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Assisting failure‐prone individuals to navigate achievement transitions using a cognitive motivation treatment (attributional retraining)
Author(s) -
Boese Gregory D. B.,
Stewart Tara L.,
Perry Raymond P.,
Hamm Jeremy M.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12139
Subject(s) - mindset , psychology , retraining , need for achievement , fear of failure , attribution , social psychology , cognition , developmental psychology , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience , international trade , business
Transitions to novel achievement settings are often accompanied by unfamiliar learning conditions and unanticipated failure that undermine how individuals adapt to such situations. For first‐year students, the transition to college is imbued with adverse learning conditions that can result in decreased motivation and academic performance. This study examined the efficacy of a motivation‐enhancing treatment, attributional retraining ( AR ), to assist students who are at risk because of a high‐failure avoidance orientation (tendency to maintain self‐worth by avoiding failure). For high‐ (but not low) failure avoidance students, AR fostered an adaptive psychological mindset (course grade expectations, judgments of course responsibility) and better academic performance (course grade, grade point average). Findings suggest the utility of AR to offset the negative effects of a high‐failure avoidance self‐worth orientation.