Effects of questionnaire administration condition on children's achievement-related beliefs.

Abstract

Fifth graders' responses to a questionnaire assessing causal attributions, academic expectancies, and self-evaluations of smartness varied as a function of wheter the questionnaire was administered individually or in a group. Students with low grade point averages (GPAs) were significantly less likely to attribute their failures to external factors and significantly more likely to attribute their failures to insufficient ability in the individual condition than in the group condition. Students with high GPAs did not give different attributions in the two conditions. Administration condition also influenced children's academic expectancies