Conceptions of ability and related affects in task involvement and ego involvement

Conducted 5 studies to determine if 207 high school and college students would employ different conceptions of ability in different achievement situations. Each experiment involved a 2 (task vs ego involvement) by 2 (low vs high effort) design. In self-referenced (task-involving) situations, Ss empl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of educational psychology 1984-10, Vol.76 (5), p.909-919
Main Authors: Jagacinski, Carolyn M, Nicholls, John G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Achievement
Attribution
Biological and medical sciences
Ego
Emotions
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Motivation
Personality. Affectivity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Self-Concept
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Summary:Conducted 5 studies to determine if 207 high school and college students would employ different conceptions of ability in different achievement situations. Each experiment involved a 2 (task vs ego involvement) by 2 (low vs high effort) design. In self-referenced (task-involving) situations, Ss employed a less differentiated conception of ability: Judgments of greater competence and more positive affects were associated with higher effort when performance was controlled. In interpersonally competitive (ego-involving) testing situations, Ss employed a more differentiated conception of ability. Given a fixed level of performance, Ss judged their ability lower when they worked harder than others and higher when they worked less than others. They also expected to feel more guilty when they did not try hard, but more embarrassed when they did. It is concluded that effort is a double-edged sword in ego-involving conditions, but not in task-involving conditions. (30 ref)
ISSN:0022-0663
1939-2176
DOI:10.1037/0022-0663.76.5.909