PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 2588697

[Action-oriented versus state-oriented reactions to experimenter-induced failures].

J C Brunstein
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The present study assessed different effects of action-oriented versus state-oriented styles of coping with failure on achievement-related performance and cognition. In a learned helplessness experiment, students were exposed to an academic failure situation and were then tested on a series of problem-solving tasks, either immediately after the pretreatment or after a delay of 24 hours. Performance and cognitive concomitants were measured during both experimental periods. Results demonstrated that action orientation was associated with self-immunizing cognitions during helplessness training. Action-oriented participants improved their performance level even after repeated failure feedbacks. Moreover, action-oriented students assigned to the delayed test condition responded with increased striving for success and showed performance increments, even in comparison with control subjects. In contrast, state-oriented participants developed symptoms of helplessness and showed impaired performance during failure inductions. In later tests on problem-solving tasks, state-oriented groups responded with increased fear of failure. Independent of immediate or delayed test conditions, they soon lapsed into new performance decrements.

Explore related subjects

AchievementAdaptation, PsychologicalAdultFemaleHelplessness, LearnedHumansMaleMotivationOrientationPattern Recognition, VisualProblem SolvingEnglish AbstractJournal Article

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

J C Brunstein. 1989. [Action-oriented versus state-oriented reactions to experimenter-induced failures].. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2588697/

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2007

Effects of ability- and chance-determined competition outcome on testosterone.

Winning competitions has been shown to lead to higher testosterone (T) relative to losing in men and males of other species. In Experiment 1, 38 women and 37 men provided a saliva sample, completed a novel computer-based vocabulary competition task at which they won or lost based on their own ability, provided feedback about the competition via questionnaire, and then produced a second saliva sample. Task outcome and performance was not sexually differentiated, and overall task performance was negatively correlated with T. Male but not female winners had lower baseline and post-competition T, and male losers had a larger decrease in T from baseline to post-competition. In Experiment 2, 31 men and 43 women completed the same as above, but were randomly assigned to win or lose. In this case, competition outcome did not affect T for men but there was an effect such that women who would have had an ability-determined loss showed a larger decrease in T than women who would have had an ability-determined win. Thus, earned wins appear to attenuate a decline in T in men, consistent with past research into the competition effect and T, and perhaps women under complex circumstances.

Achievement↗
PubMed2007

Global self-esteem, goal achievement orientations, and self-determined behavioural regulations in a physical education setting.

We examined a theoretical model of global self-esteem that incorporated constructs from achievement goal and self-determination theories. The model hypothesized that self-determined or autonomous motives would mediate the influence of achievement goal orientation on global self-esteem. The adapted version of the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire (Mullan et al., 1997), the Perception of Success Questionnaire (Roberts & Balague, 1991), and Rosenberg's (1965) self-esteem scales were administered to 634 high school students aged 11 - 15 years. A structural equation model supported the hypotheses and demonstrated that autonomous motives mediated the effect of goal orientations on global self-esteem. The results suggest that generalized motivational orientations influence self-esteem by affecting autonomous motivation and is consistent with theory that suggests that experiences relating to intrinsic motivation are the mechanism by which global motivational orientations are translated into adaptive outcomes like self-esteem. The findings suggest that physical activity interventions that target autonomous motives in physical activity contexts are likely to enhance young people's general self-esteem.

Achievement↗
PubMed2007

Environmental correlates of gambling behavior in urban adolescents.

The present study considered the relation between adolescent gambling behavior and the perceived environment, the component of Jessor and Jessor's (1977) Problem Behavior Theory that assesses the ways that adolescents perceive the attitudes and behaviors of parents and peers. The predominantly African-American sample included 188 sophomores from two urban public high schools. Using the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents to assess gambling risk, rates of both at-risk (20.7%) and problem (12.8%) gambling were found to be high. Boys displayed more gambling problems than did girls. The perceived environment accounted for significant variance in gambling problems and frequency, with proximal components displaying stronger relationships than distal components. Perceiving parent gambling and friend models for problem behavior were positively correlated with gambling problems, and friend models were positively related to gambling frequency. Among girls, family support was positively related to gambling problems. Among boys, this relation was negative.

Achievement↗