Learned helplessness, self-worth protection and attributional retraining for primary school children

321 Pages·2014·12.24 MB·English

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS, SELF-VORTH PROTECTION
AND ATTRIBUTIONAL RETRAINING FOR PRIXARY SCHOOL CHILDREN
Ci
LEARNED HELPLESSNESS, SELF-WORTH PROTECTION
AND ATTRIBUTIONAL RETRAINING FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN
by
Marie-Louise Craske. B.A. (Hons) (Ms.)
in the Department of Psychology
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
University of Tasmania
February, 1989
I certify that this thesis contains no material which has
been accepted for the award of any other higher degree Or
graduate diploma in any university, and that to the best of
my knowledge the thesis contains no copy or paraphrase of
materials previously published or written by another person,
except where due reference is made in the text of the
thesis.
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(iii)
ABSTRACT
This series of three studies examines the effectiveness
of an attributional retraining program for primary school
children, whose performance is detrimentally affected- by
failure.
One explanation for impaired performances after failure
suggests that students who attribute lack of success to
inability become academically helpless. This approach,
with its roots in learned helplessness theory and Weiner's
theory of achievement- motivation, predicts a 'successful-
outcome from attributtonal retraining programs which
encourage students to attribute academic successes and
failures to the presence or absence of effort.
A second explanation suggests that some students
perform more -poorly after -failure because they 'give up' in
order _to protect a sense Of self-worth. This -is threatened
when failure occurs in conjunction with high levels of
effort. It is "predicted -that effort attributional
retraining will not -influence the - performance of students
motivated by such considerations.
(iv)
The first experiment aimed to improve the persistence
of Grade 5 and 6 children Who displayed helpless behaviour
on a puzzle completion task. Attributional retraining
involved observation of a model who was rewarded for
attributing outcomes to effort. At post-testing, increased
persistence was found in female, but not male subjects. One
possible explanation for the sex difference is that the
males were not helpless but were motivated to protect self-
worth and were therefore not willing to expend effort when
failure was likely.
In the second experiment, the effectiveness of training
was compared for two groups of upper primary school children
identified as either helpless or self-worth motivated.
Before training both groups showed impaired performance
after failure on an arithmetic task. In addition, the
latter group demonstrated an improvement in performance in
response to a mitigating circumstance, (a description of the
task as 'very difficult'), which could explain failure
without implicating low ability as the cause. As predicted,
effort attributional retraining, this time using a
participant modelling technique, innoculated the helpless
group against failure, and resulted in an increased emphasis
on effort and decreased emphasis on ability in accounting
for failures. In the self-worth group, there was no change
(v)
in performance after failure or in ability attributions
after training, although there was an increased emphasis on
effort.
The effectiveness - of. the participant -- modelling
procedure -was- further established in .a third experiment, in
which helpless students again appeared to be innoculated
against failure. This effect was maintained over a two
week post-training period, and there is some evidence that
Improved performance generalised to an anagram task.
The results are discussed in terms of the effective
components of attributional retraining programs, and
implications for the alternative explanations for impaired
performance after failure.
(vi)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In acknowledging those who contributed to this work, I
am especially grateful for the supportive guidance and
-advice of my supervisor, Dr lain Montgomery.
The assistance of Dr John Davidson with the statistics,
and his thoughtful comments on the draft manuscript have
also been greatly appreciated.
I am indebted to Gabrielle Craske and to Andrew Gait
for their assistance in running the experiments, and to Rae
Calvert for her cheerful demeanour while typing and retyping
many versions of this work.
I would also like to thank the teachers and students of
the participating schools, who were kind enough to give
their time and co-operation to the project.
Finally, I thank my family and friends for their
understanding and practical support. Two of these people
deserve a special mention: my husband for his contributions
to childcare and domestic duties while I was taken up with
(vi i )
research and writing; and my father who passed on to me a
respect for knowledge and an appreciation of striving for
excellence. Sadly, he died a few weeks before the
completion of this thesis.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
_
ABSTRACT . . . . . iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .. . vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... . . . viii
LIST OF TABLES xiii
4 0 0 6 4 6 4
LIST OF FIGURES . .. .. xiv
LIST OF APPENDICES . . xv
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION . . ... 1
CHAPTER 2 ATTRIBUTION THEORIES . . . 5
• • •
The Development of Attribution Theories ... 6
Enhancing Control through
Causal Explanation ... . 10
The Mediating Role of Attributions 13
Attributional Style 14
The Measurement of Attributions 16
Summary and Conclusions . 17
CHAPTER 3 COGNITIVE EXPLANATIONS OF IMPAIRED
PERFORMANCE AFTER FAILURE ... 19
Weiner's Theory of Achievement Motivation 19
Causes of Events 20
006 .
A Taxonomy of Causes . .. • 22
Consequences of Attributions and
Attributional Dimensions ... 24
000 00
Overview of Weiner's Theory . 30
Page
Learned Helplessness Theory .. .. 32
Application of Learned Helplessness
Theory to Intellectual Achievenent 36
Implications for Change Programs ... 41
CHAPTER 4 MOTIVATIONAL EXPLANATIONS OF IMPAIRED
PERFORMANCE AFTER FAILURE ... • • 45
The Self-Serving Bias in
Attributional Style . .. 45
Failure and Effort Expenditure . . . 51
Cognitive versus Motivational Explanations 54
Implications for Change Programs 61
CHAPTER 5 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES . 63
Age . 63
Sex . . . .. 67
Self-Esteem . . . 72
Achievement History 74
Conclusion . 75
CHAPTER 6 ATTRIBUTIONAL RETRAINING PROGRAMS ... 78
A Review of Attributional Retraining
Studies 80
.60 060 606
Subject Selection 80
Problem Area . . 86
Intervention 87
Dependent Variables and Results 90