors (grade, mastery goal orientation, and performance-avoidance orientation) would lead to an increase in success perception. In other words, whether you think your paper is a success or failure, is based on the variables. Regarding the second question, the results suggested that performance-avoidance goals positively predicted success attributions of luck and popularity with the paper supervisor. Students with performance-avoidance goals tended to make failure attributions of ability and effort and success attributions of luck and popularity with the supervisor. Work avoidance students attributed their success to ability, but they also attributed their success to external factors like luck and the popularity of the supervisor. Work avoidance students were found to be self-aware and were more likely to attribute their failure to a lack of effort. Furthermore, performance-approach students attributed their success to ability and effort. Interestingly, these students attributed their failure to luck and popularity with the supervisor, rather than blaming themselves for their lack of ability or effort. Lastly, mastery goal-oriented students attribute their success and failure to effort. However, success is attributed to ability, and failure is attributed to the fact that they didn’t try hard enough rather than the lack of ability.
Learning from the study, in order for there to be positive outlooks on assignments, it is important for teachers to understand what factors influence the causal attribution processes. Since self-efficacy and self-worth greatly contribute to success perception, parents and teachers should create an environment that would help students grow their self-confidence. Teachers should also promote mastery goal orientation in their classrooms by focusing on learning tasks, giving their students time to explore with curiosity, and involving the students in decision-making and group projects. EPIC can apply these studies to further research the conceptualization of failure and how it relates to learning and motivation. Additionally, EPIC can add to this study and research how different perceptions of failure influence persistence in challenging situations
If you want to learn more about Suter et al.’s (2022) study, check it out at:
This post was written by Emma Hong.
Reference:
Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. Springer
Suter, F., Karlen, Y., Merki, K. M., & Hirt, C. N. (2022). The relationship between success and failure causal attributions and achievement goal orientations. Learning and Individual Differences, 100, 102225.
